Has anyone had success with Renfe recently?

I can't answer your questions, but did have success in purchasing Madrid/Malaga on line with Renfe within the last couple of weeks. It took several attempts due to network slowness/timing out, but eventually everything worked correctly and the tickets were purchased. I'm sorry you are having trouble; good luck and keep trying!

I also had no luck. Went with the alternative (maybe Rail Europe)mentioned in Steve's book and paid a little more - but after trying 5-6 times with Renfe on line, worth it. Gets all the way to the veryify credit card info, then does not work. And I did call my Cards and had them note I would be using for Spain - but I think it is automated.

Thanks for your answers. Have tried throughout the day without success (close to 10x). Will try again in the morning and see if a weekday makes any difference then try rail Europe unless any other websites or suggestions. Makes Italian rail seem like a breeze...I hope we don't have similar problems when we get there are we are traveling exclusively by bus and train.

It is always hard to know what the problem is. For me, Verified by Visa was the key. I have done numerous test runs recently on the website and get to the last step with no trouble, but since I don't want tickets I do not put in my credit card number. Do you get to the step where the Verified by Visa window opens and you enter your password? If not, then try a different credit card. If so, then try a few more times, but maybe use a different computer or clear cookies, etc. If it still doesn't work, and the Rail Europe price is much highrt, then try rumbo.es. People have reported that Renfe may not take your credit card for a first purchase, but after one purchase on rumbo.es, Renfe would take their card.

I am also going to suggest for the RENFE site, if you are not already - register and use the Spanish and not English.

Thanks again for your help. Only once out of about the 20x I have tried did I get to the verified by visa spot where I entered the code and I though WOO HOO finally but then again it shut down. I am going to try from work computer. I have been on the Spanish site if that is the site in Spanish at renfe.com.
Open to any other ideas?

Renee, It has been 2 years, but I went through 4 iterations before I finally had success buying on RENFE. Each time, I got a bit further along in the process. My steps were. 1) Read the really long post on the tripadvisor Madrid forum site about buying on Renfe 2) Switched to the Spanish language site
3) Registered for Verified by Visa 4) Talked to my bank's fraud department. When I got past Verified by Visa, I got a new error and the transaction was rejected. Next day the bank called. I told them that I still wanted to make the purchase. They changed some setting on my account so that on the next attempt, the charge would go through. You might want to check with credit card customer service to see if there has been an attempt that has gotten that far. 5) Finally, success. I did do the last attempt during Spain's business hours (don't know if that made a difference.

It is actually not helpful or necessary to register on the Renfe website. I did, but was never able to log in without triggeriing the dreaded error message. So I bought 6 sets of tickets (6 separate purchases) without logging in. And despite what it says on Tripadvisor about computers, I did it all on Mac.

There seems little rhyme or reason with the Renfe website. I tried all day yesterday without success. Early this morning I was successful in getting tickets for 1 leg of my trip. When I tried immediately afterward for another leg of the trip using the same CC, I got a G001 error. You just have to keep trying.