Spain AVE train ticket challenges - Questions about Rail Europe & Renfe

Have you tried Trainline? I had a look for the 17th and 18th May and they list numerous AVE connections.

@ tonfromleiden - I'm only seeing the same single long trip (9 hrs) available on Trainline. Am I getting different results from North America than one would in Europe?

It seems Renfe only lists tickets until June 1, 2019.
I have no idea why, unless a schedule overhaul?
Wish I could help.

edit: here's what I found on Trainline, If you do not see all of the departures that you're expecting to see, and it's more than a month to go before departure, the chances are that all trains are not yet open for booking. It is not uncommon for Renfe to be very late with opening bookings for dates after their bi-annual timetable changes. These occur at midnight on the 2nd Saturday in June and 2nd Saturday in December, when the booking horizon can shrink to as little as 30 days.

Hola from Spain,

I got this one....yes tickets can be posted upto 60 days in advance (I thought is was 90, but who is counting). We from the uptight nation of the US think they would post a new day's listing every day, at least every work day they would up date the tickets available.

Oh, no. The tickets available gets updated when someone remembers it should be done. There is no knowing when new tickets will be posted. But 63 days out or more, I guess never happens,

Go to Seat 61. Or, the man in seat 61, find his section on Spanish train tickets. He recommends 3 different places to buy your tickets. They honestly can't offer nor let you buy them until they get posted, BUT, they will email you when they do get posted.

I used them, it was the first of the three places he recommended that I used. My advance tickets showed up on the Renfe site about 35 to 40 days in advance (if I use your 60 day suggestion). I prnted them at home and the conductors didn't think twice when I used them. You can select the car and seat if you want to.

And because the one I used was based in the UK, my credit card took the charge without any greif.

The trains in Spain run smoothly on the plain. And fast.

Wayne in Spain

I get a whole page of results of high speed options from Trainline on 17 May all ranging from 2hr 30m to 3hr 10m Madrid -> Barcelona with the cheapest being $88.94

I would wait and just check everyday until you get what you want and forget what Rail Europe says.

What day are you actually traveling? On Trainline, I see a full schedule of AVE trains between Madrid and Barcelona, with the advance discounted price as low as $68, on May 18, 19, and 20.

Use the trainline.eu link posted above.

I just tried Renfe on Firefox and got no results. Switched to Chrome and I see results up until the end of May for all the trains. Same on the loco2 site. Not sure which browser you are using but I would try switching and what you get.

The Renfe site can be a little weird in my opinion at times and sometimes a trifle slow in keeping the 62 days up to date. However, I just went to this site; https://renfe.spainrail.com/; and did a search for Madrid Atocha to Barcelona Sants for May 18, 2019 and pulled up 14 different train schedules. I then went to the loco2.com site and pulled up the same trains plus the ones that have station changes etc and take quite a bit longer. Back in February 2019, I booked two tickets including seat reservations for Madrid to Barcelona for May 25, 2019, had no issues. What exactly is your proposed travel date and are looking for a one way or round trip ticket?

This is helpful - I appreciate all the replies.

So - it sounds like Rail Europe does NOT yet have access to these AVE tickets, either - despite the many times showing on their site?

The actual date I'm looking to book is June 3. I realize I said 6 weeks - that's because we leave for Europe on May 20. My apologies for the confusion.

Perhaps I need to wait a little longer. I just saw so many confident assertions of the "62-day" thing that I thought perhaps I was missing something. I'm also concerned because something (soccer match?) is happening in Madrid the preceding weekend that caused hotel prices to skyrocket ($1000+ in many cases), and I'm worried that the influx of people will cause trains to sell out quickly.

But based on these responses, it sounds like the 2-month timing isn't fixed or definitive. Maybe the problem is that I'm booking immediately after the timetable change (thank you anubis57). I was just hoping there was another solution besides checking every day.

I'll just keep checking these sites until June tickets appear. I'm already checking every day for Sagrada Familia tickets (still nothing in June there, either), so it goes...

You will almost certainly pay more than necessary for those tickets if you choose to buy them from RailEurope.

Renfe is erratic. I've seen trains appear 3 months and more in advance, I've seen trains that show up only a couple weeks ahead. Patience!

Aha! June 3. That makes a difference.

That TripAdvisor article worked for me when I bought RENFE tickets for our trip in 2010. At that time, the 63- day release was pretty reliable. But things have changed. The past 2-3 years, the release of the tickets and Promo prices has been erratic, as expressed just above. And the TripAdvisor article has not been updated since 2016, so it does not reflect this change.

They seem to release the tickets in blocks, not day by day. The best advice is to just keep checking, every day, or maybe twice: once in the morning in your time zone but after midnight in Spain, and again later in the day.

Once you see them, you may have better luck buying them on Trainline. Some European train sites are finicky about US credit cards ( apart from American Express which works fine for me). That was certainly true back in 2010; RENFE was known for rejecting US credit cards unless they were registered with Verified by Visa, or otherwise validated for use in the Spanish system. But this may not be a problem any more.

3 June is before the next timetable change so you can be reasonably confident that services shown on a Monday this month will be the same on 3/6 (and likely after the timetable change in many cases). Nevertheless, until Renfe release the tickets for your route, nobody else can sell with certainty. Rail Europe are assuming it won't change, but since they cannot actually sell you the ticket (or reserve a seat), they add the warning about "manual confirmation". You might as well wait until Renfe have made the tickets available, even if you then buy elsewhere (I usually use Trainline or Loco2, because their websites are easier to use than Renfe's).

When Renfe release the tickets is anybody's guess. Check now and they might be there. Or it might be another week or two. Note that they release not only in date blocks, but also by route. So Madrid to Cordoba AVE might show up before Madrid to Barcelona AVE does (although M-B is usually an early one).

On the plus side, once you finally have tickets and get on the service, the AVE trains are fantastic and put much of Europe to shame.

Nick's advice is spot on. Several years back I took the AVE trains around Spain and while I was able to purchase one ticket 50 days ahead of time, the last two tickets didn't go up for sale until three weeks from the date of travel. Like you, I was frantic but have learned that Renfe is a quirky website and the best method is just to check every morning when you get up.

Echoing Nick, purchasing tickets is probably the biggest headache. The actual train travel is delightful.

I happen to be planning to travel from Barcelona to Madrid as well during this time. June 5th to be exact. Renfe is still not listing any of the AVE tickets, only the slower trains. Given that it's only about a month away, should I be worried?

That week is not loaded into the booking system yet (!) except for that one daily slow train. Wait a few more days (and do check in the meantime to snatch the cheapest tickets).

Hi,

I’m in a similar boat. I noticed that the trains were posted in a block ranging from June 3 - end of July. However, there was only one time slot posted for travel from Pamplona to Madrid (around 3 pm, we are hoping to travel in the morning). Does anybody know if Renfe releases more times/trains as the date gets closer?

"Does anybody know if Renfe releases more times/trains as the date gets closer?"

That's basically how it works. There's no knowing what Renfe will do. They'll release new services for sale when they get around to it! I know its annoying, but that's how it is for some reason. They partly release by date, partly by route and partly by type of train.

If you search for services later this week, that'll give you a reasonable indication of what will be available when you want to travel. Mid-June is the biannual timetable change so release might be even later than usual for after then.

But, as I've written before, understanding Renfe ticket sale logic is the hard part. Once, you actually have a ticket, they're pretty good, even excellent.