Help decide between rail pass or individual DB tickets

Sorry, an edit to correct a math error:

The price in individual tickets comes to 358€ ($386 USD) for both travelers.

The Eurail 7 day pass is $606 USD for both travelers.

So the pass is not quite double the individual tickets -- does that seem right to anyone? I expected it to be close or a savings over individual tickets.

Thanks!

I didn’t verify your ticket prices, but it's quite possible that regular tickets are cheaper, especially if you're booking such a long time in advance.

You can get passes a bit cheaper, since there's also a German Rail Twin Pass which is not available online but which you can buy at a ticket office in Germany, e.g. at Frankfurt Airport. But then it's still €554 in 2nd class. (See pricelist at the bottom of this page.)

I think regular tickets will be cheaper than a German Rail Pass.

You can also get a Bahncard25 (3 months, 20€ in 2nd class, 40€ in 1st class, per person) which will give you 25% off of all your ticket purchases. So you would save around 70€ (90€ savings minus 20€ for the Bahncard). Also your travels number 3,4,5 can only be done by regional trains or are easily doable by regional only. So instead of getting regular tickets you could either get the Deutschlandticket (58€ per calendar month per person, valid on all regional trains in the whole of Germany, including local transport like buses, trams or metro, NOT available for 1st class) or the other option is a Länderticket for day 3 and 4 (as you’re staying inside Baden-Württemberg) for 36€ (2 persons, valid on all regional trains and all local transport, after 9am).

Deutschland-Ticket is of great use also because you can use it for all the journeys you want to take inside cities (inside Munich for example).

So if I go by your maths:

Day 1,2,6,7 total to 192€ plus 40€ for Bahncard25

Day 3,4,5 total to 116€ (Deutschlandticket, assuming you are doing all those journeys either in September or October) or 107 if using the Länderticket for 3 and 4.

There are also a few limited trains Stuttgart (next to Böblingen)-Heidelberg-Darmstadt with Flixtrain where fares start at 5€ per person. So if the schedule for one of the 3 trains on that route suit you, you could cut down Day 4,5 down to around 15€ per person (5€ train Böblingen Stuttgart, free with Deutschland-Ticket, then Flixtrain for 5€ on day 4 and 5 each), so that would cut your cost for Day 3,4,5 to 36€ (Länderticket) plus 30€ Flixtrain.

This would involve getting tickets from a few different places. A German Rail Pass would be one ticket for everything but is far more expensive. So you need to decide what’s more important for you: having a different ticket (possibly from a different ticket provider) for each leg of your journey or just having one ticket for everything (and flexibility).

I hope this post is still kind of clear. If you have any further questions about any of the steps or where to buy all those tickets, just ask.

Sebastian - Thank you for the detailed info! I don’t mind having tickets from various sources/apps on my phone. That’s not an issue and I do value both saving money but also traveling easily (i.e. train connections are comfortable; easy to locate info etc). It sounds to me like doing Day 1,2,6,7 with the DB tickets plus the Bahncard and then Day 3,4,5 with the Deutschland-Ticket is doable. And I’ll look to see if the Stuttgart option works with Flixtrain although I’m trying to have the least number of connections and luggage-rolling! Do I need to purchase the Bahncard FIRST and then go to DB and purchase the tickets for Days 1,2,6,7? Can you share where I can find all these tickets online? 

A final question: our flight arrives in Frankfurt at 0540. We are not checking luggage but obviously need to go through Border Control. I understand the train station is essentially in the airport so what is your opinion on buying a ticket for a Munich train at 0830? Too soon, too long to wait? Thank you again.

The closer you buy your tickets to the date, the more expensive they get. Long dinstance traffic has dynamic pricing, like with airplanes. E.g. for tomorrow: prices between 80 and 100 EUR per person in 2nd class between Frankfurt and Munich, quite pricey. Best buy in advance.

Deutschland ticket you can get e.g. via: europe.tranzer.com or germanytransitpass.com (with one-off payments). Or bought almost at every transport company in Germany (although most of them sell it as a season ticket with automatic payments, so you need to cancel your subscription before the 10th of every month). 

You can already buy your Sparpreis tickets now with Bahncard discount (add it under passenger details where it says “2 adults”). You will only be asked to show your Bahncard when the ticket will be checked on the train. I’d advise you to buy all your IC/ICE tickets for Day 1,2,6,7 as soon as you’re able to fix your travel dates. Prices will increase as the date nears.

You can then buy your Bahncard 25 whenever you want prior to your first travel. You can choose a starting date in the future. Buy a Probe Bahncard 25 (that’s the one valid for 3 months instead of a year) for 19,90€. Keep in mind this is a subscription, so you need to either state during the buying process that you don’t want the subscription (using the “comment” field) or you need to cancel it within 6(?) weeks after the starting date. There’s a button for that in the DB Navigator app (which will store both your Bahncard and your tickets).

You can get the Deutschland-Ticket from many different resellers. As far as I know, many of them will only accept German or EU-bank accounts. I think the “Fahrplaner” app accepts overseas credit cards and the “HVV - Tickets und Fahrinfo” app will accept paypal. I checked germanytransitpass.com and they also seem to accept credit cards and have an easy cancel option.

The Deutschland-Ticket, like BrendanDB said, is also a subscription that needs to be cancelled before the 10th of the month. So if you’re buying it for September, you can buy it between the 1st and 10th of September and immediately cancel it again. If you cancel on the 11th, you will have another Deutschland-Ticket for October.

As to your Frankfurt Airport question: I think 8.30 should be fine. The train station is about 10-15min walk inside the terminal building. So even if your flight happens to be delayed by 2h, you’d still make it.