Bahncard Bother

[bspahh]

I was about to book a Sparpreis ticket from London to Munich which was going to be €149 so I thought I might as well buy a Bahncard 25 discount card for €62, and hope that I'd save some money on some other tickets later in the year.

I then went to book the ticket, and found that with a Bahncard, the cheapest ticket was now a flexible one at €343. I was able to book a ticket at the €149 rate without the Bahncard.

The WWW site says that they don't do refunds for the €62. Perhaps it might save me some money through the year, but it means I've now got to search for tickets with and without the discount.

Bother.

 

[30907]

Given that the BC25 rebate is specifically advertised on the website
https://www.bahn.de/p/view/angebot/sparpreis-europa/london-spezial.shtml
I think you have cause for complaint and should contact DB direct (in English).

 

[k-c-p]

This is a known issue: If you put a BahnCard you do not get the discount fares. As it started in December (see this Post in BahnCommunity forum (in German)), I would not hope for a quick fix.
The only workaround I know (and use): Remove the BC and bite the bullet that you will not get the additional BC discount.

Sidenote: As the southbound ICE trains are in high demand, you can try these tricks to save some money (if you do not mind extending your travel time):
- removed the checkbox to prefer faster services
- put in e.g. Coblenz as an intermediate stop. This will move you from an ICE train on the high speed line to an IC/EC via the Rhine Valley (usually, this saves my about 20€ on my return from London)

 

[oldman]

Reading the small print: Mit der BahnCard 25 erhalten Sie 25% Rabatt auf den deutschen Streckenanteil. If you book from Berlin in November the Bahncard price is 65.05 instead of 69.90, so you would not have saved as much as you may have hoped.

 

[JonathanP]

As k-c-p says, this is actually a bug in the website which affects specifically only London Spezial fares. This is in addition to the problems it has with displaying London Spezial fares for trains that actually have 0 remaining seats available...

Under normal circumstances there is no need to check the fares both with and without BahnCard.

 

[bspahh]

Thanks.

Its not a big deal at the end of the day as I'll claim the money back on travel expenses. I might also make up the cost of the card from tickets within Germany. It is a bit of a pain though.

I do like having the CityPlus tickets for local public transport with an BahnCard and InterCity ticket

 

[Spoorslag '70]

1. Oldman's point is half the truth: you also get 15% Railplus discount for journey outside of Germany.
2. The City-Ticket will be included in most long-distance tickets from August, even without a BahnCard.

 

[dutchflyer]

1.the discount for LON tix should be 5 €. At least that is said by DB in german leaflets on BC etc.
2.R+ is often misquoted: it ONLY gives the (now 15, was 25%) discount on FULL fares, thus any ''spar(=save)price does not count. In todays practice, that means for longer distance here is near always a lower savings/advance price.
3.from German fora (as of now still unconfirmed by DB) ALL ''spar''preis tix will have the City-option on them (in towns that participate), also for non-BC holders, from 1/8 (or whatever date they choose for it). The in-DE/fernverkehr only 19.90 cheap prices will then be available all year, by now only on some special sales periods.
4.there is always some kind of sp. offer for new BC-subscribers-now its again a 3-month try-out thing (but as always-continued at full price if not cancelled on time). Most germans had hoped for a new edition of the ''say the winner'' for the soccer-WC and gain some days of free travel. However, side-tip: if you ''threaten'' to cancel your subscription, they often will try to convince you by some sweeteners, like free trip for companion or upgrade to 1st.