Refunds from Deutsche Bahn for a missed flight

I was grooms man for a friend the weekend before last. I was meant to fly in early on the Wednesday to get suited out for his wedding. The wedding was Friday morning and I had my flight booked from Bremen-Dublin. However the train from Hamburg to Bremen was delayed by 1 hour and as a result I couldn't make the flight. If the train had departed on time I would have had 50 mins to get checked in so I wasn't exactly cutting it fine. I got a form signed off by a girl at the customer service desk to state that it was 1 hour late. As a result I had to make alternative arrangements that cost €380 to get back that day and I missed the fitting which left things very awkward.

Is there any chance of getting a refund for the alternative arrangements from DB or would I be wasting my time here?

Do you have DB travel insurance?

I'm sure you can ask DB for a letter of why the train was delayed. Then maybe you could forward it on to the flight company.

I had a similar situation last year. Had my flight from Bruxxels to India. Usually it takes abt 2 nad half hrs to reach Bruxxels from Aachen. The flight was around 11 am and hence i wasnt able to take the THALYS. So, i booked the tickets in RB's and it got cancelled. I reported it in the DB reisezentrum and they said that i could take the next train. Luckily i had time on my side yet. The next F*****g train got cancelled too. The bloody DB refused to make arrangements thought i had bought my ticket in a DB-Reisezentrum since the train was operated by Belgium railways. Then i had to spend around 100€ for the taxi and ended up being just in time b4 the counter closed. That was a nightmare. To add on that, i have a travel insurance. Under some special clause, train cancellelations aren't covered.

To sum up: Got fucked up, had to rush in the last minute, expensive cross country taxi ride and travel insurance didnt help.

No DB travel insurance, unfortunately.
The girl at the service point says that the train would need to be 1 hour late before they deal with compensation claims but she didn't elaborate on that.

I think any airline and airport would disagree totally with this statement, sorry.

I do too. I'd say that was cutting it unreasonably fine. Just saying, like.

Ok, I know DB offer insurance with a Bahn card that covers you for that kind of sh*t happening...but sounds like you will have to chalk it up to experience and get an earlier train next time...I always plan my trips to the airport so that if I miss one train (or it's delayed) then the next one is still ok...drives my husband batty but it stops me panicking and allows time for a couple of beers at the airport.

It was Ryanair at Bremen airport, only takes about 10 mins to get checked in any time I've been there so I would have thought 50 mins was more than enough.

From the Ryanair terms and conditions about checking in times:

Ryanair recommends that passengers check in two hours prior to scheduled departure. Check-in desks close strictly 40 minutes before scheduled departure. We reserve the right to cancel your reservation and deny you boarding if you do not comply with the Check-in Deadline.

While 2 hours is a bit over the top, 50 minutes was nowhere near enough time.

I missed my flight once because of DB, they gave me over night stay as compensation. The airlines gave me connection for next day for 100 additional euros.

What I came to know from DB guys that you can get either accommodation (if it is just for one night) or some percentage of cost of your DB ticket, nothing more. You have to fill in a form and send to the Customer Service of DB. In this case, it takes time but you definitely get back some money (worth some peanuts!). AFAIK, you have to claim within a month of travel.

Good luck!

I know Bremen airport well and i know what you mean about 50 mins being ample, prob is if you are looking for a refund they will stand by their standard T's & C's.

I think that is if you will reach your destination (with DB) more than 1 hr late, they will also pay for a taxi, but you have to pay up front and then submit a claim...at least according to what the chap at saarbrucken told us when our train was cancelled.

When I say 50 mins, I mean I would be arriving 50 mins before the check-in closes which is 90 mins before the flight leaves (taking Ryanairs 40 mins policy).

Ryanair will NEVER refund you the price of a ticket because you are late arriving to the airport (nor will any other airline). It doesn't matter a toss to them what caused your delay. The only company you *might* have recourse with is Deutsche Bahn. You would have to look into their terms and conditions to determine if they pay compensation for missed connections caused by delays to their trains. The probability than they do pay compensation for such delays is zilch.

Fair enough, dat be different.
AFAIK you can only get redress from DB for missed flights if you book the ticket with the flight (i.e. it's a single journey). Otherwise their usual conditions come into play according to just how late the train is.

Ah, that's different, yes I would say that's ample time, but the tip about the next train was a good one for future reference.

DB do pay some compensation for delayed trains.

I hadn't planned on dealing with Ryanair as it wasn't their fault and even if it was I would still probably be only wasting my time!
I'll see what DB say, they should at least refund me the train ticket from Hamburg - Bremen, I never used it as there was no point arriving at the airport 10 mins after check-in was closed.

so you only missed the check-in by a couple of minutes? Quite shitty service of ryan air I must admit, but then that's probably how they make their money.

yes, but only for the cost of your train ticket, not for any re-booking costs incurred due to missed flights connections. They will pay for a hotel if your train gets you on after midnight and you miss a connection. but that is it.

It would have been worth a try? u never know, may be u could have convinced RYANair?

EDIT: or atleast u could have called Ryanair from the railway station and explained ur situation?

Been there before, no chance with Ryanair. However I've tried it with Easyjet and they put me on a later flight at no extra cost so kudo's to them!

Agreed, Ryan are crap when it comes to making a concession.

Highly unlikely, as somebody said, this is where Ryanair and co. make quite a bit of their money. I've stood at the side and watched Ryanair close the check-in-desk absolutely on the minute at Stanstead with 20 or 30 people still waiting to check in. Some of them complained that they'd been in the queue for over an hour but nobody was interested.

when I missed the last connecting train from Hamburg to Schwerin because of a ICE delay they sent me to Schwerin in a taxi and I didn't have to pay anything upfront, they had sorted it before hand with the taxi firm. The taxi was somewhere between 200 and 300 Euros so I wouldn't have been able to anyhow!

Contact DB, I'm sure they will offer you some form of refund, even if only for a percentage of the orginal train fare - I'm pretty sure you'll get SOMETHING (whether or not it will be 'adequate' is another matter).

read the rules on compensation here:

http://www.bahn.de/p/view/hilfe/kundenrech...rnverkehr.shtml

you only get compensation if the delay is more than 60 mins (Sprinter surcharges are refunded for delays above 30 mins). You can claim up to 20% of the value of the ticket for a normal fare.

So after two pages of crap, we finally discover that the OP is entitled to ZILCH. something I said many posts ago.

I guess that settles that!

last week my train late for 32 minutes in the middle of the night, and afterwards there is no other connection to reach my destiny until 5 in the morning.
My deutsch is not good so i don't know that i could take taxi for free ( beside i'm little afraid to take taxi by myself at midnight and i don't know if the taxi willing to take me home for quite a distance, 2 hrs with train) so i decided to stay overnight. and from your link i found :

Können Sie Ihre Reise bis 24 Uhr wegen eines verpassten Anschlusszuges nicht wie geplant fortsetzen, übernimmt die Bahn die angemessenen Kosten für Übernachtung oder Taxifahrt.

and Sie erhalten eine Gutscheinkarte, damit Sie Ihren Anspruch in den DB Reisezentren oder einer DB Agentur geltend machen können. Denn eine Bearbeitung und Ausgabe von Gutscheinen im Zug ist nicht möglich. Erst im DB Reisezentrum oder einer DB Agentur kann der prozentuale Entschädigungsanspruch anhand des Fahrkartenwertes ausgerechnet werden.

is that means i could claim a refund??

i bought a daurspeziall ticket with 4 times changing train, and the one who came late is RE

I doubt if it was Ryanair that operated the check ins. Even if they do wear Ryanair badges and sit under a Ryanair sign, it would almost certainly be a Ground Handling company.

I am pretty sure Bremen is a Lyin'air Ryanair hub, hence the check in staff are employees. and they are told not to be compassionate to the customers. Comes form the top down.

This time last year I wanted to travel to Bremen airport from Hannover. Train was over an hour late and no one was of much help of knowing when the next train would come. We ended up driving f***ing fast to Bremen. I had 4 minutes to spare before (Ryan Air) check in shut. If the check in had of been shut, I would have gotten very very angry... and pointed out the fact that I only have hand-luggage.

Grr! I hate DB. Big Time! I wasted 17Euros on a ticket too!

Ryanair call all the airports they fly to hubs, as they generally fly to more than one destination rather than A-B and back again. It doesn't affect the status of the people who work there.
As for the check-ins, up till fairly recently, Dublin was the only one where they do their own checking-in. The folk at the Ryanair check-ins might be employees, but alnost certainly of a Ground Handling Agents company or the airport itself rather than Ryanair, as is the case at almost all of their "hubs".
Not that it makes much difference if you're trying to persuade then to re-open a closed check-in, I suppose.
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