German rail tickets - prebook or just get ticket on the day?

Buzwaldo

Planning to head to St Anton in Austria for a few days in Feb to join some buddies who are on a weeks holiday. Flying Ryanair to Munich. Travelling solo myself, and can see the train connections, and book a ticket online with a five euro booking fee.
Price varies depending on options taken, and degree of flexibility needed with a 30 euro saving (58 vs 88) if I tie myself to one specific train (50mins post arrival at airport).
Question is, is there any advantage to booking online, or would it be as well to just pick up tickets at the station?

zagmund

You can work out the walk up fares pretty easily. Head to bahn.de (no €5 booking fee that I'm aware of) and look for a train today or tomorrow. That will give you an idea of the prices you can expect for a walk up.

If there's not much in it then you are probably better going for the walk up. You can also buy (normally) a flexible ticket online which is essentially the same as the walk up - full fare, but full flexibility.

Also, check out the 1st class fares. When bought this far in advance they can be pretty cheap - sometimes cheaper than 2nd class

During the summer we went from Munich to Zell am See - myself & the 2 kids 1st class pre-booked were cheaper than Mrs Zags 2nd class flexible ticket. She flew on a different day and wanted to be sure that no matter how delayed the flight might be that she would make it all the way.

z

Triceratops Ballet

I've studied in Germany and used it as a starting point for a lot of my rail travel round Europe, the first time I went I booked my first few tickets online, but Now I would always just buy in person. Its quite a bit of a saving, also there are often different trains/ tickets available to those buying in person than there are available online.

zagmund

dottie - do you buy your fares in person in advance, or on the day?

I've never heard of walk up fares on the day being cheaper than web fares.

z

Triceratops Ballet

I've done both, for longer trips ie between cities I've generally bought in advance for more local journeys I've used the ticket machines in the stations.

I've just found that its not as easy to find the best deal possible online, like there might be a third class option (and this is Germany so 3rd class is still pretty damn good and efficient!) or a better route that the cashier at a desk will advise you of.

keithclancy

If you don't have a Bahncard theres not really any benefit to buying in advance.

However there is an action at the moment for a Bahncard 25:
http://www.urlaubspiraten.de/sonstiges/bahncard-gold-25-fur-nur-25eur-gold-medaille-kostenlos-quer-durch-deutschland


This would reduce the price from Dusseldorf to Berlin with the ICE from 111 euros to 59 euros on an advance fare. (as an example)

The card is only 25 euros for 4 months, so use it once and its paid for itself.

You just need to remember to cancel it 6 weeks before the end of its term.

lc180

Buzwaldo wrote: »

. Flying Ryanair to Munich.

Not sure from the other posts if you know this but the airport Ryanair flys to is actually about 2 hours bus transfer from Munich city centre.

There is a train station in Memmingen, so probably best to check for trains from there as opposed to Munich. Might save you time.

munchkin_utd

To echo the previous poster, Memmingen airport and Munich airport are in very different locations.
If going to st Anton from Memmingen, you are quicker and cheaper to route via bregenz(on Lake Constance to the south west, rather than go via Munich which is due east.
The normal fare via bregenz is about 45 euro give or take a euro depending on how nice the train is you take. Discount fare in advance is a mere 19 euro but like always with such deals if you don't make the train then you loose your money.
The connection from Memmingen airport to Memmingen station is miserably infrequent but it's only a few km of a spin so a taxi would cost about a tenner and take a matter of minutes. If someone would share the taxi then it's the same as a bus.
Some may suggest getting discounted regional tickets but this is a cross border journey so it's not something which works in this instance, aside from the fact that the bat connections are intercity trains anyhow.

Buzwaldo

Ok guys. Thanks for all the replies. No time for boards during working hours, thus late reply.
Yeah, was looking at memmingen station rather than Munich. Route is via bergenz. Will check out bahn.de as I don't think that's the site I was on. Good idea to check tomorrow's fares. They would be more similar to a walk-up?
I had found a non flexible outward journey of 19 euro and only flexible return option of 48. Will be able to work it out from here. Thanks again to all.