Rail Europe Spain Train Booking

JD....that is definitely NOT true. You can easily purchase your own tickets over the web from the Spanish national rail website, RENFE. These are print at home tickets, so you will have them immediately after your booking. A quick look shows several trains/day still open. The "web" fares are the cheapest, the "estrella" fares are next...then the regular price for first and second class. Regional trains are second class only, and take quite a bit longer. Strangely enough, there are no website discounts for the regional trains, so you can actually pay less for a discounted ticket on the "Alaris" regional trains that you would for the slow regional train!
The website is mostly in Spanish, but it's quite easy to get thru, especially using translate.google.com. A quick summary...."Ida" means one-way, "seleccionar su asiento" means choose your seat, "Correo Electrónico" means e-mail address, "Nombre" means first name, "appelido" means last name (Spanish people have two surnames, but you only need to fill out the first one), "tipo de documento" means type of document (choose "pasaporte" and enter your passport number in the next box, labelled "Numero documento,) "direccion" means street number and address, "codigo postal" means zip code, "poblacion" means city or town, "provincia" means state...and, of course, "pais" means country. Although the Spanish for United States is "Estados Unidos," you won't find it under the "E's" in the dropdown menu...it's way at the end under the "U's," right next to "Reino Unido" (United Kingdom)...oh well...they're still working on their complete English translaytion. For "telefono," enter the plus sign (+) then your area code and phone number...no spaces or dashes. And away you go!

RailEurope is travel agency selling highly marked up tickets to N Americans. Second if they are saying the schedule are not available it may mean that you are asking for reservations more than 90 days out. What are you dates of travel. It is extremely rare for a train to be sold out at any time. The exceptions are night trains. I am sure you could buy a ticket the day before.

Thank you both for your feedback. I am planning to travel from Valencia to Madrid on March 18th. The Rail Europe website currently states that they are "awaiting updated schedules and fairs from the Spanish Train System". So, I cannot book that leg of travel. The other leg I need to book is Barcelona to Valenica on March 16th, and that one is available to go ahead and purchase, but I would prefer to book both at the same time.

If I go ahead and book via the Renfe site, I would like to purchase the tickets for myself and two people that are traveling with me. What information of there's will I need? Just their first and last names and passport #s? Will I need the addresses listed on their passports or is the address just for the person using the credit card to pay for the tickets?

Thanks again to both of you!
JD

A couple other questions for the RENFE booking site. What is the Spanish term for credit card # and expiration date? Also, when booking travel from Valencia or Madrid there appears to be several different stations. Should I just go with the one that states Valencia* and Madrid* with the *. Can someone let me know what the * means?

Use the asterisks. It means there is more than one station in the city, and if you're not sure which one to use, choose the asterisk. Your ticket (which is a pdf file...save a copy to your computer) will tell you which stations you're using...likely Valencia Nord and Madrid Atocha.
When you select your origin and destination, you'll notice "numero de viajeros" just below it. Enter the number of travellers and proceed from there. You'll only be asked for one set of information when you purchase...so use the card-holder's. Tickets have no name or any other identifying information printed on them, other than the code that RENFE uses to match the ticket to your transaction.
"numero de tarjeta" is credit card number, "fecha de caducidad" is expiry date, and "titular de la tarjeta" is name on the credit card. CVV/CID is the security number on the back of your card. The address you listed earlier shouldn't play a role in the credit card transaction.

Norm,
Thanks again for your assistance. I believe I just have one last question. We are going to be traveling with a fair amount of luggage so I would prefer to sit in the first class section and to go ahead and reserve seats for the three of us. Is there a specific name/rate of ticket that I will need to purchase to ensure that we have seat reservations in first class?

I appreciate it.
JD

And try DESPERATELY to avoid RailEurope....otherwise, you'll pay a lot more. The estrella fares are 40% off, the web fares, 60% off....quite a bit of cash when you consider the regular price for Barcelona-Madrid is 114 euro pp (about $160 on RENFE...or $180 on RailEurope!)

I'm not sure why you're drawing a connection between first class and luggage. All luggage is stored in areas at the end of each car, or into the overhead rack, which is larger than than provided in aircraft. Other than fewer people in a first class coach, meaning fewer passengers storing luggage at the end of the car, I can't see a connection.
The three main classes are Turista (as it suggests), Preferente (business class...a meal, a newspaper), and Club (first class...choice of a meal, newspaper, etc). To me Turista class is very good...much more room than economy class on an airplane....the others are just too much more money for not enough value.

Norm is absolutely correct. I compare second class to business class on an airplane -- plenty of room. Carry on size bags will fit easily on the overhead rack. If you have larger bags and are concerned about theft (very small concern) then use a cable lock through all of the handles so they have steal all of them or none.

Great info Guys. Thanks again for everything. Have never been to Spain before and it's been 4 years since my last trip to Europe. Much appreciated.

Does anyone know whether I should put in both the First and Middle names of the passengers in addition to last name when booking on the Renfe site (this is how it appears on my passport) or just the First name and Last name as requested?

There is no room for a middle name. Put in the first name (nombre) and the last name (appelido 1). The third area (appelido 2) is for Spanish people who use their two surnames, so there's no reason for you to use it.

Norm - thanks again man

Norm, thanks from me also! I feel like I can completely navigate the RENFE site now without no Spanish background. The tip for using Google Translate was great, too...I was able to find out that my 14 year old qualifies for a reduced fare...if we are unable to get a web or estrella fare. Thanks again!

Sooooo, do I understand that I can book my Trenhotel trip from Barcelona to Granada 90 days from my travel date on RENFE?

(And thanks for the tips about avoiding RailEurope!!! But when is RENFE going to join the 21st century!!)

Chuck....no, the RENFE website only takes bookings 62 days out. Since they start loading the prices at midnight, Spain time, you can usually jump on the evening before, our time, and score the bargains while Europeans are still asleep.
As for "when is RENFE going to join the 21st century," I'm not sure what you mean. They have one of the most modern train websites available, taking North American credit cards (which Trenitalia in Italy will not do) and allowing the home printing of all tickets (which the SNCF in France does not yet allow.)

I tried to purchase my tickets and was denied by my bank apparently. I just called them, and I think I should be good to go this time. Before I try to purchase the tickets however, I was wondering when I would be required to input the names of all three people. I know that RailEurope requires that everyone's names be listed, but I wasn't sure if this was the case with the Renfe website. Will the tickets just have my name on all three or will there be a page later in the purchasing process for me to input the names of the other two travelers?

You aren't required to put in the names of all passengers. The only name that you have to use is the one paying the bill!

As for the comments re: RENFE and the 21st century, their website is indeed functional if not a bit clunky, but the reservation system used at the stations is positively ancient.

Buy a ticket at the desk in Spain sometime (or simply a railpass seat reservation) and watch them struggle to complete a simple transaction (and check the schedule number in Internet Explorer on DB's website!). Don't even bother trying to book a reservation or ticket on a train that starts and ends outside of Spain (such as the old-school SNCF sleepers that start/end at the Spanish border and head north).

Northwesterner....never had those problems at the station. Ther lineups I've seen always seem to be caused by the fact that the Spanish seem to leave things to the very last minute! I used a Spanish rail pass a couple of years ago for trips Madrid-Barcelona, and didn't run into any trouble getting reservations. I would guess they have problems reserving passholder reservations outside of Spain because they work for the Spanish rail company....not SNCF.

Norm -

I actually watched multiple agents checking schedules and booking tickets for me on their reservation system.

They have one screen for schedule look up, and have to write down the a code to enter on the reservation screen.
Their system will not display any connecting trains, only direct if they exist. I wanted to go from Seville to Barcelona all in one day. Two direct trains Seville-BCN, both left later than I wanted. But there are hourly AVE trains Seville-Madrid, and Madrid-BCN. Since I knew this before hand, I asked the agent book the tickets that way. He had to manually input the information, looking up trains on each segment separately, and ticketing the reservation for each segment separately.

If I hadn't done my homework before arriving to make the reservation, I'd have been stuck with the direct train, since that was presented as the "only option" by the agent.

As for making reservations on trains wholly out of Spain, DB can do this, SNCF can do this, OBB can do this, but RENFE can't. She tried, looked the schedule up on DB's website (just like we do here), copied down the train numbers and tried, it just didn't work.

They're using a seriously old reservation system. Watch the agents struggle to book the reservation in Spain, and then watch the ease of the agents do something similar in Germany, France, and even Poland!

When I mentioned my difficulty making reservations in Spain to an SNCF agent in Paris, she told me that it is very diffiult for SNCF to make reservations/sell tickets for trips wholly inside Spain. The computers don't communicate.

That sounds sort of odd that a RENFE agent wouldn't have been aware of the numerous trains between Sevilla and Madrid, and Madrid and Barcelona available. People in the street know that, so why wouldn't RENFE agents? I've had them sell me tickets Sevilla-Segovia without a problem, including making sure I had to take the circanias from Atocha to Chamartin....maybe the kink is in their seat reservations for passholders. I know that DB manages to book reservations just about anywhere.....I hadn't heard that SNCF had that ability to book outside their own country.
That aside, on the original topic of web bookings, I still think RENFE has one of the best ticketing websites around....ALL of your tickets can be printed out at home, and they accept North American credit cards. No need to tell them which country you live in.....or to list all the names and details of passengers travelling on your tickets. Simply choose your run, fill out the name and information of the person paying, and away you go.

Norm -

I'm sure he was aware of them as connections. But when he typed Seville - Barcelona in the computer, only the two daily direct trains came up. And they were the only two he offered me.

I had to ask about connecting in Madrid. He then had to manually enter each segment to pull up the schedule and issue the reservation (two separate seat reservation fees as well on a railpass). It wasn't like DB, where it shows "one transfer" or whatever.

Norm, I booked train tickets from Paris to Avignon and Avig to Nice 2-3 weeks ago on Voyages-sncf.com and was able to print them out at home.

I just booked 2 train tickets on RENFE from Barcelona to Madrid. Hopefully I actually did it right. I printed them out and there is only a place for me to write in our names ~ maybe I could have typed it in, thought it didn't tell me to do that. Does this sound right? The instructions do say "From now, you must bring mandatory your ticket to form for access to train station." Maybe this means it is a document that they will give me a real ticket with? btw, i got a webfare of 53.80 euros compared to 114 mentioned earlier, and I could have paid 45 euros if I wanted to go an hour earlier. Great deal!

Kathy....that top part of the sheet with the train's information, outlined in a "boarding pass" type of frame, is your ticket. You need nothing else.
The part on the lower left for name, etc, labelled "Datos del Cliente" is only for those who may be submitting the ticket as an invoice, suchas those who will claim it as a business expense.
The other quotation just means you'll need your ticket to get onto the train platform, since you have to go thru a brief security check (baggage thru a scanner.)

Oh Norm thank you so much. I was afraid this thread was so old that no one would see my questions. Yes, you are describing my tickets exactly. Thank you!!

I tried to book my Granada-Barcelona tickets on the RENFE website and there were only 4 options available:
- tourista
- cama tourista
- cama preferen
- cama g. clase

I am traveling with my partner and we would like to share a double. How can I ensure I'm booking the right option? Please help!

Elis....far better to start a new post rather than attach to an old one. By starting a new one, you will get all the e-mail notifications of responses, rather than J.D., the original poster....and we'll have to hope you manage to check back into the forum to see any answers.
In any event, you will have to book through the Spanish language version of RENFE's website. Ever since they changed their website a number of weeks ago, there have been problems booking this route in English.
Go to www.renfe.es and select Compra de Billetes. A new screen will open up. If it's forced you onto the English ordering site, then click on Bienvenido at the top left.
Check Ida (one way) and enter Granada and Barcelona, along with the date you want to travel (no more than 62 days out,) and 2 passengers. Click on Buscar.
Select the Trenhotel's Cama Preferen class, then Continuar at the lower right.
In the box labelled Clase, choose the Cama Preferen class again, and over to the right, select 2 in the Doble Familiar box. Then click on Continuar at the lower right. That'll get the two of you in a nice 2-person cabin with your own toilet and washbasin....very comfortable.