BVG sent me an email on 24th Feb 2023 about the option of staying with the BVG subscription or switching to the Deutschland ticket. I have a monthly subscription for the Berlin AB Zone and wanted to switch to the Germany wide ticket.
The email was in German, so I will translate it using Deepl here.
The Deutschlandticket is coming on May 1, 2023. it will allow you to travel throughout Germany on local and regional public transport for 49 euros a month. Is the Deutschlandticket right for you? Decide for yourself:
Then it had the differences between the monthly "ABO" (subscription) vs the new ticket.
Differences between Deutschland ticket and BVG ABO
Some of the major changes compared to the BVG ABO from 01.05.2023 are:
Deutschland Ticket costs 49€ per month as compared to the BVG ABO for 66,90€
It is valid across entire Germany on local and regional transportation but not on Deutsche Bahn's ICE trains
You cannot transfer the ticket to anyone else; this has your name and is only valid for you
You can only take a child under 6 years along with you and not an adult
You can take a dog with you on both tickets (but only on the VBB area)
How to switch to Deutschland ticket online
If you have an account on BVG.de and an existing subscription, you can do this switch online.
Go to this BVG account link and login with your email and password
When you see your current subscription details, scroll down and you will see a button for "Tarif wechseln" (Change tariff)
Change plan in BVG
You will see a screen with your current plan selected and an option to choose your new plan - Neuer Stand
Option to choose the new plan
For Wechseldatum (date of change), choose 01.05.2023 - the new ticket is only available from 1st of May and then choose Deutschlandticket
Choose change of date and the new plan
You will see some options automatically selected for you. Verify them.
Tarifgebiet and Tarifbereich indicates the area you will be covered for and should be Deutschlandweit
Zahlweise is how often you want to pay - per year or per month
Ausgabemedium lets you choose between a digital ticket and a physical ticket Chipkarte
Then a breakdown of your monthly cost of 49€ or yearly costs of 588€
Click on Tarifwechseln to change your plan
Plan details
Then you should see a screen that says your request was successful
Confirmation of plan change
A few minutes later, I also received a confirmation via email. Here is the translated version.
Welcome to the Deutschlandticket! The tariff change for the subscription ---- was successfully carried out on 01.05.2023.
For the time being, your current chip card will remain valid, but from 01.05.2023 you will be able to use it to travel throughout Germany. We will send you a new chip card by the end of July 2023. As soon as you have received your new chip card, your current chip card will lose its validity and can be disposed of.
For Annual ticket holders
This is from BVG's FAQ section.
If you’re an annual payer, the first step is to cancel your current subscription. To do so, log into your BVG account and select “Abo kündigen” [cancel subscription]. Choose Deutschlandticket as “Kündigungsgrund” [reason for cancellation]. This is a special reason for cancelation; therefore, no additional costs will result of your cancelation.
Now you can subscribe to the Deutschlandticket under “Abo bestellen” [start subscription].