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Another renfe question

Posted by (Dallas, United States) on

I'm trying to buy AVE tickets from Barca to Madrid in mid-Oct. I've used all the suggestions on this site and the lengthy one on TripAdvisor--buy one at a time, only 9 digit phone numbers, different times of day, etc. etc. I tried Safari and Firefox on the Mac. I even went to the neighbors to use Internet Explorer on Windows. Aargh! Failure every time. I telephoned Renfe and learned that the website is only for credit cards issued by a Spanish bank. But some of you have had success! How?

I'm looking for more ideas because buying over there (the suggestion I got from one Renfe agent) at the regular price is more than twice the web price. I have both Visa and AmEx.

Posted by
4555 posts

Galen....what sort of problem are you encountering? At what stage? What do the error messages say? I'm not sure why a RENFE agent would tell you it's only for customers with Spanish credit cards, since the site is in English....and I've booked tickets over it as recently as April. It may be a catch-all excuse so they don't have to try to find out what the problem is. You may want to pick a Spanish phone number to enter into that box....they begin with 9.....so maybe just pick the phone number of your accommodations in Barcelona and try that.

Posted by
705 posts

Norm, I get to the point where I have chosen the train and type of ticket, and entered all my personal data and credit card data. Then the error messages are general (something like the system cannot proceed) or a specific one in Spanish was they couldn't "comprobar la tarjeta" which I took to mean they couldn't verify my cc. I've called AmEx and they said the problem wasn't on their end. I'll try your phone number suggestion. Thanks very much.

Posted by
2427 posts

Hi Galen,

Did you call your credit card company first and get your account unblocked? Are you using Internet Exploer 6.01 or higher with Javascript and allowing cookies and popups? Are you using Adobe Reader 6.0 or higher? Renfe is also optimized for Windows operating system. What kind of credit card are you using? AMEX seems to be a problem with Renfe. I have booked 3 sets of tickets at all times of the day - one at a time of course. I use a Visa card. No problem. Some train tickets (Ave and Avant) can only be booked 62 days in advance but it seems you are within that window. I hope this helps. I'm not sure why everyone is having such a hard time with this.

Mary

Posted by
2427 posts

Hi again,

I used my US phone number to purchase the tickets. 10 digits no hyphens. On the form where it asks for cardholder are you typing in your name or the credit card name i.e. VISA. You are supposed to type in the credit card name.

Mary

Posted by
4555 posts

Galen...I think the problem may be with Amex. I've always used a Visa, which I think is the main credit card provider for RENFE. I've always just selected creit/debit card option, typed in my Visa number, then typed my name under Card Holder, and away it's gone. Let us know what happens

Posted by
705 posts

Success!! Thanks Norm and Mary!

My errors were not getting my Visa unblocked and using a Mac. Once I had called the cc company and gone to my neighbors to use a Windows computer it worked fine.

I'm not sure about an AmEx card being a problem because in one call to Renfe the agent talked about how to make the AmEx card work.

Anyway, we have our tickets at the lowest price available and I'm grateful to you folks.

Galen

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