March 18, 2024, 6:53 am | Read time: 5 minutes
For many travelers, the BahnCard is a loyal companion. But soon, it will be time to say goodbye to the plastic card, as Deutsche Bahn will only offer the BahnCard digitally. TECHBOOK explains what this means for travelers with weak batteries or without smartphones.
Deutsche Bahn repeatedly manages to make itself unpopular with its customers. The latest project: The BahnCard 25 and 50 will be discontinued in their physical form. Deutsche Bahn had already announced last December that the plastic cards would disappear in 2024. This week, customers are receiving notifications about when the new regulation will take effect.
Deutsche Bahn Eliminates Plastic Card
Starting June 9, the BahnCard 25 and 50 will only be available in digital form. This means that anyone subscribing to a BahnCard after the deadline or regularly receiving a new card will only get the digital version. This also applies to replacement cards if a current BahnCard is lost. All other physical BahnCards remain valid until the printed expiration date. In total, about 5.1 million people are affected. That’s how many BahnCard 25 and 50 holders there were in 2022, according to Deutsche Bahn.
Deutsche Bahn justifies the move in an email to its customers by citing its responsibility as an environmentally friendly mode of transport: “To do something good for our environment together with you, we will forgo plastic in the BahnCard in the future.” While this sounds commendable at first, it does bring some disadvantages for consumers.
To use the digital BahnCard, it must be loaded into the “DB Navigator” app. However, this only works if you log in to the app with your DB user account. Those who do not have (or want) an internet-enabled smartphone, have trouble operating it, or do not want to log in with their user data for privacy reasons, face an initial hurdle here. Starting June 9, purchasing the BahnCard will also only be possible with a customer account and email address. These data are not necessary for the actual service of the subscription.
The DB Navigator should not be confused with the “Streckenagent,” another DB app that is now being discontinued.
Using the Digital BahnCard Without a Smartphone
Although according to Deutsche Bahn, about 60 percent of BahnCard holders already use their card in the app, many view the elimination of offline options critically. This is evident from a survey by the Federal Association of Consumer Centers, where 64 percent of respondents rated the purely digital sale of train tickets as “bad or very bad.” In practice, older people and parents are likely to be particularly affected by the limited access to the BahnCard. Many children and teenagers use the Youth BahnCard 25, for example, to travel independently to their grandparents. To identify themselves, they will need to be equipped with a smartphone in the future.
Need to? Well, Deutsche Bahn offers a paper alternative. To do this, you must log in to your customer account on bahn.de and navigate to the “Manage Customer Account” section. Under the “BahnCard” tab, you will find an image of the card and next to it the “Options” drop-down menu. Here you can download and print the replacement document. Together with the ticket and ID card, you are now equipped for your next trip.
If you do not yet have a customer account with Deutsche Bahn, you must first create one. Be sure to link the new account with the six-digit BahnCard number. Deutsche Bahn provides some explanatory videos for this purpose. So, if you do not want to use the DB Navigator, you are not completely out of luck, but this solution is not particularly customer-friendly.
DB Discontinues App: What Users Need to Know
Railway to Integrate Numerous Travel Features into DB Navigator
Green Image or Genuine Environmental Protection?
A better compromise would have been to give customers the choice of whether they also want to receive the physical BahnCard in addition to the digital one. Because even if Deutsche Bahn claims to save up to 30 tons of plastic per year, Melanie Schliebene from the Public Transport Arbitration Board considers the environmental argument to be a pretext: “It’s not a law of nature that the BahnCard has to be printed on plastic.” Furthermore, there are certainly savings or recycling opportunities in the on-board bistro, such as with coffee cups.
“The railway simply wants to save costs with the digital BahnCard, and that can be said,” Schliebener told the Tagesschau. Incidentally, BahnCard 100 holders will still receive the plastic card. A service for the approximately 46,400 better-paying customers?
Charging Obligation for Smartphones
Anyone who travels frequently with Deutsche Bahn knows: Something is always broken here. A track, a toilet, a locomotive, a switch, or at least the seat reservation display. So, if a customer’s smartphone battery fails, Deutsche Bahn surely understands, right? Unfortunately, it’s a matter of goodwill. Because strictly speaking, if you cannot show your BahnCard–whether because the smartphone battery dies or because you did not load the card properly and are now in a dead zone–you do not have a valid ticket.
This means you will receive a fare surcharge at double the fare (at least 60 euros). You can apply for a refund, but you must present the valid BahnCard along with the additional ticket at the DB Travel Center within the next fourteen days. However, you cannot avoid the 7-euro processing fee. So, train travelers with notoriously weak smartphone batteries should prepare for the trip with a charging cable, a power bank, or a printed BahnCard replacement document.
A screenshot of the BahnCard is officially not recognized by railway staff. At least the DB Navigator has one practical function: If the app is updated and the BahnCard is properly uploaded, you can access it even without an internet connection.