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Renfe Tickets online

I am aware of the 62 day advance purchase process for purchasing Renfe tickets on line. However, I was sitting at my computer yesterday and purchased, to my surprise, tickets from Barcelona to Figueres, and from Girona to Barcelona for October 19. If I count correctly this is 64 days before the date of use. This morning I tried again to book round trip tickets Madrid to/from Toledo for October 23 and again was able to successfully complete the transaction. I then thought I'd try to book tickets Barcelona to Zaragoza and Zaragoza to Madrid for the 20 and 21, but could not do so. Does the 62 day rule not apply to some, but not all, routes?

Oh yes, I almost forgot, the 34222 AVANT departing Girona at 21:01 was sold out.

Posted by
16893 posts

Renfe does as it wishes, regardless of their own self-made guidelines. French train tickets go on sale earlier, along with any cross-border high-speed trains, which may influence Spain's handling of other services near the border. Or sometimes, plans along local train lines may be confirmed further ahead just due to no need to change them. On the other hand, construction or other issues may delay confirmation of a particular route schedule.

Although Renfe clearly states "full train" on several departures, I don't believe that's the actual status. It's the same on multiple trains every day from October 18 onward.

Posted by
768 posts

So, what does one do to book a ticket on a "full train" (that really isn't full)? In our case for Girona, it wasn't a big deal, we just booked a bit earlier train, but it would be good to know how to handle "full train" in the future.

Posted by
26 posts

I share your nightmare. I'm still trying to book tickets from Barcelona to Madrid on October 6th, but I cannot get a ticket on the AVE train. I'm 6 weeks away from departure. I can buy tickets for Oct. 5th and 7th and any other day in between but not the 6th. Totally frustrating. I'm considering flying if I can't get a ticket in the next couple of weeks.

Yeman

Posted by
15560 posts

Renfe is erratic. Sometimes tickets are offered 3-4 months in advance, sometimes one or two trains for a certain day will only show up a couple of weeks ahead. No rhyme or reason, just Renfe being Renfe.

Posted by
2927 posts

.... RENFE's site is a piece of c**p, and the management of the company is, at its best, a bunch of incompetents with no sense of market competition much less customer service. That summarizes all.

One needs to understand this company was instaurated in 1941 as a de-facto monopoly by the fascist regime of dictator Franco with the nationalisation of existing Spain's railway companies after he won the war in 1939. The company, much like other former national monopolies under a dictatorship -ie utilities- was plagued with nepotism and corruption and bribes. Unfortunately, the company's culture continues to be one of arrogance, disdain for customers and lack of understanding of market "rules", despite new generations of management and many marketing campaigns to overturn their poor image. The company had to split into two, one handling the trains (RENFE) and another one handling the infrastructure (ADIF) in 2005 in order to adhere to the anti-monopoly directives of the EU -Spain joined the EU in 1986. But scandals have continued to surface in both companies, like this one of management unsanctioned pluses in 2017 or this other one uncovered this year in which the construction of the high-speed train between the cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia is suspected to have been riddled with bribes, over-costs and illegal commissions, even the Spanish former King is thought to be involved.

A bit of background is always fundamental to understand why RENFE is like it is.

Posted by
166 posts

Using loco2.com I find one train from Barcelona to Zaragosa on October 20, 09:03 to 13:54. I did not see any for the Zaragosa to Madrid on October 21, though.

For Yeman: I also found a train from Barcelona to Madrid for October 6, but it doesn't look to be a fast train.

I used loco2.com to buy our train tickets when we traveled in Spain last September. I found it way more user friendly than the Renfe website. Some say there may be a small markup in ticket price, but if there it must have been so small to notice.

Good luck!

Posted by
940 posts

Renfre site is the most difficult site (not only for American’s, but for the hotel people I had help me in Spain). Like you, I tried to book in advance and the site would not cooperate. I waited until I arrived in Barcelona and had my hotel book tickets for me. I traveled late September and early October last year and with the exception of having to travel very early in the morning to get from Madrid to Granada on a Sunday, the trains were not sold out and I had plenty of options.

Sandy

Posted by
768 posts

Today (August 20) I tried loco2.com for tickets for the Barcelona to Zaragoza train journey for October 20 and all I find are trains that take 4+ hours. Are the AVE and AVANT trains not posted on loco2 or am I a day or two too early? This train booking has been cumbersome, I'll try a bit later for the October 20, 21 and 26 journeys. Thanks for the posts, at least I know I'm not the only one experiencing this.

Posted by
1286 posts

Loco2 does sell tickets for the express services, but if Renfe hasn't posted these yet for this route (quite possible), then they won't be on Loco2 either. I'd check back in a day or two. Renfe tends to take a somewhat insouciant approach to loading timetables.

Posted by
26 posts

I've been checking the Renfe site almost daily. I depart for Spain on Sept 30th to Barcelona, about 4 weeks away. I have not been able to book AVE train tickets for October 6th from Barcelona to Madrid. Trains are open on Oct 5th and 7th. I started a chat on Renfe, but no real response. I've checked LoCo2 and Trainline, no trains as well. Should I started looking for flights or wait it out???

Jon, hope you've had better luck with your bookings.

Yeman

Posted by
210 posts

Booking train tickets via Renfe was a chaotic mess.....at least it was for me. Probably more my fault than it was theirs. I finally opted for TRAINLINE.......it was so simple. There were no added charges with Trainline.

And yes, be patient as to when tickets are posted. Just keep checking back in.

I booked all of my train trips before leaving home. I had to really plan out itinerary carefully.

Posted by
10 posts

I also had a bit of an issue on the Renfe website. I was booking tickets from Malaga to Madrid and for the specific day and time that I was going, there were 4 tickets at a reduced price. The booking didn't go through my VISA and then I got a message from my bank suggesting fraud and that I needed to verify that it wasn't which I did. Went to book the reduced priced tickets again and they were no longer at that price. However, I did book another later train, also at the reduced price which probably worked out better anyway because we couldn't get into our accommodations in Madrid until after 4:00 p.m. anyway. The second attempt was successful.

Posted by
3 posts

I was trying to buy tickets for 6 weeks from now (definitely less than the 62 day limit) and was given a message on their website that these tickets are not currently available. I sent a Facebook Message to Renfe. They responded in less than 30 minutes saying that they are still completing the schedule for my route and it should be up in a few days. At least their FB Messenger customer service works.

Posted by
768 posts

As of today, we're 35 days before October 20 and still not able to book tickets on the high-speed trains Barcelona to Zaragoza for the 20th or Zaragoza to Madrid for the 21st. We telephoned RENFE and was on hold 45 minutes. We also tried a "live chat" but it only resulted in directing us to the web site (which of course didn't permit booking). Ugh

Posted by
31 posts

I just bought tickets on RENFE for OCT 19 travelling from Madrid to Barcelona. Used pay pal...no problemo.

Posted by
1 posts

I am trying to book a Renfe fast train from Madrid to Barcelona for Oct 13. The schedule only shows full schedule through Oct 5 and not fast trains available to purchase after that. Can anyone please advise?

Posted by
15 posts

I know they are not the most popular website, but RailEurope had numerous AVE trains listed on October 6th.

Posted by
31 posts

Hi Lynne,
As I said I purchased mine through Renfe...I got the fast train...and my ticket is for October 19th...don't understand why your date is not showing up. You can translate to English on the site. As well make sure you put in all stations (I think its Todas...or something like that) or it won't work.

Hope it works
Lorraine