I had to take a train from Aachen to Brussels.
I had two options for the first part of the journey: one was taking the ICE to Liège, the other one was taking a normal slow train with a change to Liège. The first one was like 15€ more but was faster, the train was more comfy, and I had to deal with one less change, so I chose it and bought a ticket through thetrainline.com.

Turns out the ICE I had to take didn’t leave due to a technical problem and they told us to take the slow train instead. I went to the help desk, they gave me a paper and an envelope, I asked them if I could do it online instead and they said yes. I arrived with 1h delay.

First thing that shocks me, is [how little the compensation is](https://www.bahn.com/en/booking-information/passenger-rights/passenger-rights-in-rail-transport):

>For a delay of 60 minutes or more, you shall receive compensation amounting to 25% of the amount paid for the single journey, for a delay of 120 minutes or more 50%; for return journeys, compensation is calculated on the basis of half the ticket price.

This has to be the greediest delay policy I have ever seen. To give some comparison points, [in UK](https://www.gwr.com/help-and-support/refunds-and-compensation/delay-repay) it’s 25% for less than 30 min, 50% for less than 1h and 100% for 1h our more. [In Belgium](https://www.belgiantrain.be/en/support/customer-service/compensation) you also get 100% back for 1h delay. I mean why wouldn’t you at least refund the ticket for a 2h delay? You completely ruined somebody’s plan but you will still expect them to pay you?

So I computed it and even if I get a refund, I will still have paid more than if I had taken the “slow non-comfy train” option directly.

Secondly, I don’t see any option to claim online: [https://www.bahn.com/en/booking-information/passenger-rights/passengers-rights-claim-form](https://www.bahn.com/en/booking-information/passenger-rights/passengers-rights-claim-form) . It’s 2023, do I really have to send a f\*\*\*g mail by post?
The compensation is already so little, so now they expect me to buy an international stamp on top of that?

I have found this website: [https://robin-zug.de/en](https://robin-zug.de/en) (I guess non-official), it takes from 0.70€ to 2€ fee, is it legit? It’s pretty much the price of my stamp anyways, and it can’t get lost in the post.

How is that even legal not to give an option to do it online? It looks like a scheme so that consumers would just give up claiming compensation as it’s not worth the hassle.

3 comments

  2. To answer your question: you can claim your compensation via the app. It’s 5 clicks. Google it.

    To answer your other question I’m very surprised that the Belgian rail offers better terms since these terms are [EU law and companies usually don’t offer more than they are required(read articles 16, 17, 18)](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32007R1371). Edit: Took a look the Belgian one and they do seem to be more generous, must be political pressure?

  3. Compensation via the app can be filed in a few minutes, most of the processing happens automatically, and in my case, I got the refund by the end of the next day.

    We can accuse DB for a lot, but I’m very impressed by the DB Navigator app.

Leave a Reply