emily71

I bought my train ticket from Granada to Seville for 3/29, which is now when the national strike is on. I also have hotel reservations only until the morning of the 29th in Granada and the evening of the 29th in Seville. Haven't heard that much information on the strike and have never been in a country that is on strike. Are my train tickets null and void-can i get a refund and do I need to add an extra night in Granada and one fewer nights in Seville?

If anyone can give me any answers, I'd appreciate it.

Cehegin

I live in Spain and it is difficult to judge how effective the strike will be. Most probably pretty big so
it maybe an idea to talk to the hotels and explain and see if you can change.Your train tickets wont be invalidated....you would need either to go to the station the day of the strike and they will tell you what to do or change you tickets before depending on what you do with your hotel reservations...but that might mean extra cost.
http://theartichokeadventures.blogspot.com/

lincasanova

There are normally minimum services during a strike. a list of affected trains will be posted soon. Right now sales have been suspended. I imagine they are dealing with their website today. Take a look later. You may be lucky.

CathyM

I haven't been very active the last couplemof weeks on the boards so this is the first I've read about the strike. Is it only going to impact transportation or will it extend to other services?

lincasanova

supposed to be GENERAL.. hard to know right now. Might be called off. You never know. That's all we need.

wanderful

emily71:

Last year I was going to Spain at a time of threatened airport strikes. I got up-to-date strike information via this website:

http://www.easytravelreport.com/

In fact, I always check out easytravelreport when I'm traveling in Europe. There are always possible, imminent, ongoing, or canceled strikes. Getting the facts lessens the stress.

Pegontheroad

Thanks so much for posting this. I had planned on going from Madrid to Cuenca on March 29, and I don't know whether the trains would be running.

I thought about renting a car from Atocha, but I wasn't crazy about driving a shift car in Cuenca, which is hilly. I then decided I'd just go on the train a day early.

I called both my hotels--the one in Madrid, and the one in Cuenca--and was able to adjust reservations.

lincasanova

there will be a list of trains affected soon. In fact, who knows. The strike may be called off. But there WILL be some trains to comply with minimum services. So don't fret too much yet. As soon as they publish the list I will post it. You can find info at the renfe.es page up in right hand side that says "AVISOS".

As of now they are not selling any trains for the 29th until they adjust for the strike.

bambrosia

According to easytravelreport.com there appears to be scheduled striking in the Madrid airport on April 8th as well. (I have a flight out of Madrid early that morning)

I also have flights into Barcelona on the 29th from Amsterdam and friends coming from Paris to Barcelona on that same day.

I really have no sense of the level of disruption the strikes can cause. I can't change flights, but I am open to advice on minimizing the hassles as these days are already long travel days for us. At the minimum, I would like to have a better understanding of what to expect.

lincasanova

Not much news out about what the minimum services will be. International flights are usually less affected than domestic. There will be services.. just have to wait and see. I will post the train info ASAP.

I suspect they are trying to get this strike canceled. Let's hope so. Otherwise, there will be hassles but not easy to say for whom yet.

cova

Lin, I don´t think this strike will be cancelled. The trade unions look much more forceful than they were in the general strike two years ago.

Regarding international flights, my manager has a flight back home from Chicago on the 30th, and Iberia cannot guarantee that the flight to Chicago on the 29th will leave Madrid, so it looks bad at the moment.

I will probably try to rely on the minimum services to get to work, but as they haven´t been advertised yet ...

Bye, Cova

lincasanova

I read 40% int'l flights and 20% domestic ( contrary to what I thought) .. thanks for the info.

I am not sure when these minimum services will be posted.. hopefully soon for everyone's sake.

lincasanova

It looks like the final discussions about the strike and minimum transport services are taking place tomorrow. Hopefully the "list" of operating transport vehicles will be posted soon. There will be minimum services for all trains/buses/planes.

Good luck everyone who has their fingers crossed.

CathyM

Any update on the strike? I'm still trying to decide what I can do on Thursday.

P.S. Linda (lincasanova) - it was so nice to meet you and get to know Valencia - a city I believe that is under-hyped and appreciated, at least on this forum!

lincasanova

Hi CAthyM.. hope your last leg of vacation went well. All has been agreed upon they said on the news today. As of a few hours ago nothing was posted yet re public transport schedules but I assume will be SOON!

The Renfe train schedules are still blocked for the 29th. Hopefully they will work on it all night ( ha ha ).

kumarst

Anu update yet on whether or not Los Amarillos buses will run? Living in the States, strikes and resulting disruptions are alien concept to us. Not to say that it never happens here (airline pilots do it from time to time)

lincasanova

As I said above, the lists should be coming out soon. You can check individual websites daily to see when they start selling tickets again. They will only be selling tickets for non strike buses or trains/planes, so it should be self explanatory once these companies adjust their online sales.

kumarst

Oh, thank you - I didn't think that way. Los Amarillos actually appear to be selling that day's tickets online, so looks like I may be ok.

greg

Renfe published the trains that will not run.
http://www.renfe.com/ and follow the link "servicios minimos, dia 29 de marzo"

emily71

Thanks-so it looks like one extra day in Granada for me since the trains aren't running and a change of hotels. Anyone stay at Hostal Lima? I'll see more of Granada-then I want to

If I understand Alsa's website-they won't publish the list of affected buses until the day before the strike? Verdad?