You need to be aware of this restriction on the 9-euro ticket

With the 9-euro ticket you can travel on local and regional transport, buses and trains at unbeatable prices. Long-distance traffic is excluded – but it’s not that easy. In fact, the 9-euro ticket is not even valid on all regional routes.

Across Germany with the 9-euro ticket – it won’t work that way

Actually, the 9-euro ticket should be valid in local and regional transport, with Deutsche Bahn as well as with urban and regional transport companies. Bus rides in the city are included, as are rides on the DB Regional Express. But it is not that simple, the railway makes exceptions here and there.

Actually, the regional connections of the DB are easy to recognize by the abbreviation RE in front of the train number. Yet you can’t go everywhere that says RE on it with the 9-euro ticket:

Accordingly, it depends on who offers the regional journey. DB is not the same as DB. In journeys offered by DB Fernverkehr AG, if you make a mistake, you ride black – even though you are sitting in an RE and bought a 9-euro ticket. The cheap monthly ticket only applies to regional trains that are also operated by DB Regio. Long distances in particular, which are also available with the RE, should therefore be a thing of the past for 9-euro ticket holders.

You should also know this before traveling with the 9-euro ticket:

Information about 9-euro ticket trains at DB only at third glance

According to DB, you can only play it safe if you look closely. Connections for which the 9-euro ticket is definitely valid cannot be filtered out individually via the DB Navigator or online on the Deutsche Bahn website. You can only exclude long-distance trains. But then you will also get suggestions for the RE routes that are not covered by the 9-euro ticket. A resourceful Twitter user shows what that looks like:

According to DB, however, the affected routes explicitly pointed out that the 9-euro ticket is not valid there, as seen in the Twitter example above. The problem: the information is not obvious at first glance. So to be on the safe side, you have to check the additional information on each individual possible connection – it doesn’t look like a relaxed trip.