Money back with your NS season ticket: how compensation works per subscription
June 18, 2026 · 5 min read
With an NS season ticket you are also entitled to compensation when there is a delay. The calculation just works differently than with a single ticket. With a season ticket you pay per month, not per trip, so there is no separate trip price to take a percentage of. NS therefore works with a fraction of your monthly price. With the Student travel product, fixed amounts apply. The thresholds stay the same: from 30 minutes of delay at your final destination you get something back, and from 60 minutes you get more. Below you can see how it works per subscription.
Why a season ticket works differently than a single ticket
With a single ticket it is simple. You get 50% of your trip price back for a 30 to 59 minute delay, and 100% from 60 minutes. With a season ticket you have no separate trip price per journey. NS therefore takes a fixed share of your monthly price per delayed trip. The more often you are allowed to travel on your subscription, the smaller that share is. That is why two passengers on the same delayed train can get very different amounts back. The thresholds do stay the same: 30 and 60 minutes, measured at your final destination. And you get a maximum of two payouts per day. You can read exactly which thresholds and conditions apply in when you get money back for a train delay.
The compensation per subscription at a glance
| Subscription | 30 to 59 minutes | 60 minutes or more |
|---|---|---|
| Travel on balance, Dal Voordeel, Altijd Voordeel | 50% of the trip price | 100% of the trip price |
| Dal Vrij | 1/36 of the monthly price | 1/18 of the monthly price |
| Altijd Vrij | 1/42 of the monthly price | 1/21 of the monthly price |
| Weekend Vrij | 1/12 of the monthly price | 1/6 of the monthly price |
| Trajectvrij | varies, check your subscription | varies, check your subscription |
| Student travel product | fixed amount (around €2.32) | fixed amount (around €4.64) |
Note: amounts and fractions can change from year to year. Always check the current NS compensation table for your own subscription.
Explained per subscription
Dal Vrij
With Dal Vrij you get 1/36 of your monthly price back for a 30 to 59 minute delay, and 1/18 for 60 minutes or more. Dal Vrij applies on weekdays outside peak hours and throughout the whole weekend. If you travel outside that free period, NS works with the trip price for that stretch.
Altijd Vrij
With Altijd Vrij you get 1/42 of your monthly price back for 30 to 59 minutes, and 1/21 for an hour or more. Because this lets you travel free at any time, the fraction is smaller than with Dal Vrij.
Weekend Vrij
With Weekend Vrij you get 1/12 of your monthly price back for 30 to 59 minutes, and 1/6 for 60 minutes or more. The subscription applies at the weekend, so a delay weighs relatively more heavily.
Trajectvrij
With Trajectvrij it depends on your situation, and the scheme here is in flux. If you travel on your fixed route, the compensation can be based on the trip price or on a fraction of your subscription price. If you travel outside your route, that separate stretch counts on its own. For Trajectvrij, always check your own conditions, because the sources differ here.
Student travel product
With a Student travel product you get fixed amounts: around €2.32 for a 30 to 59 minute delay and €4.64 for an hour or more. This amount can change from time to time, though, so you can always check it with NS. It applies to the DUO weekday and weekend travel products.
Travel on balance, Dal Voordeel and Altijd Voordeel
If you travel on balance or with a discount subscription, the single-trip scheme simply applies: 50% of your trip price for 30 to 59 minutes, and 100% from 60 minutes.
If you have an NS Business Card, it goes through your business account and its own rules apply. You can read how to submit those trips in uploading the trips from your NS Business Card.
How do you calculate your own amount?
You work out your own amount like this. Look up your monthly price on your latest invoice and divide it by the fraction that applies to your subscription. Say you have Dal Vrij and you pay €100 per month. For a 30 minute delay you then get 1/36, so around €2.78. For an hour or more that is 1/18, so around €5.56. This is an example; fill in your own monthly price. If you travel outside the free period of your subscription, NS works with the trip price for that stretch, not with your monthly price.
Why season ticket holders often leave money on the table
The amounts per trip are small, and the scheme differs per subscription. Many people therefore do not claim, or do not even know that they can. Yet over a year with regular delays it can quickly add up. The hardest part is not the claiming itself, but working out time and again which fraction applies to your trip.
Let trein-vertraging.nl figure it out
That is exactly where the solution lies. Via trein-vertraging.nl you link your card once. After that we automatically find your delayed trips and submit the claim for you, so you do not have to keep track yourself of which trip is claimable. If you do not want to wait for NS, you can also have your approved claim paid out straight away. You can read how that works in this article about instant payout.