Sevilla to Barcelona AVE

Use Sevilla-Santa Justa and Barcelona-Todas (All). The train will arrive at Barcelona-Sants, but I think it's always best to use the "Todas" option if there is one, so you don't have to guess which station is the arrival point.

I'm not sure about the timing of ticket availability.

I would never choose a flight over a 5-1/2 hour rail journey. I always pad my departure-day logistics to allow for something to go wrong every step of the way, so it would probably take me at least 5-1/2 hours door to door if I flew, and you're more likely to encounter schedule changes, delays or cancellations if you fly. I can tell you that the Aerobus from BCN to Placa de Catalunya works very well, however.

Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it!

Historically, Renfe hasn't sold long-distance tickets more than 60 days out (and sometimes less.) But they have been shifting a bit in the face of new competition. I'd probably look at 90 days out, and check back occasionally (once a week?) until they're posted.

I'd be on the fence about flying this or taking the train. But if I few, it would probably be on Vueling—RyanAir is the only other option.

Thank you also for this additional information. I will keep an eye on for the release of ticket availability.

Recommend second class purchase for it is a great experience.
September provides ample daylight hours so leaving late afternoon provides opportunity for watching Spain go by.
Take the train cuz most pleasurable use of your time.

Thank you. That is a very valid point, "Watching Spain Go By". A tour in itself. What do you get with seating/accommodations in 1st class vs. second class? Are second class seats comfortable for that long of a trip? Thank you so much.

Renfe's long-distance train has two types of seats, and three classes, or categories of ticket. It's unusual.

Seats:
Basico, or 2nd class seats are perfectly comfortable. Arranged as 2+2. Wider and more legroom than coach on a plane.
1st class seats can be sold as either Confort or Premium. They've got a 1+2 set up, and are wider with more legroom.

Tickets:
Basico has is the most restrictive, less flexible fare, with 2nd class seats.
Elige fare are more flexible. 'Elige Standard' will be in 2nd class seats. Or pay more for 'Elige Confort' in 1st class seats.
Premium fares are the most flexible, always 1st class seats, with lounge access and food service included.

*Some trains don't have food service offered, in which case 1st class seats will be only be sold as Elige Confort

*Only 2nd class seating offers a formal Quiet Car. The 1st class cars are less dense and have fewer families, so are quieter than normal. But you could still get stuck next to someone on the phone.

Thank you for this information. I appreciate your help.

Hello Everyone,
I would appreciate help again. I think that I can see that Renfe has AVE tickets open for Sept. 15th from Seville to Barcelona already? Sometimes I am seeing "Ave-Ave" and there is another just "Ave". Does this mean that the single "Ave" is a direct route with NO transfer needed in Madrid? Secondly, there is a notification red triangle that says something about the schedule being different prior to March, 2023. Is the schedule that is posted THE newest one?

Thank you so much. I didn't think the schedules opened up this early for September tickets.

Karen USA

Yes, if it just reads "AVE", it should be a direct train with no changes. If you click on one of the fare boxes and then on "Journey Details", you'll see that only one train is shown.

The warning seems to be about construction work whose impact has already been reflected in this schedule. I guess some tickets for the construction period were on sale before the schedule impact was known, so know they're telling folks who bought tickets when the pre-construction schedule was being displayed that they can change their tickets if they want to.

If you click on the middle fare box, you'll see that the selection offers the possibility of changing or canceling the ticket for a fee. If you're thinking of buying September tickets now, you might consider taking that path.

The train listed as just AVE is a direct train that doesn't go via Madrid. The AVE-AVE train goes via Madrid and you need to change trains in Madrid.

All fast trains leave from Sevilla Santa Justa station. You can just choose "Sevilla (todas)" and "Barcelona (Todas)" as your departure and arrival destinations. "Todas" means all and will show you everything that is available.

Renfe has high speed competition on your route - Iryo and Ouigo. We used the Trainline website/app to compare our options and got much better pricing from Iryo.

Your best option might be a combination of a Renfe train and a competitor train on separate tickets with a change in Madrid. The Trainline has multiple options available now for 15 September.

Thank you all for the great/quick replies. I thought of a few other questions if I might ask for additional help...

1). The senior discount card (initial)...can you only purchase this in person at the station? I see the renewal option online at Renfe but not for the original card for the discount. Obviously we need to purchase tickets in advance.

2) Do you have to register online for an account before you can purchase a ticket? Does it allow two travelers to purchase tickets in one transaction or do we both have to register and purchase with separate transactions?

Again, thank you. This is our first attempt at purchasing such tickets.

Karen USA

The senior discount card (initial)...can you only purchase this in person at the station

You need to purchase the first Tarjeta Dorada in person at a station. It costs €6- and they just need to sight your passport. But I am not sure if you can use it on all the high velocity (AVE) services. It has some restrictions based on which day of the week you are travelling. It looks like an airline boarding pass (we had expected something the size of a credit card) and has a very lengthy number (nine digits) that you need to type in on the website or if using a ticket machine at a station. It's not fun trying to type it in on a screen when your reading glasses are packed away and there is a line of people behind you waiting to buy their tickets.

One of us is eligible for a Tarjeta Dorada (my husband is 73) and one of us isn't (me, 59). We found that purchasing our train tickets in advance worked out less expensive than waiting and buying one senior fare and one general adult fare. The advance purchase discounts were significant - around 30% for some of our trains. We caught 15 trains in Spain (Feb to April 2023) and only used the Tarjeta Dorada option for four of them.

Do you have to register online for an account before you can purchase a ticket? Does it allow two travelers to purchase tickets in one transaction or do we both have to register and purchase with separate transactions?

As I said in my previous post, there are less expensive options than Renfe on the route you want. I ended up creating an account at both the Trainline and Renfe and then using the Renfe account for some of our trains and the Trainline for others.

One big advantage of the Trainline is that they sell tickets further in advance than Renfe - for the same trains - and show you the competitors. Iryo and Ouigo use the same stations and tracks as Renfe. As they are new in the market they are offering lower prices to attract customers, but we found the travel and on board experience almost identical.

I found the Trainline website/app easier to use than Renfe. Once you register for an account you can set up traveller profiles. If you have a Tarjeta Dorada you just register it against the traveller profile. You can then buy both tickets in one transaction. I got all of our tickets as PDFs and then just saved them on my phone. You can print them if you want. Ticket collectors will scan the QR code either at the station or on the train.

The Renfe app was less user friendly for us because we were buying tickets in two different fare categories (adult and senior) and I had to keep manually typing in my husband's Tarjeta Dorada number each time.

If you buy a ticket for a Renfe train it will look the same whether you buy it from Renfe or from the Trainline. The Trainline issues a Renfe ticket for a Renfe train.

Wonderful and useful information. Thank you so much. We did see that the train tickets for the schedule we wanted were equal on Renfe and Trainline. We tried paying with our VISA, but after several failed/rejected attempts on the page we gave up. It always posted an error. So, we went over to thetrainline.com and purchased the tickets via PayPal (via VISA payment) and it worked seamlessly. There was a little small fee that Trainline charged, but the ticket itself was a little less than Renfe site, so it basically was a wash for us. Does anyone have an answer why, when you go to pay with the card, it gets rejected? I did see that, at one point, it had asked how we wanted to pay...in US dollars or euros. We selected US dollars but it defaulted to euros. That could be the rejection explanation. Who knows?

Now, I just have to hope that the "red triangle" in front of the chosen AVE ticket doesn't pose any problem:) and that the time listed is the updated time/schedule for the tickets we purchased!

You should always opt to pay for European goods and services in the currency of the country, not in US dollars. When you use US dollars, you authorize the hotel/restaurant/shop/rail-ticket seller/etc. to use whatever conversion rate they like to determine the cost in US dollars. You will not be getting anything close to the official interbank rate. Choosing US dollars will cost you. Sometimes it will cost you bigtime. And if your credit card charges a foreign-transaction fee, it will still impose that fee, even if the charge shows up in dollars.

Thank you. Interesting thing is that it did default to euros right when I was to click "pay". It just couldn't advance and failed each time I tried. Trainline was so easy to use PayPal which took our VISA easily and voila! Seat selection was easy with Trainline as well. One more prep item completed:) All of the suggestions on this thread have been so helpful. Thank you all!

You have to watch PayPal, too. On overseas transactions it often (always??) defaults to charging you in dollars rather than the local currency, and that gets you back into bad-exchange-rate territory.

Thank you for the heads up! We will check!