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RENFE and Credit Cards for on line purachase

Posted by (Cincinnati, OH, USA) on

I am about to attempt to purchase RENFE tickets for an upcoming 10 day visit to Spain. I'm tending toward purchasing point-to-point tickets this trip. In the past we've always purchased a mutli-day "pass, and enjoyed the flexibility, but my understanding of the high-speed trains is that one has to purchase reserved seats. In looking at this forum and some posts on Trip Advisor, the RENFE internet site seems to be difficult to navigate (or at least for Americans), and more importantly, is not "welcoming" to US Bank issued credit cards. I should add we use Firefox as our browser.

I understand (but not confirmed) that PayPal is accepted on the RENFE site, but I don't have a PayPal account. Does anyone have recent experience on booking tickets on line with a US Bank issued credit card?

I know I can't purchase tickets until 62 days prior to the travel dates, but I want to understand the limitations of the system of on-line purchase before I begin. We're "pensioners" if that makes any difference, we will each have a carry-on size piece of luggage and a small backpack. The journeys we hope to book are:

  1. Baracelons to Figueres (depart Barcelona around 7:30 hr)
  2. Figueres to Girona (depart Figueres perhaps 14:30 hr)
  3. Girona to Barcelona (depart Girona perhaps 21:30-22:00 hr)
  4. Barcelona to Zaragoza (depart Barcelona around 9:00 hr)
  5. Zaragoza to Madrid (depart Zaragoza around 10:00 hr)
  6. Madrid to Toledo and return (depart Madrid 8:30 hr, depart Toledo 18:30 hr)
  7. Madrid to Seville (depart Madrid 9:00 hr)

We'd like to have flexibility on journey 2 (above) for travel between Figures and Girona (we'll be visiting the Dali museum and if possible would like to avoid being on a set-schedule). Is there a chance we could get on a high-speed train at any time between 14:00-15:30 hr, or should we simply not worry the issue of "high speed" for this short journey, and take what ever train comes along?

I read about the "tutorial" on Trip Advisor. I checked it out, this is an august piece of work. I note it was closed in November 2016; has anything on the RENFE site changed since this time?

Posted by
16893 posts

Your credit card should have a separate layer of security, called Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode. You'll know if you had those. You may be able to sign up online at https://verified.visa.com/aam/activation/landingPage.aam or https://www.mastercard.ie/en-ie/consumers/features-benefits/securecode.html.

Or, you can save some trouble by using another agent, like Rail Europe or trainline.eu.

On your day 2, the regional trains on that route only take half an hour from Figueres old station. Fast trains leave frequently from Figueres Vilafant station and probably won't sell out, but would cost more to save 15 minutes. You might decide based on which station is closer and buy a ticket there when you're ready to go.

A Tarjeta Dorada senior discount card also allows some nice discounts if buying tickets on short notice, but the discounts for booking two months ahead save more money.

Posted by
2942 posts

Hi Jon,

My two cents for the journeys inside my homeland, Catalonia. That'd be points 1 to 3.

I don't know how tight is your schedule, but there are basically two type of trains: fast trains (with few stops between A and B) and slow trains (stopping in most if not all stations). Fast trains are more expensive but they're worthwhile if you're on a tight schedule. Barcelona to Figueres for example, is 1h vs 2h20' and price-wise it'd be around 21-27€ vs 12-16€

Fast trains can be pre-booked online (and also a handful of slow trains, the MD type) at www.renfe.com but the rest of the slow trains you CANNOT. You purchase the ticket on the spot, at the station, on the day of your travel. There's no reservation, you purchase the ticket and get on the first train of the type you purchased your ticket for.

Also, note that the last trains departing from Girona to Barcelona do so at around 9pm for the fast trains and 9:20pm or so for the slow trains.

Lastly, for regional and slow trains it's best if you check schedules at www.rodalies.tk instead of Renfe's website. Long story short, for political reasons I won't get into now, this part of the service is now partially run by the Government of Catalonia -under the brand "Rodalies"- and the information they provide is far (far!) better and more accurate than that presented by RENFE, which is a former state monopoly, with all that entails: the worst possible service from a semi-private company whose management still thinks they're operating in the era of the Franco dictatorship, with no competition and no one to have to be accountable to.

Enjoy!

PS: btw, I grant you that RENFE's site is a piece of garbage but it's not that the website is not "welcoming" to US Bank issued credit cards. The problem relies in that some ccards issued by certain US financial institutions do not adhere to international standards nor in matters regarding security measures, hence they're not accepted in many places outside the US.

Posted by
412 posts

I bought 3 sets of tix in the last week.
One with a Chase Visa. No problem.
But, the next one failed. I think part of the problem was that I told Renfe to remember my card to use for future purchases.
So, I switched to AMEX for the next sets.
Purchased in Español for the experience. (The one language I cannot do is Euskara as it is too different.)

Posted by
22 posts

FWIW. We bought AVE tickets online in March for May travel using Loco2.com. Same price as Renfe, in English, and no credit card issues. We bought a Tarjeta Dorado when we got to Spain (must be in Spain to purchase it) and used it on MD trains with no reservations. As was mentioned, the early AVE discount is better than the Tarjeta Dorado discount for fast trains.

Posted by
1 posts

I just bought tickets through Rail Europe this morning for the train portions of our October trip after finding the Renfe site user-unfriendly and hearing others’ horror stories. The Rail Europe site, on the other hand, is beautifully designed and the ordering process could not have been any easier. I used a Visa card with no problem. It’s a little more expensive but to me it was worth the cost just to avoid the stress of trying to navigate Renfe.

Posted by
73 posts

loco2 worked well for us for San Sebastian to Barcelona this past June

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