4 ms·
Apart from the fact that being „paranoid“ or more general being afraid of something has no rational basis there are a couple of things that make me feel more co
by leifg 8y ago
Apart from the fact that being „paranoid“ or more general being afraid of something has no rational basis there are a couple of things that make me feel more comfortable going by train.
Even an inner german (or inner Schengen for that matter) flight has a lot more unknowns than a train:
1. public transport times are often a lot longer to airports. So you usually have to factor in more buffer.
2. what‘s the waiting time at luggage drop?
3. what‘s the wait at security?
4. how long do I need to go through security (I travel with lots of electronics which I usually have to take out)
If any of these things don‘t go as I expected my stress level increases because my calculated time buffer goes down. That‘s why I factor in an insane amout of time before boarding and usually end up hanging out at airports for hours.
For trains: The only unknown is the time that it takes me to get to the station. Every other time is practically zero.
And as someone else pointed out in this thread: the cost (in terms of money and time) for missing a train is a lot smaller.
- harperlee 8y agoI'll also add that flight prices fluctuate whereas train ones are fixed, which gives extra peace of mind when planning a trip.
- chki 8y agoThat is actually not true, train prices (in Germany) are fluctuating based on demand as well. But you are not tracked individually and generally the prices are simply rising the closer the travel date gets. So the situation is better than with air travel.
- step21 8y agoExcept they don't fluctuate, there is just a certain amount of lower fares (going up in stages, the closer you get to the travel date and depending if all tickets of that category were booked already). This is know in advance, and the maximum price is always fixed. So quite different.
- geezerjay 8y ago> Except they don't fluctuate, there is just a certain amount of lower fares (going up in stages, the closer you get to the travel date and depending if all tickets of that category were booked already). This isn't true, or at least that's not true in a general sense. IIRC ticket prices of all high-speed services offered by Spain's high-speed train operator, Renfe, increase as we get close to the travel day. In some cases, I assume due to low demand, sometimes prices drop a couple of weeks to the travel day. I assume all prices follow a predetermined progression accompanied by ad-hoc adjustments depending on demand levels. Source: I've scraped price data out of Renfe's site for fun.
- piva00 8y agoBut the parent comment explicitly mentioned that case, it's not fluctuation as it is implied to be quite predictable. > there is just a certain amount of lower fares (going up in stages, the closer you get to the travel date...
- harperlee 8y agoWell I take almost every week the ICE from Frankfurt to Paris and it always costs the same: 125,40€. No matter how in advance, no matter the day I travel. Try that with a flight... Even if this is not true for all trips, for those that it is, it is another advantage.
- taejo 8y agoI just searched for a random Thursday in August and found a ticket for 54,90 EUR.
- harperlee 8y agoBut the real question is: does a booking in that timeslot cost the same every Thursday, with a ficed price? Or does it fluctuate?
- taejo 8y agoI don't understand how that's "the real question". It's a Sparpreis. They fluctuate. You can buy a full price ticket that doesn't fluctuate if you want to.
- tauchunfall 8y ago>train prices (in Germany) are fluctuating based on demand as well That's true for saving fares (Sparangebote). The train price for Flexpreis (an offer without a binding to a certain train) does not change that often.