Reserving seats with a rail pass

Are you sure that the pass is cheaper? Any more pass are more of a convenience that budget saving. Reservations are only critical during high peak travel but June and July should be fine.

Basically, Spanish train reservations cannot be made online like other countries for Eurail Passes. Once you arrive in Spain you can go to a train station and make all your reservations and pay for them all at once. If you are only going to use a pass 3-5 times, it will most likely be a lot cheaper to buy your tickets on the Renefe website. There you can buy a ticket and seat assignment if a reservation is needed.

https://www.renfe.com/es/en

Thanks for the responses, they really helped calm me down!

Looking at p. 998 of Rick Steves' Spain book (or the corresponding image at https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/spain-rail-passes, and adding 50% for 1st class, the pass seems to be cheaper. But then again, I haven't factored in the seat reservation costs...

It's certainly more convenient, up until the part I mentioned about actually getting a seat reserved.

We are 2 seniors and 2 30-somethings, and a baby.

Maybe the way to go is to just book the tickets individually, you're right, it looks like the prices are below what's in the RS book/website..

Thanks again!

I haven’t used Spain’s rail service much, but the last time I did, in 2019, I was on a fixed schedule so bought my tickets in advance before going over. Once I figured out the quirks of the Renfe site, it was easy to use.

Thanks, everyone...

I roughly priced out the tickets we'll be needing, and of course you all are correct, using renfe.com looks like it's much cheaper.

Now to figure out the RS blurb about using the Tarjeta Dorado card.... 8?)

If you figure out the Tarjeta Dorada Card (60 plus discount) can you post on here? We are trying to decide on Italy or Spain for a trip this October and will likely use the rail system. Trying to research both and am finding Renfe site difficult to navigate. Thanks!

Second-class seats on Spain's fast trains are very comfortable, at least to me. I've never felt any inclination to pay extra for first class. I know some folks feel more comfortable in first class right now, for health reasons, though, because it might be less crowded.

At least one person who had bought a Spanish rail pass back in 2018 or 2019 complained vociferously on this forum about what a pain it was. It sounded like a real mess, and I can't say that I was too surprised. Renfe doesn't seem to have customer-friendly procedures. The ticket line at the staffed counters selling long-distance tickets at Madrid's Atocha Station is typically hours long. I stood in that line for three hours in 2019. I am not saying you'd have to stand in that same line to get a seat reservation if you had a rail pass; I hope there would be another option. But, knowing Renfe, I wouldn't necessarily count on it.

If over 60 buy the T Dorada card at any station. We paid 5E a couple of years ago but would guess the card may be 7 or 8 E. Good for a year. Gets a flat discount of 40% on weekend tickets and 25% (?) on weekdays. Or something close to that. Just go to the ticket window, show the card and buy the ticket. Second class is more than adequate unless you fixated on first class. They are easy to use. Spain is one of the few countries that gives a discount to anyone and not just their citizens that is common elsewhere.

PS We have never encountered lines like Acraven described. Second, Spain has an excellent bus system -- dirt cheap and convenient. We use the bus as much as the train when in Spain.

Thanks for all the replies re: Tarjeta Dorada.

Since we have a pretty fixed schedule, we would like to book the rail tickets as far in advance as we can, ie, weeks before we actually take the train.

So the Tarjeta is a little more Catch-22-ish in that (I assume) we need the number on the supplied card in order to book the reservation, but we need to physically be there in order to get the card so we can book the ticket and reserve seats.

I saw where someone was offering a service to obtain TDs for Americans but I'm very leery of sending my CC information to an email address...

I'd check on the need for the Tarjeta Dorada number by trying to buy a ticket with the discount on the renfe website, to see what it requires. I'm afraid you're correct, though.

You can buy tickets with the T.D. discount through Renfe's vending machines, thus avoiding any sort of ticket line.

I went partially through the renfe.com's ticket purchase process. We're waiting on one family member's passport number, so we can't complete the transaction.

However, I selected the Tarjeta Dorada option for my ticket (instead of 4 o mas), and a Tarjeta Dorada entry field showed up, NOT showing as required.

So, it kind of looks like I can select that option but not provide a number, but I won't know until we finish the transaction (I want to have all passport numbers before we book all the tickets).

...Since we have a pretty fixed schedule, we would like to book the rail tickets as far in advance as we can, ie, weeks before we actually take the train....... Is there a particular reason for this approach??? There is no real advantage to doing this. If you are using the card, the price will be the same.

Just a FYI since you mentioned you are also considering Italy. You can get a CartaFreccia discount card for Trenitalia as a non-resident by completing a special form and emailing it in. There is no charge.

Is there a particular reason for this approach??? There is no real
advantage to doing this. If you are using the card, the price will be
the same.

My main reason is to be comfortable knowing I have seats ready and waiting for me. You mentioned earlier that June and July should have good availability, which is encouraging, but I like to lock things in early.

Other reasons include

• It being easier to make reservations for up to 6 people using my home computer rather than my phone (I'm not bringing a laptop).
• Not having to wrestle with crowds, lines, or language barriers at the ticket window.

Touring a new (to me) country is enough adventure for me!

Tarjeta Dorada is not "a discount" for over 60 that you can tick when making a reservation, it's a physical card that over-60 can buy to get discounts.

I hope you see the difference because this translates into that UNTIL you don't have the card itself, you can't technically tick the relevant box when making an online reservation. The card can be bought (6€) in most stations and/or ATMs at the stations... which in turn requires you to be physically in Spain before being able to purchase the card.

Theoretically, it's supposed to be a discount applicable only to residents, for one very good reason: non-residents don't pay taxes in Spain. Therefore, they're not contributing to the general budget which partially funds ADIF -the infrastructure authority in charge of developing and maintaining the railways in Spain. I would guess this is why the card is not sold online.

But then, there are these EU laws prohibiting discrimination between EU citizens therefore non-residents residing elsewhere in the EU must be allowed to have the same advantages as local residents. And here comes the catch-22: there's no EU passport or EU ID card, every EU member country issues its own, therefore if one needs to allow say someone from Germany (EU member) to buy a privilege (Tarjeta Dorada) in Spain, there isn't an easy way to discriminate against EU and non-EU residents. This is the reason anyone can buy the card at the station, even non-EU residents.

This is the same with certain other privileges (discounts) in museums and attractions or other means of public transportation (ie. the travel cards in Barcelona or Madrid), you can buy them even if you're not an EU resident.

Now... it's well known that RENFE's IT system sucks. Over the years they've proven very incompetent at designing friendly user interfaces and today's is no exception. When you choose the option "Tarjeta Dorada" -which translates as golden card- you are supposed to introduce the NUMBER of the card in the field appearing underneath... but the interface doesn't specify that, they just show the sentence "tarjeta dorada" again... which is bl00dy confusing even to me (local). Then in a good nerd fashion, they only tell you there's something wrong when trying to make the purchase, without specifically telling you what the problem is.

See example: https://ibb.co/55FpCvX

Enjoy!

Enric,

Thanks for the background, it helped me understand the EU perspective of these things. Fair point about the taxes and such, but I daresay we'll be helping Spain with our tourist expenditures (looks like tourism contributed about EUR 88 billion or so in 2021).

I was just trying to understand what was mentioned in the RS Spain book about (paraphrasing) "get the discounted ticket, show the conductor your ticket and the TD card, and you're set." I guess this implies you have to buy the ticket at the station or certainly after you obtain the TD card.

Thanks to all who responded. I think we'll just live with the "4 or mas" discount, and book the sites via renfe.com when schedules are posted (and our little grandson gets his passport number, in a couple of weeks).

Hi Buck

My intention was only to provide some background on why things are the way they are, not scolding or blaming anything or anyone, sorry if it felt otherwise. Sometimes lost-in-translation situations happen between cultures with different approaches, one being more direct than the other :))

Thanks for your point, again though, while tourism is an important industry in our GDP, is not, by far and contrary to what some might think, a big chunk -at least in my neck of the woods- as it accounts for 12% of our GDP with food&beverages, chemicals, motor vehicles and pharma accounting for over 50% of it. But yes, of course, all industries are important to a country's GDP and we all try to take good care of our visitors.

Nevertheless, and as an example... some of the most popular cities (ie Barcelona, Donostia or Madrid), which have the public transportation subsidized -the price of the ticket you pay does not cover the operating cost-, have decided to reduce the large deficits in public transportation that have accumulated year after year.

So for example in Barcelona, the City Hall decided to derive non-residents (be tourists, be visitors from next town) towards products (cards) that are not subsidized such as the HolaBCN. And move residents towards a sort of "pay-per-use" scheme, which is about to be standardized and it's called the T-Mobilitat card. That's supposed to be a similar approach to the CharlieCard in Boston or Oyster in London. So far though it lives together with other resident-aimed magnetic cards such as the T-Casual, the T-Family or the T-Mes... some of which any visitor can buy too. In frankness, everybody is looking forward to the T-Mobilitat to simplify the myriad of other passes there are currently in use and that makes it confusing to decide which is more convenient for one's needs.

(Enough rambling, LOL!)

In any case, Bud, even without the TD you will see fares are not expensive -in comparison to other countries in Europe. Also, depending on the itineraries you have in mind, note that in many you don't really need to pre-book as availability is not necessarily a concern. You can walk to the station and purchase the ticket for the same day or the next day. Again, that'll depend on the itinerary AND the date. Finally, for most short-distance trips there is no pre-booking, you just purchase the ticket when you want to travel and if the train is full you take the next one as there are several running at short intervals.

buying tickets https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-spain.htm#How_to_buy_train_tickets_for_Spain