DB Sparpreis va Supersparpreis

[superjohn]

I’ve just noticed that the regulations for these seem slightly different in terms of the trains you can use. The Sparpreis says you must use the IC/ICE trains specified but can use any other locals involved in the journey. For Supersparpreis it now just says you may only use the trains specified on the itinerary. Has this changed recently? I’m sure you used to be able to use any local trains on both.

I have just booked a Super from Bonn to Schiedam and it has put me on a through train from Venlo to Rotterdam which goes via Eindhoven, Utrecht, Amsterdam and Den Haag. This is a three hour trek around the whole of Holland for a journey that can be made as a much shorter straight line route.

Am I likely to run into trouble if I deviate from the booked trains for at least the NL section? The price advantage makes it worth doing so if I have to but I won’t do the trek if I don’t need to.

 

[30907]

I’ve just noticed that the regulations for these seem slightly different in terms of the trains you can use. The Sparpreis says you must use the IC/ICE trains specified but can use any other locals involved in the journey. For Supersparpreis it now just says you may only use the trains specified on the itinerary. Has this changed recently? I’m sure you used to be able to use any local trains on both.

I have just booked a Super from Bonn to Schiedam and it has put me on a through train from Venlo to Rotterdam which goes via Eindhoven, Utrecht, Amsterdam and Den Haag. This is a three hour trek around the whole of Holland for a journey that can be made as a much shorter straight line route.

Am I likely to run into trouble if I deviate from the booked trains for at least the NL section? The price advantage makes it worth doing so if I have to but I won’t do the trek if I don’t need to.

1. When I check on the German version of the site, which must be definitive, the Ts and Cs for both are the same:

Für Züge des Nahverkehrs (z.B. RE, RB, S) besteht keine Zugbindung.

"For Regional trains you are not required to use specified trains."
In any case NL is one of the countries where Zugbindung doesn't normally apply, including on their IC. So provided you follow the correct times in DE you'll be OK.

2. Does your ticket actually specify train numbers for the Regionals? Normal e-tickets have only NV on the ticket portion at the top of the page, even though they give you a detailed itinerary lower down.

3. I am surprised that using the through Venlo-Schiedam train saves money - when I ran an enquiry for a couple of dates a month and 2 months away, it cost twice as much (I was looking at trains that might connect with the ferry).

 

[duesselmartin]

Sportsparpreis cannot be cancelled beforehand. You will loose all of the fare. That is the difference.

 

[superjohn]

Thanks guys, that helps a lot.

The tickets only specify the DB IC trains and “NV” in the top part as @30907 describes so I’ll pick and chose for the rest of the journey.

I saw the differing restrictions on the English sections of the DB site. I guess something must have got lost in the translations.

I only noticed the long through train was involved after I had made the booking. If I was tied to that train the cheapest solution would have been a separate NS ticket for Eindhoven to Rotterdam. That was the cost I was referring to in terms of the price advantage.

 

[AlexNL]

Guards in the Netherlands won't care if you do Venlo - Schiedam via Breda and Rotterdam. It's more likely that they'll call you mad if you take the long way round via Utrecht and Schiphol. The only reasons I can think of for DB to recommend this route is because it saves changes, or because of potential engineering works.

If you're in doubt, just ask a guard on the train between Venlo and Eindhoven. They'll most likely advise you to change at Eindhoven and Rotterdam.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Thanks to the OP and respondents - I had wondered about this before.

Starting out in a couple of hours from Umeå, Sweden to Schiedam to catch tomorrow evening’s Stena Line sailing to Harwich. Doing it all on a €59,90 Super Sparpreis Europa ticket. I will be tweeting about it - search for #NorrlandtoNorfolk - but I’ll pop a new thread on here as well.

 

[Alfonso]

I think the reason for the different wording might be because the plain vanilla sparpries includes travel on local networks at the beginning/end of your journey, while the super sparpries only covers the start station to end station journey, with no extra local journeys

 

[dutchflyer]

However IN and also to/fro DE one is tied to the Zugbindung on the whole sector as stated on ticket. This only for the ICE and the Berliner ICs, all the rest whithin NL is nahverkehr and thus does not apply. remarkable: Dutch NS IC trains are thus as far as DB thinks also nahverkehr, which is indeed more appropriate. However in CH=Swizterland this has recently been changed and zugbindung now applies to all swiss IC trains too!
Superspar means: cannot go/use=money gone, spar=can change with an extra fee. Plus the city+ extra for longer distance. And of course the avaialble nr of such tickets per train does vary.
In some other countries they call that semiflex=spar.

 

[Bletchleyite]

However in CH=Swizterland this has recently been changed and zugbindung now applies to all swiss IC trains too!

SBB do seem to be, with a move to a multiple unit railway and therefore fixed train lengths, also edging into the use of yield management, so this doesn't seem a great surprise. Before, with LHCS, they were more into "same price all the time, adjust train lengths" as an approach.

 

[duesselmartin]

I think the reason for the different wording might be because the plain vanilla sparpries includes travel on local networks at the beginning/end of your journey, while the super sparpries only covers the start station to end station journey, with no extra local journeys

Yes, Supersparpreis does not include Bus or tram at the starting or destination point.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Last year I bought a DB Super Sparpreis EU e-ticket from Vienna to Rotterdam (with an overnight stopover in Regensburg), via Venlo (very good value at €54).
The routeing was unspecified after Venlo, although NS IC trains (via Eindhoven/Tilburg) were specified in the itinerary.
In the event I was late into Köln, so caught the trains on the route via Mönchengladbach an hour later than specified.
My ticket was checked more than once in NL but nobody paid any attention.
But I did need help to get through the exit barrier at Rotterdam without a chipkaart!

 

[superjohn]

But I did need help to get through the exit barrier at Rotterdam without a chipkaart!

The square barcodes will operate NS ticket barriers. I had one from Düsseldorf to Schiedam in December that happily let me out and back in for a break of journey in Rotterdam. I had my Interrail cover from earlier in the year on standby but it wasn’t called for.

 

[jamesontheroad]

The square barcodes will operate NS ticket barriers. I had one from Düsseldorf to Schiedam in December that happily let me out and back in for a break of journey in Rotterdam. I had my Interrail cover from earlier in the year on standby but it wasn’t called for.

I only learned about the DB Sparpreis QR code opening Dutch gates recently. However with two of us travelling on a single DB ticket with one QR code, we still had to do the slightly suspicious double-shuffle through the gate when it opened

 

[KatieLouLou]

I only learned about the DB Sparpreis QR code opening Dutch gates recently. However with two of us travelling on a single DB ticket with one QR code, we still had to do the slightly suspicious double-shuffle through the gate when it opened

I believe the QR codes on DB tickets to work NL gates are simply gate passes and will open any gate; but will only work for a specific number of attempts. A recent example, two of us traveled via Enschede to Rotterdam, with a sparpreis ticket routed via the direct ICE from Duisburg to Utrecht - blame a DB cancellation!); at Enschede you need to pass through the NL gateline when transferring from the DB train. As has happened before, the one mobile ticket successfully opened a gate four times (twice at either end).

I was hoping to try and see if it would let us back in again at Rotterdam as the onward SNCB ticket didn't, if i recall correctly, have a QR code; but as we also required a dutch ticket to travel elsewhere, we used that to get in and didn't pass back through the barrier on the way to Belgium.

 

[AlexNL]

A couple of months ago I bought a single from Hengelo (NL) to Rheine (DE) on the NS International website. I got an e-ticket which I loaded into the app.

I spent the day traveling in Germany on an NRW SchönerTagTicket and re-entered the Netherlands at Venlo. I then traveled to my home station (Breda, in the south) on my season ticket.

Once in Breda I didn't use my OV-chipkaart to leave the station, I presented the earlier e-ticket to the gates. They simply opened and let me out.