Trenitalia became homophobic this year (their Me&You offer of discounts when tickets are purchased in pairs, advertised by a couple of girls who are very clearly friends, is no longer valid for couchettes and sleepers (gals are only allowed to be pals when sitting in chairs (in a straight way)))
Me: so we need to get back to Berlin from this Italian town a thousand kilometers away. And we'd also like to take that scenic train across Switzerland in the process.
DB: ok, that would be 49.90€.
Me: hmm, this route looks pretty, what if we had a stopover for a couple of nights somewhere en route, and hiked around there a bit?
Swiss hotels: that would be just 300€ per night if you're on a budget, and only because it's a low season and you're planning in advance. And there is also one hostel with beds in 8-bed dorm rooms for just 50€ per night per person!
Me: okay, maybe instead we'll stay in that Italian town for a couple more nights and do some day trips on local trains to places 25km away.
SBB: that would be 40€ for round-trip non-flexible ticket for a local train, per person.
Where do swiss people get that kind of money?
Ticket prices (DB, SBB, NightJet)
Zurich-Berlin on night train IC 60409 / NJ 409: 30 euro 2nd class seats from DB, 46 euro 1st class seats from DB, 60 euro couchettes from NightJet (14 euro / 30% more than 1st class seat), quite reasonable.
Tirano-Zurich-Berlin, with the same train Zurich-Berlin: 60 euro 2nd class seats from DB, 74 euro 1st class seats from DB, 141 euro 2nd class seats + couchettes from NightJet, 198 euro 1st class seats + couchettes from NightJet, on literally the same trains as DB tickets??? :blobcattableflip:
It's cheaper to get 1st class seat for Tirano-Zurich-Berlin from DB and then separately purchase a NightJet couchette Zurich-Berlin and leave paid for 1st class DB seat unoccupied on Zurich-Berlin train (74 + 60 = 134), than it is to get 2nd class seat plus couchette from NightJet (141), wtf...
(I really hope they will not shut down this cheap DB tickets workaround any time soon, but also I really wish DB would integrate nightjets into its own fare system so that I'd be able to pay 90 euro for Tirano-Berlin with couchette on Zurich-Berlin segment...)
re: Ticket prices (DB, SBB, NightJet)
Oops, these awful NightJet prices are for Samedan-Zurich-Berlin (Samedan is between Tirano and Zurich), they just won't sell any tickets from Tirano 🙃
So you cannot even buy a through ticket from Tirano to Berlin with couchettes.
Meanwhile 1st class Samedan-Zurich-Berlin from DB is 60 euro, so that's 120 euro for "buying 1st class seat from Samedan via Zurich to Berlin on DB website and couchette from Zurich to Berlin on OBB website, never taking the seat from Zurich to Berlin" vs 141 euro for "buying Samedan via Zurich to Berlin on OBB website, with 2nd class seat from Samedan to Zurich and couchette from Zurich to Berlin".
I hope these 1st class seats on IC 60409 are not too terrible for 11+ hours night journey...
