On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:20:13 -0700 (PDT), "Jen C."
wrote:
>Are the Bahn 50 cards available to Americans, or are they just for
>Germans and/or Europeans? If we got Bahn 50 cards, could we order
>advance tickets using the discount? I'd really like to have all our
>tickets ordered before we leave.
I had a Bahncard50 a few years ago (the senior version) and at
that time it also covered the rest of my family traveling with
me. Yes, they are available to Americans. You can buy them at
almost any large rail station in Germany. Whether they will pay
for themselves now that you can't cover the ohter people
traveling with you is for you to determine. You still have to buy
tickets each time, but flash the card.
I see no reason to buy German rail tickets more than a day or so
in advance once you're actually in Germany. One advantage of not
doing so is that I've found the ticket agents will clue you into
better deals. For instance, when we were getting tickets to go to
the Zugspitze from Munich, the agent told us to forget about the
Bahncard50 because there were even cheaper regional tickets
available.
In any case, trains are so frequent in Germany that should you
run into one that is booked up, there will be another soon. But
if you book a day or so ahead you're unlikely to find your train
booked up, even an ICE. If you are traveling with others,
especially on an ICE, I do recommend you pay the few extra euros
for seat reservations so you are sure to sit together.
The Bahncards are good for a year, so if you go back in time
you'll still be able to use them. But do aks them to make it
clear how to refuse the automatic annual renewal or you may find
the renewal on your credit card statement.
--
************* DAVE HATUNEN (hatunen@cox.net) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps * |