Discounted tickets for Senior, Youths and/or Childlren are not available for this train. Travelers will be assigned as Adults.
That's the message I get when I try to book an AVO train from Barcelona to Madrid. I've tried dates 62 days out and less, and it's the same message. What am I doing wrong?
Spanish senior train discounts require a senior card, Tarjeta Dorada, purchased at a train station there. If you're booking from the USA at Renfe.com, look for the advance-discount rates instead, and plan to pay with PayPal, since US credit card approval is a frequent issue.
AVE not AVO ;)) ... Alta Velocidad Española, or Spanish High Speed
It's weird though, can you give more details on the specific train? It might well be so, this operator has an inconsistent commercial policy sometimes. Also, try LOCO2.com It's notoriously known that Renfe's website is a piece of cr*p, unfriendly, full of bugs, etc. and it's quite a shame (for them!) that one -even when in Spain- sometimes gets a better service for some long distance purchases, for a similar price, on foreign webs such as Loco2, based in the UK or the SNCF in France.
On a sidenote: train operations in Spain, as in many countries in Europe, was state-run for many years, since its inception in the mid 1800s until fairly recent (late 20th century) In fact, there's talk at the EU Commission since 1991 about a complete liberalisation in all EU countries "soon". It is my experience that for the old state-run companies (RENFE is one) is very difficult to adapt to a culture of competition and while great progress is/can be made, there's always these 'dregs' especially regarding customer service. You wouldn't believe the information chaos when there's a break down! Now the market is semi-liberalised but so far no competitors have put forward a serious bid, probably because of the overwhelming size of RENFE. There are a few minor exceptions, such as FGC in Catalonia which operates since the late 1970s a sizable commuting network covering the inland routes around the metro area of Barcelona. Frankly, a delight in comparison!
Thanks for the replies. I ran a test purchase on the Renfo site and it showed the discounted price. I'm not sure I could buy the ticket without the discount ticket number. If I actually bought the discounted ticket without having to give a number, how would I prove I had the discount senior card? Do the conductors check to see the card on the train?
Yes they'll ask for the senior discount card (if) you happen to be in the carriage when the conductor is doing his/her tour. I wonder whether you could pull it off if you buy the senior card when at the station, just before getting on the train. But again, on the ticket there's no number now so I don't know. Maybe you can ask/sort it out at the station ticket booth.
See this recent thread on the same topic: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/you-will-need-to-purchase-the-targeta-dorada-golden-card-to-obtain-the-senior-discount.
