train travel in Spain

No, I am not quite old enough but I know how it works. Have you specific questions, not covered here - http://www.renfe.com/viajeros/tarifas/tarjeta_dorada.html ?

I am mostly interested in "ease of use" questions. If I purchase tickets by machine, can I use the gold card to get the discounts or do I have to buy at a ticket window? Will I run into problems with people not being familiar with the gold card? We're going outside the main tourist areas on this trip and I'm picturing buying tickets at a tiny station (or on a train) and running into confusion about what the card is, what percent discounts, etc. My own confuson with the card involves the various types of trains (private vs Renfe, local vs. various high speed, etc.). Thanks for any help.

I am not aware you can purchase any tickets at a machine with the 'Tarjeta Dorada' (this may be the only point I could be corrected on). So the ticket window/counter. And if 'out in the sticks' you may not find machines when there may be only one station master working or no one at all in attendance at some hours or overnight. All operators will surely be familiar with the card, the volume in circulation amongst older Spaniards. The card is issued by RENFE, the national operator, and you could only use it with them. I am not aware of private networks, unless you show me different. There is another operator in the north of the country, FEVE, but again state owned and you would have to look to them for an equivalent discount card. If you look to the RENFE schedules, you will discover the train type and therefore the appropriate discount as per the link I gave. Does this cover it?

Last year, we purchased the Tarjeta Dorada. It costs 5.05Euro. There is a 40% discount on tickets if you travel on Mon-Thur. It's a 25% discount if you travel Fri-Sun. We purchased our tickets at the ticket windows. Not sure about machines.

I bought one last year at the El Corte Ingles travel office in Madrid (1 Euro above the rail station cost), then bought my point to point tickets there also. It was a very economic way to go. This year I decided to pre-purchase my tickets on-line. There are great discounts available when you buy 62 days in advance. I could't get them for October travel until only 50 days out because of the semi-annual schedule change. I did get them and felt I saved much more this way over the Tarjeta Dorada.

The Tarjeta Dorada discount varies depending on the type of train and day of the week. For AVE trains, the discount is 40% Monday through Thursday and 25% Friday through Sunday. The Avant trains are almost the opposite: 25% Monday through Friday, 40% Saturday - Sunday. As Jack pointed out, you can get a better discount on AVE trains any day of the week by purchasing well in advance on renfe.com. The Web fare is 60% off. We saved hundreds of euros on our train travel in Spain last year by using Web fares. We were eligible for Tarjeta Dorada discounts, but the Web fares were way better, particularly as our most expensive trip ( Barcelona to Madrid) fell on a Saturday.