Advice for booking Renfe train tickets

You're not doing anything wrong - Renfe is nortoriously problematic. Try booking with https://www.thetrainline.com/en-us. Make sure you create an account and download the app.

I agree about using Trainline - you will pay a very small booking fee, but it's so worth it for the conveniece. Their app is very easy to use too. I have booked all of my Spain travel through Trainline.

In addition to the great comments/advice above, if you have another card, give that one a try. One of my cards works - the other doesn't. Always a frustrating experience!

By the way, I had to use a station machine for a ticket purchase while in Spain earlier this year, both cards declined. Luckily, a helpful official was nearby and asked if I had Apple Pay. I did and it worked!

Good luck!!

Thanks everyone for the insight. I had tried to book via Trainline first but strangely enough, it doesn’t show any trains available at all. I shall try them again and that fails I’ll use a different card.
Again, many thanks.

Using the Renfe company directly instead of a 2nd party booker is the best idea. I use the Renfe app with no problems. From the United States Renfe system sends a text to my phone from Visa which I enter and the booking is complete. In addition, since I have a Renfe account, I can see all my bookings as well as make changes or cancel .
You can also do bookings using the English version of Renfe but having the app makes it easier to make and manage bookings.

some background info on booking -
https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-spain.htm#How_to_buy_train_tickets_for_Spain

Most seem to like thetrainline over raileurope.

If you’re booking dates beyond December 14, that is after the revised European train timetables are officially released. Some national train companies will not sell tickets until then, although most of them do.

If you’re booking dates beyond December 14, that is after the revised European train timetables are officially released

Kenko, I've been watching Renfe for train tickets for January and have found that times offered in November on the same day of the week are not offered in January (yet?). Are you saying the schedule could be different in January and if so, how do I know when it's finalized and when I should purchase tickets?

OP, I've read that Renfe is a more challenging site so I plan to have a Visa and a Mastercard ready when I do try to book tickets. If neither of those work, I guess I'll try trainline. Some tickets I don't mind getting last minute, but I prefer to have the ones that take me a longer distance ordered well in advance so I don't have to worry about that part of my trip planning.

Hi - this is a very helpful section of the forum! I'm planning a trip using the trains from Madrid to Granada then from Granada (with a stopover in Cordoba) to Seville. I'm very far out because the first trip isn't until March 22nd. When I look for trains for that date on Trainline I get "no results". Is it because this date is too far in the future?

@KRS and gregfletcher99, The train timetables are revised slightly during the second Saturdays of December and June. The upcoming dates are December 14 and June 14. Dates beyond December 14 may not go for sale online until close to that date. They definitely should be up for sale after midnight on Saturday, December 14.
You can look at a website like TheTrainline to see how trains are scheduled on a Monday, for example, and 99% of the revised train timetable will be the same on Mondays even after the revision. Sunday schedules will remain similar to today’s Sunday train schedules etc.
The Trainline contracts with the various national train companies ( ie Renfe, SNCF, Trenitalia) and IRYO and has links to their computerized ticketing systems. But until Renfe loads the train tickets into their system, The Trainline is usually unable to sell them.

IRYO sells its tickets up to one year in advance, so you can buy IRYO tickets now for trains up to October 2025.at www.IRYO.eu/en. Iryo has trains from Madrid to Cordoba and Seville; Malaga , and Madrid to Barcelona via Zaragoza. Renfe has the market penned for the Granada route— Renfe has no competition going to and from Granada and ticket prices show it.

Renfe states its policy is to sell high-speed train tix beginning 90 days in advance of the train’s departure date and 60 days in advance for other trains. This does not happen in reality. They go on sale when Renfe finally releases them for sale and sometimes this can be 31 days or 12 days in advance of the train’s departure—- there is no pattern to it and it has been unpredictable for years now.
Not a very good way to run their operation but that’s the world we live in.
Keep checking The Trainline every few days to see if the tickets come up for sale. Some have said they usually do ( if Renfe loads them into their computers) by November 1.

A trick that works for me every time is to use PayPal instead of a credit card. I've booked literally dozens of Renfe tickets using PayPal with no hitches. I've booked exactly one set of tickets with any of my 3 credit cards, lol.

Also, if you're booking multiple tickets, make sure you register yourself with Renfe and log the passenger info for each of your family members in your profile. That way, you don't have to keep re-entering it for every ticket.

Using the train company’s App expedites future train ticket purchases, for sure.