Spain rail pass vs. buying discounted train tickets online

A five-travel-days-in-two-months second-class adult pass will cost you $309...for your 10 year old, $155...total, about $775. You are likely to encounter reservation fees on most, if not all of your trains (especially the high-speed ones), but I'm not sure where you get a $35 figure...even reservations thru RailEurope are lower than that. Count on about $15 per person, per segment, if you book reservations thru them. That's $45 more per trip, or $235. Total with passes and reservations, $1010.
On the RENFE website, you can get discounted tickets up to 62 days in advance. Barcelona-Madrid for 46 Euro ($67, or $200 total), Madrid-Sevilla at 32 Euro ($46 or $140 total), Sevilla-Granada at 24 Euro with no discount available ($35 or $105 total), and Granada-Madrid at 27 Euro with the web discount ($39 or $120 in total). Those four journeys total $565. I don't know your fifth journey, but adding that in will still bring you to less than the cost of the passes, plus the reservations.
However, that comes at the cost of a loss of flexibiliy. The discount tickets are usually non-refundable or changeable. To bring your pass costs down further, consider making reservations just for your first leg....then making the rest of them when you get to Spain....they will be less expensive there. You won't need reservations for Sevilla-Granada or Granada-Madrid...but since there are only 4 and 2 trains/day respectively, you may want to spend the few extra dollars to ensure you have a spot.,

thanks Norm. it was raileurope where I saw the $35 reservation fee. It's possible I either read it wrong or perhaps that was an average fee? not sure but I likely got distracted and didn't read any more after that.

one thing is that hubby must travel first class so that's where my $1000 figure for the passes come from and the other estimates of online train tickets for the "preferente" class. unfortunately that is not negotiable. can I just leave him at home? :D

but, I really don't want to leave anything to chance and like you mention for the Madrid-Sevilla and Granada-Madrid trips, I would rather know that we have a spot for those trips. Our day trips to Toledo and Segovia, perhaps I can just wait until we get there to get those reservations.

thanks for your reply, still mulling this over. and perhaps I should actually add up all the online train ticket costs and figure out exactly what the reservation fee is.....

This seemed so much easier when I was 20 and a student in Madrid :)

Yes, it was a heck of a lot easier then...when you could buy a railpass and just hop on any old train.
You might want to remind your husband that the difference between second and first class on these trains is minimal....certainly nothing like the difference between economy and first class on the airlines. And on Sevilla-Granada, Madrid-Segovia, and Madrid-Toledo, there is only one class anyway. Madrid-Segovia and Madrid-Toledo are about $20 euro pp return ($29). Reservations on these two trains will ensure you have seats on the trips you want, to maximize your time in those two cities.
And yes, the $35 reservation fee would have been on RailEurope for a first class pass...about double the second-class reservation fee.

actually, I never had a rail pass back then. I just went to the student travel office and got my tickets there. 'course everything is cheaper when you're a student. but there again, I didn't have to stick to a travel schedule like we do for this trip.

great information again! thanks Norm. I am tallying it all up right now and may have to twist hubby's arm a bit. wish me luck :D

oh one more question on reservation fees...let's assume I do decide to purchase tickets online via renfe's site. will reservation fees apply this way? or is the reservation fee only if you have a rail pass?

Tickets purchased on line include all supplements and/or reservations necessary. They can be printed at home, and will show your car and seat numbers. Reservation fees are only for railpass holders.
You can purchase tickets on the website up to 62 days in advance. Since they begin loading in the new fares around midnight, Spain time, you might actually see the discount fares available on the evening of day 63 for you in Minnesota. Tha'll give you a jump on the Europeans, who are already in bed! ;)

aha! now you're talking!! thanks for that tip and all the great information once again. much appreciated!

just to conclude, I added up all the trips and it comes in cheaper than the passes BEFORE reservation fees. so....now I know what to do! and these were all at preferente class(except for the Toledo and Segovia trips where it's only one class) and at the exchange rate I saw yesterday of $1.41.

so, in case anyone else out there was weighing these options.....

hubby: can we take at least one trip at the club class? ah....