Rail Pass - Confused!

It seems that usually RENFRE posts the tickets about 60 days in advance, except when they do something differently. . . My recommendation would be to wait until early July and buy the tickets on Loco2 or trainline.eu. You have an option to put in your age range which would give you any discount. They are third party websites that are more user friendly than RENFRE. The tickets do not cost more on those sites than they would on RENFRE. Except for the purchase of tickets, RENFRE really does a decent job providing train service.

In regard to rail passes, I've researched them for other countries, but not Spain. I did find a pass product for Switzerland that made sense to me. In Spain, most (all?) tickets are sold with a seat assignment, so I think if you had a pass you might still have to go thru an actually process to get the ticket and might have to pay an additional reservation amount. I hope someone with more experience on passes in Spain will comment. I, myself, would also be interested in gaining some information on what countries with rail passes are actually a good idea (other than Switzerland)

So you have read Rick's train guide about passes? I thought he didn't encourage them, but I haven't read it in a while. I am not sure for your distances it is worth it.
Have you bought your flights? It would make more sense to fly into Madrid and out of Barcelona...or vice versa and save backtracking and the extra expense of it.
Buy Barcelona to Zaragoza train tickets as soon as available. Rest are pretty close together and may not provide any savings buying ahead. Segovia to Madrid is cheap.
Your better bet is to get the Spain rail card for those 60 and over. Save up to 40%. You might need to train at non peak times, or if times matter then try to book ahead. You need to buy in person for the card.
The targets dorada might only work to your advantage for full flex fares which are pricy to start. You might not need these for these routes.
Read up to see if you can buy the rail card from N America.

Glenle,

I’d suggest reading this website before you decide to buy a rail pass for your trip to Spain: Seat61.com/ Spain trains

The Tarjeta Dorada will give you discounts only on full priced tickets.

In other words, you’d save more money if you book discounted (Promo) tickets in advance, especially for your long distance journeys via AVE and Alvia (high speed) trains.

You can buy the Tarjeta Dorada at any train station in Spain, and you can use it to get discounts on your short journeys such as Segovia to Madrid.

You can check train schedules on Renfe.com
You can get an idea of ticket prices by checking a date, say tomorrow vs 45-60 days from today.

Have a wonderful trip!

Edited to add...
I would not buy a rail pass for train travel in Spain. You can get discounted tickets if you book them in advance.

Thank you all for the rail advice! Loco2 and Seat61 are amazing sites that have answered my most pressing questions. Seat61 even gives photos with arrows showing where to go in the major train stations, and it gives detail information on how to order the tickets. Now that's my kind of site! We'll forget the rail passes and try to get our tickets as soon as we can through Loco2, noting all the inconsistencies with Renfe.

We were thinking of doing Madrid and Barcelona close together to the get the major cities first, then end up with a slower pace (other than flying out of Madrid). But now we're thinking of flying into one and flying out of the other, which would save us a train trip. I'm glad we have time to figure this out.

1st off, sorry about it not twigging that the 'train card' and the tarjeta dorada were one and the same. I ended up not buying it as for most of my trip I was underage ;-) I found I had good savings buying the promo fares online.
I was able to buy all tickets on Renfe, but I have better luck with a Cdn credit card.
Thanks for the explanation about putting Madrid and Barcelona close together. I was wondering whether to suggest doing Segovia after a few days in Madrid, but as it is 2-3 hours by train, it isn't necessarily efficient. But did you now that San Sebastian to Madrid takes as long as San Sebastian to Segovia (and there looks to only be one direct train a day to Segovia).

Just something to think about as Segovia would be relaxing. Maybe putting 2 big cities between smaller cities would allow you to re-energize before tackling something big again. Personally, I would run out of steam trying to do 2 back to back.
If you like good websites, have you used Rome2Rio for plotting an itinerary sequence and looking at transport options? I find it helpful to get a sense of travel time and trying to avoid backtracking.
For mental breaks in Madrid, I stayed near the Atocha train station for easy in and outs (I wasn't using that airport). Most of what I wanted to see was in that area, and there is a lot of green space for mental and visual breaks. I found the Botanical Gardens next to the Prado to be under used and Retiro Park has plenty of space for wandering. I tend to use short let apartments, and that area worked well for me. There are standard hotels in the area as well.

Yes, a Eurail Spain Pass must be paired with paid seat reservations on all your Spanish trains, and those won't go on sale any earlier than the regular and advance-discount tickets, so there's really no need to buy a pass before then, if you choose one. The senior rate for a pass Eurail Spain Pass covering 5 days of train travel within a one-month window is about $225 per person, subject to change, and you'd estimate about $12 for each seat reservation, x5 - $60, for a total of $285 per person.

That's less than buying full-fare tickets, but buying a Tarjeta Dorada Card upon arrival could easily bring your ticket total less, as could advance-purchase ticket discounts (e.g. booking through Renfe and paying with PayPay). All those options are described at https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/spain-rail-passes. There's no point in attempting to book tickets more than two months ahead for September travel dates (based on the latest travel date that you need, if you want to handle several at one sitting) and you may need to be patient even after that.