HELP !! Barcelona to Madrid Booking Renfe Train online.. Going in 2 weeks

Looking on the renfe site, it appears you leave from the Atocha Station, and arrive at the Barcelona Sants station. I am not sure if there is another station in Barcelona, but believe this is the one you want...look on the schedule page, and click on them for informaton.

More Information: According to my Moon Guide To Spain, Barcelona has two stations - Sants, located in Eixample and is the main station for all nation al and some international journeys.
Estacion de France offers a few international destinations....It is about two blocks away from the Barcelona metro station...both stations have the same ammenities, caffes,luggage storage. Taxis are at both stations.

The AVE from Barcelona will leave from the Sants station and arrive at Atocha in Madrid. (When you're on the Renfe website you can see the stations of departure, stops, and arrival by clicking on the train number and a window will pop-up with the station names.) Travel between any other stations in those cities would likely be on a Cercanias local train or a subway. Just click on the city even if it has an asterisk, then when you see the timetable of trains you can click on the train number to double check the stations; the AVE goes only to certain stations. The warning about the asterisk would probably apply more to a media distancia train. You may have difficulty in buying a ticket online with a North American credit card, there are a number of posts here with helpful hints. If you are not successful just know that you can most likely buy your ticket at the station on the day of travel or the day before unless you absolutely must be on a specific train. The AVE runs so often that it should not be a problem. You should be at the passenger waiting area 30 minutes before departure so figure that into your timeline.

Where did you read not to use the asterisk choices?.. They work just fine. The stations are Barcelona Sants to Madrid Atocha, but if you choose the asterisk on Renfe it will choose the correct stations. Actually buying the tickets on the website is another challenge. I was able to do it, but many people just get error messages and give up. The main reason for buying in advance is to get the Web discounts (60%off). Since you are two weeks away from your travel date, these are most likely gone. The AVe trains are frequent and rarely sell out for the regular fare seats. If you are unable to purchase on the Renfe website, do not worry; you will have no trouble buying the tickets in Barcelona. For peace of mind, you could buy them a day or two in advance. The AVe trains are wonderful-fast, smooth and comfortable.

From my experience with purchasing from RENFE online I can offer three suggestions that should be helpful. First, disable any pop-up blockers you may have. Next, at some point RENFE will ask for your home country. Select Spain or else they will send you to the Rail Europe site which will cost twice as much. RENFE's tickets are electronic and sent to your email address for you to print out. Finally, RENFE hands off the actual purchase to a third party bank. Your credit card (VISA or MC) must have an extra security step, Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode, both of which can be done on the respective card's web site.
This process lets you assign another PIN to your account. This procedure is designed for on-line security only, not everyday personal use.

Gary...good suggestions there in this posting! Thanks....

Yes, good suggestions, but Renfe will not switch you to RailEurope (like TGV does). Google will offer RailEurope as the " official" Renfe site but don't be fooled by that; scroll down to Renfe.es or go directly there. Once you are on Renfe "purchase" and go from there. The website is notoriously quirky about taking US credit cards, but Gary' s suggestions should help, particularly the Verified by Visa registration. And if you cannot get the purchase to go through, do not worry. You will have no trouble using your credit card to buy tickets once you are in Spain.

Thanks for all your helpful suggestions.. Read the () comment somewhere on Tripadvisor I think Good Advice re: Pop up blockers.. Unfortunately I didn't think to disable first....... I wasn't sent to another website...... I've now booked and didn't have any problems apart from my pop up blocker which resulted in me not getting the tickets printed.. It was straightforward going to the Renfe website and pulling them up and printing them by entering my localizador number.. (guessed that meant locator) :) Did get a discount but not the great ones I was reading about.. Tickets cost 70,60 Euros each..... ...Prior to booking I phoned Visa and told them I was about to book a train in Spain... And now for booking Car hire !! Arghhhh

So you were successful in your purchase---excellent. Maybe Canadian credits cards work better than US ones do. . It sounds like you got the Estrella fare (40% off) instead of the Web fare (60% off). Still a good deal. Enjoynthe trip--- the train we rode reached speeds of 300 kph and it was very smooth and quiet.