Alternatives to Renfe for Spanish Rail Tickets
 

I know I am not the first one to have these problems, but I simply could not get Renfe to process my payment correctly, and I tried multiple cards. Now, it is saying all of the seats are unvailable for P+ (Promo +) pricing, when almost all seats on the train were available 3 hours ago and yesterday. Maddening! Anyway, I am also trying Petrabax as an alternative, but it only has P, which offers no seat selection. We are allowing ourselves about 3 hours to land in Madrid and catch the train. This will be March 16. We have 4 people, including two children (9 and 14). Has anyone else experienced any trouble not having a seat assignment (we are going Madrid to Cordoba at around 4:30 pm on a Saturday via AVE)? Are there any other good sites I should consider for making the purchase that offer good discounts?

You can't choose your seat when buying the deeply discounted P option, but a seat will be assigned when you purchase your tickets. If you purchase all 4 at the same time, the odds are that you will be seated together. All seats on AVE trains are reserved seating only.

If you have any questions, you can always call Petrabax.

Thanks Robert!! That helps a lot! I am also looking at Rumbo.es for discounts. Looks like good pricing. Anyone have experience with that site?

>>>process my payment correctly, and I tried multiple cards.<<<

Did you contact your credit card companies before attempting to purchase so they wouldn't block the charge?

We had already contacted the card companies when we started making hotel reservations, so I do not think that is the issue.

The issue is with Renfe's program, not their credit cards.

According to Man in Seat 61's site I read that RailEurope is now using Renfe ticketing fare pricing but is adding $7 onto the cost. Now I do not know if this is so but try contacting RailEurope or using their web site www.raileurope.com to see if fares for Spanish trains match www.renfe.com's - actually for any RailEurope product or info I'd call Byron at www.budgeteuropetravel.com - a RailEurope agent I have used for years for railpasses - very knowledgeable and helpful - but I think that you should have little problem of getting on trains Madrid to Cordoba on a late Saturday afternoon - there are so so many trains on that AVE route - I guess the worst would be you may have to pay for first class is 2nd class for some unforseen reason was not available.

dTry Petrabax (the US agent for Renfe). I see fares for your date and time for $52. They are easy to use. Put Petrabax Renfe into your search engine. You can also call them at 1-800-634-1188 for into, but book online, it is cheaper.

I also should add that we recently booked our tickets with them (we are traveling with friends), and since we purchased it as one purchase, we are all sitting together. They could not guarantee it, but it seems to happen that way.

I ended up acquiring my tickets through Renfe. I used a credit card that I had almost forgotten we had. None of my Visa cards worked, but this one MasterCard worked. I really appreciate all the input. I may yet need to try some of those other resources, as I have more rail tickets to book!! On a side note, I had a blast getting Alhambra tickets through the Spanish Ticketmaster site too. My bank told me I had to call them to get the tickets because it would not go through online. The customer service person was very helpful, but it was time consuming.

dan_woodlief, you were lucky. Renfe has been very freckle the last couple of years.

very freckle>

and very fickle too - so so many complaints and frustrations you wonder if Renfe ain't doing it on purpose to foil ferriners from grabbing cheaper tickets and having to pay full price?

Hi. Have been trying for the last week and just booked late May on Petrobax. Buena suerte!

Congrats on getting your tickets. I've just checked Renfe site and Mar 16, 16:35 departure even shows up with M fare which is cheaper than P or P+. As far as CC goes I had similar problem with purchasing on French SNCF site. Call to CC (was MC issued by Chase) resolved the problem. If Renfe is using "Verified By" CC feature then not every CC supports it.

There's a very useful report re negotiating RENFE's nightmare of a website at:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-...ts.Online.html

RENFE vis Trenitalia for most flummoxing, frustrating and generally uncooperative site?