Probe BahnCard Gold

[A S Leib]

Until 5 February, it's possible to buy a Probe BahnCard Gold from €19.90 (25, second class) to €152 (50, first class), lasting three months then an annual subscription if not cancelled. If Germany wins a gold medal at the Winter Olympics, holders of the Probe BahnCard Gold get free travel on DB Fernverkehr services on the following day.

Germany won gold on 11 of the 16 days in 2022 and 2018 (7 of 16 in 2014), so I think that the odds of at least one day with complimentary travel when cardholders can use it would be quite high. Have there been any similar transport offers in the past?

 

[Fragezeichnen]

The most interesting one was the so called "Winner's BahnCard" in 2016 - you could pick any country as your favorite to win the European Football Championship, and if you got it right you got unlimited free travel for a month.

Apart from that there have been several offers where the validity was extended or discounted based on the success of the German football team. This is the first non-football related offer though.

 

[riceuten]

The problem with the Probe BahnCards is the cancellation of them - you struggle to cancel them before the expiry and they autorenew at the normal rate thereafter and you generally only have a short window to cancel. As I recall, the "cancellation portal" is a web email form that requires a DB worker to actually read and act on it - very similar to how the Deutschland Ticket works with some transport authorities.

 

[rvdborgt]

The problem with the Probe BahnCards is the cancellation of them - you struggle to cancel them before the expiry and they autorenew at the normal rate thereafter and you generally only have a short window to cancel. As I recall, the "cancellation portal" is a web email form that requires a DB worker to actually read and act on it

Not anymore: in November I could cancel a Probe-BahnCard directly from my DB account and I also directly received a confirmation.

 

[zero]

The problem with the Probe BahnCards is the cancellation of them - you struggle to cancel them before the expiry and they autorenew at the normal rate thereafter and you generally only have a short window to cancel. As I recall, the "cancellation portal" is a web email form that requires a DB worker to actually read and act on it - very similar to how the Deutschland Ticket works with some transport authorities.

I had a trial bahncard in 2019 and there was no struggle at all. The "DB worker" processed my form submission in 2 days, and of course the card was still valid until the original expiry date/