Just flew half way around the globe without pre-booked tickets (stand by, staff travel). No problem and quite smooth.

Got to Germany and wanted to cover the last 250 km with a pre-booked ticket with a single train on German #rail (#DeutscheBahn) from FRA airport.

What a nightmare and disaster! Some #DB reps were *very* helpful (in their attempts, esp. as we were travelling with our special needs daughter and lots of luggage). But they were equally p*ssed off by the broken system. If it was at least affordable enough ... but no. Really quite pricey, too (without any special tickets/cards one doesn't have coming for a visit from abroad).

The only bonus: Our son had never been on a 'proper' train. And he was excited to the max. Bouncing around and doing a dance with ever train entering/leaving the station. And on the 'short' (in time) bit riding the ICE bullet train doing F1 racing car speeds he was quite thrilled as well.

Now I believe #KiwiRail is superior in reliability and service to German rail!