Renfe - question on booking

What dates are you using for your trip, and what kind of credit card? You might want to call the bank to see if the transaction was indeed attempted, but rejected by them, for whatever reason.

Mastercard and the credit card was being blocked, but the block had been removed prior to these issues. At the time I had called, they could "see" that a transaction had tried to come through. After that, when I called yet again, they confirmed the block was removed, but could not "see" any transactions coming through. I am more concerned about the rates changing on the screen from discounted to full far price, and why that would have been happening.

Tamara, I had a similar experience a few weeks ago. I tried several times with the Master Card (Capital One) with no luck. Called the credit card company several times and Renfe actually. My Visa card worked the first time (after calling them and telling them it was coming). I could never figure out why the MC did not work.

I also had the same issue with the fares. The site allowed me to change them back to the Web fares prior to completing the transaction. I believe I had to do this for all three trips purchased (total of 18 tickets). As I remember there were "drop down arrows" by each ticket being issued where I needed to change the fare type back to the Web discount. Good luck. Jim

It's allegedly "optimised" for Visa, but MC is supposed to work...it has for me. However Jim is among several people I've heard from who've had issues. I've never had the prices turn back to regular price but, as Jim also notes, there is a drop down box that appears before you pay where you can re-select the web or estrella fares....if they're still available.

Had serious issues with Mastercard and after umpteeth issues with calling them, them telling me I was "unblocked", it not working, then calling back, and them saying "oh, it was blocked, we'll unblock it", etc. I switched to my Visa. Worked fine after the account was unblocked.
Note - all the renfe advice notes to unblock the credit card prior to reserving. Mine wouldn't allow this. I had to process a transaction, have renfe decline it, call Visa back, authorize renfe, then processed this again and it was fine. No issues with subsequent transactions.

I will say it makes me a little nervous taking my MC on the trip. Even if I call them to tell them I will be traveling and to let these transactions go through, I am worried I will have issues once I arrive.

We just got back from Spain where we took the AVE from Madrid to Barcelona. After spending over an hour in the Madrid Train Station, where there are numerous lines dedicated to same day ticket purchases and only one that was open for future dates, we decided to go back to the hotel computer and book online through the Renfe web site. The experience was very time consuming, frustrating and ultimately failed. This site took us through numerous screens including submitting a credit card and authorizing payment - only to fail in the end with a cryptic message (not due to the language but the message itself). I tried a number of different cards that worked fine elsewhere - none were accepted. While I was in the train station I saw people arriving with their printouts from the renfe site - but I could not get it to work. If you are willing to go same day and purchase at the station, we had to take a first class ticket as no "tourist fares" were available. AVE uses paper tickets and if you somehow manage to purchase online you will still stand on the same line as everyone else at the station with your printout to get the paper tickets, so plan the extra time into your travel date. In the end, the first class train ride was very nice once we got onboard.