trouble buying Spain train tickets on Renfe...

After numerous tries I gave up on Renfe last summer and reluctantly went with Rail Europe. The price of the tickets was higher, but I had no complaints about the service. The tickets were delivered promptly via mail for a rather high service fee.

Nancy, there are detailed instructions on the Tripadvisor website, on the "Spain" forums page. You might try going through that. But they also warn that it is pretty random-sometimes it works, sometimes not. They suggest you keep trying, at different times of the day. If that fails, there is a British travel service that will buy them for you. They charge a fee, but they will get the early fare discounts, like "web" and "estrella" if applicable. I think the website is on that TA page. You fill out a form and then call them with your order. I'm interested in the success (or lack of success) that others have, as I'll be trying to buy tickets myself in a few weeks.

I was able to buy from Renfe last year, but not on the first attempt. On the tripadvisor website, there is a very detailed post with info on using Renfe online site. If you have not read through this info, I'd suggest you look at it to see if anything helps. I would never have been able to buy without these instructions: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187514-c80518/Madrid:Spain:Buying.Renfe.Tickets.Online..html Read through the whole thing. They also give you the name of a travel agency if renfe does not work. A couple of key things for me:
1) I used the Spanish language website (and not the English version). There were reports that people had issues on the English site whereas not on the Spanish site. I don't speak Spanish, but I used a combination of the tripadvisor info and google translate to translate those things I did not understand. 2) I did this during business hours in Europe 3) On my first attempt, I got some kind of rejection. The next day, my credit card's fraud department called me to tell me about an attempt on my credit card that they rejected. I told them that I had made the attempt and still wanted to make the purchase. They changed something about my profile. When I tried again, the purchase worked. 4) I had to sign up for the "verified by visa" service and use this in the course of the purchase. Good luck!

Thanks all. Yeah, I had read that long article on Trip Advisor. And so have continued trying but no luck yet. I suppose I may end up trying Rail Europe (seems like it's a wash between using it and the UK organization which charges a lot to send you the ticket.) Or, I have a friend in Madrid who is traveling at the moment but if I decide to push my luck a bit I might be able to get him to buy a ticket for me. Hopefully the train I want won't sell out by then. Thanks.

Hi Nancy I was able to buy tickets last year. I printed out the info from Trip Advisor and from Norm on this web site to help with the Spanish part. I called my credit card Capital One before I tried to buy. I used the website in Spanish ( i have read that this is important) and was able to see all the trains and different prices. Using the information I had printed it was pretty easy to fill everything in, especially like address and phone numbers. My transaction went through the first time (I know, I am probably very lucky) and I printed my tickets right away. CapitalOne called me immediately to make sure it was a legit transaction. They then took all my travel information for my trip so that my card, if I needed it, would not be rejected. It will save you about half price to buy early so I try whatever if takes, even if you have your friend buy for you as the name is not important. I bought for three people and it never asked for any other names. Good luck - I have read enough posts to know that it is not always easy.

Look for the posting of Norm referenced above. I followed that in the fall and had no difficulty. As I recall I clicked the box on the right hand top side of the first page and got directly to the purchase path. Be sure to notify the bank before you make the purchase. good luck.

Thanks all. I managed to buy the ticket on the first shot by using the Spanish site. It's not hard after you've tried in English 100 times :). Success at last... thanks everyone who recommended trying the Spanish site.

Bueno! did you also sign up for Verified by Visa? I am trying to figure out how to do that in advance of trying to purchase from Renfe.

I ended up buying with a Mastercard debit card. I got a pop up window asking me to sign up for their SecureCode program, which is probably the equivalent of the Visa Verified program. So I did sign up for it.