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To my surprise I found that US-Airways, American Airlines and others offer free train ticket from their gateway airports in Germany to any railway station of Deutsche Bahn, the German flag railway company.

These rail and fly offers have always been there for flights of international airlines like American Airlines, Emirates Airways, Quantas and others orginating from Germany Since no paper tickets are sold any more, the railway company had to come up with a solution compatible with electronic flight tickets. This allows now airlines (if they want) to extent rail and fly offers to customers living in other countries and visiting Europe.

Example with US-Airways:
Charlotte-Frankfurt September 15 to September 25
EUR 496 including tax and travel agent’s fee.
If you book it before the ticket is issued,
you can get with this ticket a free train ride
from Frankfurt to any German
railway station and back.

Another example with American Arlines:
Los Angeles-Frankfurt via Fort Worth
from September 15 to September 22
EUR 529 including Tax and Travel Agents fee.
If you ask for it before the ticket is issued,
you American Airlines also adds a train ticket for free,
from Frankfurt to any German railway station and back.

Both offers are based on fares and availabilities valid on May 26, 2009. Similiar offers are on the market for flights orginating in Canada and Mexico. This can save you just a bundle, because tickets for the German high speed railway links are not cheap.

I did not find these offers in booking engines. But your travel agent should be able to book it for you. Or you may request an offer here.

It is now a little over 2 months, that IATA stopped issuing air tickets on paper. Now under IATA rules only electronic tickets are allowed.

Deutsche Bahn as feeder for long distance flights

In Germany the railway company Deutsche Bahn is an importent feeder for international aund intercontinental flights. Many airlines have cooperation agreements with Deutsche Bahn, the German railway companies and publish fares which include a railway feeder to the airport. For the passenger the rail and fly fares have the additional benefit that he receives a ticket which reaches as close as the next railway station to his home.

Incompatible reservation systems

Since the reservation system of Deutsche Bahn is not compatible, and will not be compatible with the global GDSes and the internal airline reservation systems, for these fares, combining rail and air segments, paper tickets were used. This is now no longer possible, at least not without considerable extra cost and cost and hassle.

There are three different types of rail and fly tickets:

Different solutions are coming up

1. Some airlines issue code share flight numbers for certain rail connections, espiaclly from from Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Cologne to Frankfurt. In this case, you receive a normal flight ticket for the train ride, which is valid only in one specified train relation, date and time. You can use your electronic flight ticket, but only in that very train, for which the ticket is issued.(Very much like the flight ticket is only valid for a specific flight, and you cannot show up with your ticket one day earlier and expect to fly.)
2. The classic rail and fly offer relates to a ticket, valid from any railway station in Germany to the airport, from which your flight starts. Here there is no way to specify a train you need to use, and thus it is not possible to rely on a document which can be printed by the consumer as many times as he wishes. Otherwise several people could get a copy and use it simultaneously, and there would be now way for the train company to know for whom the ticket was paid, and who is looking for a free ride.
   To allow anyway to combine electronic tickets with rail and fly segments we book now segments under the airline name ‘Access Rail’ into the flight schedule. As soon we include as such a segment into the schedule, Sabre generates a numerical code, which is transmitted as additional information with the flight reservation to the airline. As soon as an electronic flight ticket (showing the whole itinery including these ‘access rail’ segments, the airlines activates that numerical code in the reservation system of Deutsche Bahn. After that the passenger can obtain with that number conventional train tickets from any ticket sales maschine. This ticket, together with the electronic flight ticket, allows him to use almost all trains of Deutsche Bahn to the airport. Some special trains like ‘ICE Sprinter’ and night trains with sleeping facilities need an extra paid seat reservation and an supplemental payment.
3. Some airlines which do not use the global reservation systems made their private arrangements with the train companies. In this case you will receive special instruction how to use the train with the confirmation code of the airline or as part of the travel documents for your tour package.

Air and rail segments need to be booked together

In all these three cases the rail and fly segments must be ordered together with the flight tickets. After the air ticket is issued, it is mostly impossible, or at least expensive, to add a railway connection to the airport.

For all flights which you booked with us, we can provide an add on ticket for German railways from anywhere in Germany to your airport. These tickets are only valid in connection of a flight ticket, and the price is roughly 59 Euro for one way, or 110 Euro for a round trip.

If you are looking for a travel arrangement combining air segments with rail segments, we are happy to help you.

• Train ride to Frankfurt on Saturday morning
• Visit a concert or theater performance in Frankfurt on Saturday evening
• Stay in a hotel at a special rate
• Sunday morning a city tour or a boat ride on the Main river
• Start your flight at Sunday evening

Of course the same system is possible in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich or Düsseldorf.

Members of the BestPrice.Travel Lounge get a free travel plan for such an arrangement at

http://lounge.bestprice.travel/flights/

Just check out Bestprice.Travel Lounge now!