I am trying to book AVE tickets from Madrid to Sevilla. I am on teh RENFE ticket sales website.

The problem I am having is on the page where I input customer data. It says it wants an I.D. number. Reading here, I see that as a non-Spanish citizen, I could put in my passport or drivers' license number.

The problem is the fillable form will only take a number that is between 1-8 digits long. My drivers' license is 12 digits long and my passport is 9 digits long. Is there something I am missing or am I correct in thinking that I will not be able to register online? Have others had this problem and found a positive solution?

Another issue, but not as important is that there is a blank for name and a blank for first name and a blank for second name. I assume name means, for example, Jane Doe and first name means "Jane" and second name means "Doe." Does this sound correct?

Thanks for any assistance you can provide!

topping in case anyone knows the answer.

I checked with RENFE last year on the DNI / ID card issue and was told to use my passport or driver's license number. I used driver's license as it fit. Customer service was fairly clear that this field is not really that important for non-Spaniards. Check with them, but I would imagine that the first 8 digits of either passport or driver's license may do the trick.

Do note that you will need ID and the credit card (the actual card) you use to buy the tickets in order to be able to pick them up.

On the names, Spaniards use two surnames. It's poorly translated on their site. So, name is your first name, first name is your first last name, and second name is your second last name. I would imagine you could just fill out name and first name.

I had the same problem last week. I was so frustrated, I typed in 6 random numbers and it worked (I also wrote down those 6 random numbers just in case). For the name, I filled in my first name in one spot, my middle in the other, and my last in surname. I had to change it a couple times to make it be in the right order. Hope this helps! =) Have a great time! I'll be in Spain all next week =)

Just type the first 8 numbers of your 9-digit passport number. It will be valid. I ordered my AVE tickets to Seville this way without a problem last week and received a Localizor Number as a confirmation of my transaction. This is the number you will need to bring with you to pick up tickets.

I did it a couple weeks ago and had the same problems. I just filled in the first 8 digits of my passport number, figuring if they wanted to see it, that would be a logical match.

For my name, I put my middle name in the "first last name" box. As I recall, it would not accept it if you leave one of those name boxes blank.

Thank you for the responses!! I will buy my tickets online!