(EXPIRED) Germany Offering Monthly Train Tickets For 9 Euro (June, July & August)

Deutsche Bahn launched a promotion last week that’s offering month-long rail tickets for only 9 Euro for the entire month. While there are a few key things to be aware of, that’s a stellar deal if you’ll be visiting Germany this summer and want to explore more than one city.

The Deal

• Get a month-long train ticket for Deutsche Bahn for 9 Euro.
• Direct link to offer.

Key Terms

• The 9-Euro-Ticket is available in the period from 1 June 2022 to 31 August 2022.
• It is valid for one calendar month, from 00:00 on the 1st until 24:00 on the 30th/31st.
• Valid for unlimited travel on local/regional transport services during the selected month.
• Valid on travel throughout Germany on all means of local/regional public transport (such as RB, RE, U-Bahn, S-Bahn, bus and tram).
• The 9-Euro-Ticket is valid on all public transport services in Germany. You can use it on any local/regional route and make as many journeys as you like.
• The ticket is not valid on long-distance trains (e.g. IC, EC, ICE) or long-distance buses.

Quick Thoughts

Paying 9 Euro (~$9.66) for an entire month of train journeys in Germany is an unbelievable deal, although it is a legit one. For anyone traveling to Germany this summer who wants to explore more than one city, this is as close to a no-brainer as you’ll get.

There are a few things to be aware of though. For starters, it’s only valid on local/regional public transport – not long-distance trains and buses. I’m not sure how Deutsche Bahn classifies ‘long-distance’ versus ‘local/regional’; I’d guess Dusseldorf to Cologne might count as local/regional, but that something like Berlin to Stuttgart would be regarded as long-distance.

Update: Aaron has shared the following helpful information about eligible routes in the comments below:

Any route, regardless of length, is considered regional as long as it is a train with an RB, RE, U-Bahn, S-Bahn, or Tram designation. So, you could go from Dusseldorf to Cologne on regional trains. In fact, that’s a great use of this ticket. Berlin to Stuttgart could technically be done, but it would just take a LONG time.

Any train that is designated IC, EC, ICE, IRE would not be included under this ticket.

If you click “Local Transport Only” when searching for trains on the Bahn’s English website, you should only see connections that can be used with this ticket.

https://www.bahn.com/en/offers/regional/9-euro-ticket-en

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With journeys only being valid on local/regional trains, you’re more likely to have longer journeys because they’ll make more frequent stops. Unusually for German public transport, there are apparently frequent 20-30 minute delays on trains at the moment. That’d be frustrating for German commuters, but if I was on vacation there I’d be willing to put up with those relatively short delays in return for a 9 Euro month-long train ticket.

However, perhaps the biggest issue with this promotion is how crowded trains could become. Deutsche Bahn sold more than 1 million of these tickets in the first two days of presales. This promotion has now been running for a week, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see 2+ million people planning to take advantage of this offer. That could certainly lead to overcrowded trains, although if you’ve ever traveled on the NYC subway at rush hour, I imagine you can put up with crowded German trains by comparison.

If I was planning on visiting Germany this summer, I’d certainly be willing to speculatively buy a 9 Euro ticket for that month. Even if I didn’t use it once, spending less than $10 isn’t a huge outlay but it could save significant sums of money. Another benefit is that it would open up day trips to other regional locations that I might not otherwise have thought to visit.

h/t Jonathan in Frequent Miler Insiders

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