Deutsche Bahn benefits – explained! Everything I’ve learned about train travel in Germany
I’ve been meaning to write this post for ages. Since it’s holiday season and many of you are probably travelling more by train right now, I thought it was finally time to sit down and share everything I’ve gathered over the years.
I genuinely love train travel and do it often – so consider this my collected DB wisdom, all in one place. My hope is that it saves you money, stress, and a few of the head-scratching moments I went through when I first started figuring all this out.
Deutsche Bahn – benefits, tips and tricks
- Kids travel free in Deutche Bahn – my absolute favourite benefit
Children up to and including 14 years old travel completely free on long-distance trains (ICE, IC, EC) when accompanied by someone aged 15 or older. You just enter them on the booking so the conductor knows they’re with you.
Here’s the important catch: this does not apply to regional trains. So there’s a scenario that surprises a lot of people – sometimes it’s actually cheaper to buy an ICE ticket (where your kids ride free) than to travel on your Deutschlandticket and pay separately for your children on regional connections.
In other words: don’t assume the Deutschlandticket is always the cheapest option when you’re travelling with kids.
- Seat reservations – worth it or not?
A seat reservation costs 5,50 € in 2nd class (6,90 € in 1st class) per person, per journey. Reservations aren’t mandatory in Germany – you can absolutely hop on without one.
A couple of things worth knowing. Even though your kids travel for free, you still pay the reservation fee for their seats if you want guaranteed places. And there’s been an important change: as of mid-2025, DB scrapped the old family reservation (which used to cover up to five people for one flat fee). Now every person is reserved individually, so reserving seats for a whole family adds up faster than it used to.
My tip: you don’t have to reserve. There’s always a small risk you won’t find seats together, but usually it works out. You can check how full a train is expected to be on the DB website or app before you decide whether to gamble on it. On busy holiday routes or long journeys with tired kids, I usually reserve. On quieter trips, I often don’t bother.
- Book early – the single biggest money-saver
Tickets are cheapest roughly 2-3 months ahead of your travel date. The advance Sparpreis and Super Sparpreis fares can be astonishingly cheap if you catch them early.
To give you a real example: we once travelled to Switzerland – five of us – and paid 100 € total for the round trip. Booking ahead is the difference between a bargain and a small fortune.
- The BahnCard – a yearly discount card that pays for itself
The BahnCard is a discount card you buy once and use all year. It comes in three main levels. The BahnCard 25 gives you 25% off Flex, Spar and Super Spar fares. The BahnCard 50 gives you 50% off Flex fares and 25% off Spar fares. And the BahnCard 100 means unlimited travel across Germany – a whole different league.
I’ve had the BahnCard 25 for years and I’m very happy with it – I save a lot on tickets over the year.
My favourite tip here: watch out for promotions, and look at the Probe BahnCard – a 3-month trial version. It’s often available from as little as 19,90 € (and DB regularly runs even cheaper promo deals). It can pay for itself on your very first trip. Just set a reminder to cancel it if you don’t want it, because the trial auto-renews into a regular BahnCard.
- BahnBonus – the free loyalty programme most people ignore
BahnBonus is DB’s free loyalty programme – think Miles & More for trains. You register (it’s free, and you don’t need a BahnCard), and then you collect one point per euro spent on long-distance tickets and BahnCard purchases.
Those points convert into rewards: free journeys, upgrades, seat reservations, vouchers and physical items. I’ve redeemed points for free trips more than once, so this genuinely adds up if you travel regularly.
A few things to know. Points expire only if you collect or redeem nothing for 36 months – so as long as you travel once a year, you’re fine. The Deutschlandticket only earns points if you buy it through bahn.de or the DB Navigator app, not through a regional transport association or a DB Reisezentrum. And you also collect status points, which unlock status levels with extra perks – which brings me to…
- The DB Lounge – the benefit I slept on for way too long
I’ll be honest: I was sceptical about this one. I didn’t really know what the DB Lounge was, and I assumed it wasn’t for me. Then, during a longer wait in Hamburg, I decided to check it out – and wow. Now I use it whenever I get the chance.
The DB Lounge is a waiting area in major stations where you’ll find free drinks, a calm place to sit with your luggage, toilets, wifi, and newspapers. Sometimes there are little extras – once it was free ice cream for everyone, another time cookies. All free.
You can get in with a BahnBonus status level (silver gives you 8 lounge visits a year, gold and platinum are unlimited), a 1st-class long-distance ticket, or a BahnCard 100. You access it by scanning the code in the BahnBonus app, so make sure you have the app installed before you go. It turns a stressful connection into a genuinely pleasant break, especially with kids in tow.
- Travelling around Brandenburg? The VBB-Freizeit-Ticket
If you often travel around Brandenburg with school-age kids, there’s a lesser-known ticket worth knowing about: the VBB-Freizeit-Ticket.
It’s a monthly add-on ticket (18.2 € per month) for schoolchildren and apprentices. It only works in combination with the child’s existing student travel card, as you enter that card number on the Freizeit-Ticket. It lets them travel all over the VBB network, meaning Berlin and Brandenburg. On school-week weekdays it’s valid from 14:00, and on weekends, public holidays and throughout the Berlin school holidays it’s valid all day.
For families who explore Brandenburg regularly, it can be a real bargain. Just double-check the latest terms, since VBB tariffs get adjusted periodically.
- Prams, bikes and family compartments – reserve early
DB trains have dedicated spaces for families, prams and bikes – but the good spots go fast.
You can reserve family areas and the small-child compartment (Kleinkindabteil) in ICE trains through the graphical seat reservation. Bike spaces must be reserved separately and sell out quickly, especially in summer – so book ahead if you’re bringing bikes.
- Little things that make travelling with kids lovely
A couple of small touches genuinely make journeys nicer with children.
If you visit the on-board restaurant with a child, they usually receive a free toy train figure (subject to availability) and, depending on age, an activity magazine full of games and puzzles. It’s a small thing, but it buys you a surprising amount of peace on a long trip.
The on-board restaurant also has affordable kids’ lunch sets, which are handy when everyone’s getting hangry somewhere around hour two.
Additional information about Deutsche Bahn:
Since I’m putting everything in one place, here are a handful of extras that are easy to overlook.
Passenger rights (Fahrgastrechte): if your train is delayed by 60+ minutes, you’re entitled to a partial refund – 25% of the fare from 60 minutes, 50% from 120 minutes. Fill out the Fahrgastrechte form. It’s genuinely worth it, and far too few people bother.
The DB Navigator app is your best friend: live platform info, delay alerts, coach order (so you know where to stand on the platform), and seat availability.
1st class isn’t always a huge jump in price on Sparpreis fares, and it includes a seat reservation – occasionally worth a look when travelling with the family.
City-Ticket: with a BahnCard and a long-distance Flex ticket, you often get free local public transport to and from the station in many cities. Easy to forget you already have it.
Have fun with traveling with train!
And for some inspiration for travelling in Germany, check these posts
