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OV chip card » Booking an international ticket

Conditions

  • Do you wish to make an international train journey?
    • Purchase one international ticket for the entire journey. Book a ticket from the station where you want to board the train to your final destination.
 
  • Do you wish to make an international return journey?
    • Book the outbound journey first and then proceed to book the return journey by clicking on the 'Choose a return trip' button. Is the return journey different from the outbound journey? Make two separate bookings, one for the outbound journey and one for the return trip.

 

  • Are you travelling in the Netherlands with an NS season ticket? If you are entitled to a discount or travel for free on the domestic route, please indicate this when booking.
    • The discount is then settled in the price of your international ticket, where possible. Please note:
      • An NS season ticket is not always valid in combination with other discounts or offers.
      • An NS season ticket is not valid on Eurostar, TGV and Nightjet.
    • If you want to use Joint travel discount for the Dutch part of your journey when booking tickets online on nsinternational.com, for each passenger click on ‘Select discount card’, then in the ‘Discount and loyalty cards’ window, tick the ‘Joint travel discount’ box and click on 'Save'.
      • For international journeys, different discount rules apply to NS season tickets than when making a domestic journey:
        • The evening peak period from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. does not apply to international journeys. For international journeys, we only apply a morning peak period from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m.
        • The discount percentage of 20% does not apply to international journeys. The discount does not apply during the peak period. If you are not travelling during the peak period, a discount of 40% is applied. Please see the table below.

 

 
Overview of NS season tickets and the applicable discount within the Netherlands when booking an international journey

Discount percentage on the NS-route (not valid for Eurostar and Nightjet)
 Type of season ticket

Morning peak hours
(Monday-Friday) 4 am - 9 am  

Off-peak hours
(Monday-Friday) after  9 am

Weekends
(Friday 6:30 pm - Monday 4 am)
 Altijd Voordeel 0% 40% 40%
 Altijd Vrij 100% 100% 100%
 Dal Voordeel 0% 40% 40%
 Dal Vrij 0% 100% 100%
 NS-Business Card Dal Voordeel 0% 40% 40%
 NS-Business Card OV Vrij 100% 100% 100%
 NS-Business Card Traject op Maat 0% 40% 40%
 NS-Business Card Traject Vrij 0% 40% 40%
 NS-Business Card Trein Vrij 100% 100% 100%
 Traject Vrij (voor internationale reizen) 0% 40% 40%
 Weekend Voordeel 0% 0% 40%
 Weekend Vrij met dalkorting 0% 40% 100%
 Weekend Vrij zonder dalkorting 0% 0% 100%
 
Please note: For discount percentages for student travel products, please see Discount on an international train ticket with a student travel product.
 
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What next
  1. You purchase an international ticket.
  2. Select the station where you are getting on the train as the departure point.
  3. Select the station where you are getting off the train as the final destination.
  4. Select which NS season ticket you have or which discount percentage you wish to use.
 
Next steps
  • You receive an international ticket from your boarding station to your final destination.
  • If you are using an NS season ticket during your journey, please make sure you have your OV-chipkaart [public transport smart card] with season ticket with you.
    • You do not check in with this OV-chipkaart.
    • You open the gates in the Netherlands with the square barcode on your international ticket.
  • If you are travelling with an NS season ticket with a 100% discount in combination with a foreign season ticket or other ticket valid from the border (such as country coupon, Eurail, Interrail, Belgian or German season ticket), these together form the valid entitlement to travel.
 
 

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