Renfe tickets via link on Rick Steves site

I tried Renfe but I found it very frustrating to use. For example, I tried to search for tickets from Cordoba to Antequera-Santa Ana for September 22, and it just said "NAN/NAN/NAN" for the date and would not let me proceed. Maybe it was user error on my part, but I just couldn't figure it out. So, instead I used https://loco2.com/ and it came up with routes, no problem. I found routes from Madrid to Cordoba, Cordoba to Antequera, Antequera to Granada, and Seville to Madrid. I hope I'm okay buying tickets from a non-Renfe site. Good luck to you!

Renfe "is" the train operator. You're going to be using "their" trains. So yes, that'd be the right thing to do, going straight to the horse's mouth. You're not bound to find anywhere else cheaper prices or more updated information.

HOWEVER....

Renfe's site is simply c-r-a-p. Period. It's one of the less user-friendly sites I've ever encountered. And I have to use them quite often as there's no other company to go to certain destinations.

Background: Renfe had been for over 50 years "the" train operator in Spain, holding a monopoly --except here in Catalonia, we have had as well our own train operator, FGC, running certain lines and there's no comparison, alas!

As most other companies that had been a monopoly for such a long time, incompetence, negligence and deafness are traits of this company. It wasn't until quite recently that the European Parliament approved a liberalisation of the stated-own monopolies on train lines in those EU countries where still existed. Since then things haven't changed much in practice -setting up a competing rail company is not so easy and requires a s**t load of money- but certain practices have sloooooowly began to change. One of them learning that you have "customers", not users... and that customers -which you can lose to the competition when it materialises- need to be taken care of, nurtured, treated with more respect and tools and information need to be provided. And yes, this website is one of their first attempts, poor souls.

Fortunately, with the liberalisation came as well the possibility that tickets were sold by third-parties who entered into agreements with Renfe. Thus, loco2.com is a great alternative, albeit there might be a small markup on the prices. Also, if you're taking the fast train to France, it's far better to purchase the tickets thru the French operator SNCF rather than RENFE, as they share the service of this line.

One last piece of advice, especially for those using US-based ccards, is to use Paypal for RENFE's website if you can... it seems it gives fewer headaches than trying to use certain US ccards, especially those not up to European security standards.

-- sarcasm mode off --

We just purchased tickets using www.trainline.eu The site was simple to use and prices were good. I find the Man in Seat Sixty-One's site to be helpful. https://www.seat61.com/

Thanks for your replies. I will check on the other sites you mentioned.

Connie,
You may consider reading this thread from a few months ago which lists some websites to help you with booking your Renfe tickets.

I booked my tickets via Renfe without any issues and paid them with my PayPal account, not my credit card.

Please let us know what issues you're having with the Renfe website & we may offer some help :-)

Our AAA office does not book Renfe train tickets. I booked through ...got good rates and very easy to navigate.

Thanks all for the input. I booked through the link to Rail Europe on Rick's site with no issues. Not sure if it's the lowest price but it seemed reasonable and it's one more thing off the list! I'll start another thread about bus tickets, hope you have input on that too.