Mobile phone batteries have a habit of dying at the most inconvenient moments, and the phones themselves sometimes get lost
For example, if your mobile phone dies, gets lost, or is stolen at the worst possible moment. Deutsche Welle offers recommendations on what to do in such cases in Germany.
Let's start with the German railway. Currently, about 40,000 mobile tickets are purchased daily through the Deutsche Bahn concern's special app, DB Navigator, which, incidentally, saves 72 tons of paper per year, for the production of which more than 70 large trees would have to be cut down. The responsibility for having a working mobile phone during ticket inspection lies, of course, with the passenger. Of course, information about such tickets is stored on Deutsche Bahn's servers, but conductors do not have the ability to check this data on the spot themselves.
By the way, users of the app can perform a kind of online check-in – Komfort Check-in – before boarding ICE high-speed trains if they have a seat reservation. Then the conductor will not check the passenger sitting in that seat at all.
However, let's return to our force majeure situations. Formally, the unlucky passenger first falls into the category of fare dodgers (Schwarzfahrer). But they do not pay a fine on the spot if they provide data to fill out a special form – a protocol for subsequent collection of the fare (Fahrpreisnacherhebung). For this, they must have an ID card with them.
Note that passengers using the DB Navigator mobile app are required to carry an ID in any case, because even in a normal situation, if the phone is working, it is needed to verify the mobile ticket data, since this ticket is personalized.
After this unpleasant incident, the passenger has two weeks to provide (they can also entrust this to acquaintances) information confirming the timely purchase of the ticket – for example, the booking code sent by email – to a Deutsche Bahn service center at the station or via the online portal db-fahrpreisnacherhebung.de. Any questions can be clarified on the same website using the chat.
If everything is in order, the passenger ceases to be considered a fare dodger, but still must pay a processing fee (Bearbeitungsgebühr), which in this case amounts to 7 euros. The same happens if, for example, someone forgot the printout of an online ticket purchased through the company's website.
Similar rules for mobile tickets apply on public transport – buses, trams, subways – but conditions may vary slightly in different cities. You don't need to worry about having mobile connectivity during inspection, as the data is stored in the app on the phone and is available offline.
Regular Deutsche Bahn customers in forum discussions on such topics suggest two strategies – simple and complex. Some recommend printing out all confirmations whenever possible, but then there would be no paper savings and trees would still have to be cut down. Others advise frequent travelers to also download the DB Navigator mobile app on an old smartphone (even without a SIM card) and update it before the trip: synchronize data, for example, at home via a local network. Then carry both mobile devices while traveling.
Things are simpler with plane tickets. When checking in for a flight, it is enough to have a passport or ID card, as the rest of the electronic ticket data is stored on the airlines' servers. To be safe, you can also write down the six-digit alphanumeric booking code, which in Germany is referred to by various names: Buchungscode, Buchungsnummer, Reservierungsnummer, Booking Code, Airline Auftragsnummer.
However, experts still recommend making printouts in case the passenger urgently needs, for example, the carrier's contact information, or wants to double-check the exact flight time, and so on. Although everyone knows this well, it doesn't hurt to repeat: when buying airline tickets, you need to be especially careful when writing your first and last name, as a typo here can have unpleasant consequences.
What to do if problems occur with the phone on which the mobile boarding pass is stored after online check-in? Here, airline rules differ. Many German carriers will issue a paper copy of the pass free of charge in such a case, but it is important to remember that check-in counters usually close forty minutes before the flight. Budget airlines, on the other hand, charge a separate fee of around 15 euros for this service.