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booking window (E*/DB/SNCF)

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brianthegiant

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Hi folks,
at some point I need to book tickets for London-Stuttgart in August, Paris route probably easier unless I get a good deal on London Speziale via Brussels, Koln.
I've completely lost track of how long the booking horizons are now for E*/DB/SNCF.(ie when do cheap tickets go on sale) Any tips?

(shame there isn't something like this for european journeys)
www.thetrainline.com/ticketalert/
 
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DEE-DE

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DB is usually 92 days (including the current day). Booking for a Wednesday for example open on a Wednesday. On the direct trains to France it is 120 days with the same method. Eurostar I believe is 6 months but I am not too sure about that.
The risk travelling via Paris is that the cheap Estar fares have gone already once the bookings for France to Germany open. For through bookings the above dates apply with SNCF as well. Only thing that might be different are the Estar tickets from London to Cologne/Frankfurt/etc.
For everything apart from these special cases the DB journeyplanner will tell you when booking opens. There are more special cases for example to Poland.
 

brianthegiant

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Hmm thats very helpful thanks.

What are peoples experiences about booking the cheap London Spezial tickets ?

If I understood correctly you can get them to most German cities, but I've never had much luck getting London-Stuttgart at a low price. Are they restricted in numbers or to certain routes or to off peak services (making it less likely to get longer journeys of multiple legs)?
 

pne

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What are peoples experiences about booking the cheap London Spezial tickets ?

If I understood correctly you can get them to most German cities, but I've never had much luck getting London-Stuttgart at a low price. Are they restricted in numbers or to certain routes or to off peak services (making it less likely to get longer journeys of multiple legs)?

Like all German Advance tickets (Sparpreis, Europa-Spezial, London-Spezial), they're subject to yield management, so the price tends to go up as the train fills up (or as the Advance ticket quota for a given price level gets sold out), so booking further ahead can get cheaper.

However, I believe they can choose to "lock out" one or more of the cheapest levels directly, so for a busy time of day or day of week may find that you don't get the cheapest price even if you book a minute after midnight German time, simply because that price isn't available for that journey.

Also, tickets that allow travel by ICE are generally more expensive than those that do not allow this.

Though I'm not sure how relevant this last condition is for London Spezial, because one of the conditions is that you must go from Brussels to Cologne by ICE, so it's a "ticket allowing travel by ICE" by definition. (I think that ticket price is not affected by how much of the trip is on an ICE, just whether ICE is allowed at all for any part of the ride.)

There is no "peak" or "off-peak" time per se on German rail.

Prices are generally set point-to-point, i.e. not by mileage or the like. It can be cheaper to get a ticket for a smaller station that's a bit further away. (Note that stopping short is permitted in Germany -- as is starting short, but your seat reservation (if any) may have expired since it's only held for you for 15 minutes after the train leaves the station you had reserved from.)
 

30907

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EUR 59 fares to almost anywhere are fairly easy to get by overnighting in Brussels or Cologne but difficult if you want to do the journey same day.
I'm hoping to do Stuttgart in June and test bookings are looking hopeful.

SNCF certainly do a ticket alert, which is useful because they open summer bookings at different times for different routes.

Splitting in Strasbourg rather than Paris might be worth checking out price wise.
 
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30907

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Belated PS.

On the basis of recent test bookings, EUR59 fares will disappear after 24 hours on some connections. I was testing Stuttgart with overnight in Cologne, so using the 1825 departure from Brussels and the 0743 back from Cologne and it happened 3 days running. So the contingent is extremely low - unlike for overnighting in Brussels! - or DB have programmed the system, I think more likely the former.
 

pne

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Location
Hamburg, Germany
On the basis of recent test bookings, EUR59 fares will disappear after 24 hours on some connections. I was testing Stuttgart with overnight in Cologne, so using the 1825 departure from Brussels and the 0743 back from Cologne and it happened 3 days running. So the contingent is extremely low - unlike for overnighting in Brussels! - or DB have programmed the system, I think more likely the former.

I wouldn't be surprised if "very small contingent" is the answer, either.

Then you can validly advertise at "prices starting at €59" but still get a decent amount of money.
 

dutchflyer

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Belated PS.

On the basis of recent test bookings, EUR59 fares will disappear after 24 hours on some connections. I was testing Stuttgart with overnight in Cologne, so using the 1825 departure from Brussels and the 0743 back from Cologne and it happened 3 days running. So the contingent is extremely low - unlike for overnighting in Brussels! - or DB have programmed the system, I think more likely the former.

Actually reading other fora the idea is that its limited to 1 seat only: couples seem never able to access it at that price, but next higher @ 69 eur is not that bad for the distance.
However, it may very well be, that all major German cities have 1-so try out a lesser known smaller town beyond. The overnight in BRU seems imperative to gain the very lowest fare.
This is likely due to the germans expecting their trains to be full (of germans) end of day and not very early for going home. Reverse for the other direction.
 
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