petrabax vs. renfe
 

after countless futile attempts to purchase train tkts in spain from the renfe site, i finally swithced to petrabax. what a pleasure!!! could someone please tell me what the disadvantage to using petrabax might be? did i probably end up paying more for my tkts?
thanks so much!

It depends.
If you were a lucky one who managed to make Renfe work, then you paid perhaps up to 20% premium - disadvantage.
If you were resigning to pay the last minutes fare, but found web discount, then even with Petrabax premium, you paid 50% of the last minutes fare, since Petrabax does offer Renfe's discount fares - advantage.
Raileurope is supposed to be now offering Renfe offers. I have not tried this route yet.

The advantage is to be able to buy your tickets without the hassle of trying to use the Renfe site. And yes, you will pay more. Petrabax is the official agent in North America, but they are not a part of Renfe and thus have to make a profit. It's a business.

The price difference is a combination of the margin (profit and expenses for Petrabax) and the foreign exchange rate, as with anyone not on the Euro, Petrabax has to pay Renfe in Euros and everyone along the line adds a markup. But overall, the savings in time and aggravation is worth it.

If you buy your tickets early enough, you will find some discounts through Petrabax, but since Renfe has cut back on the number of seats available for discounts, luck always plays a hand.

thanks so much!

Man in Seat 61 recently posted that RailEurope is now using the renfe.com site and fares but does add $7 per ticket onto the price - small charge for the ease of ordering in case renfe.com balks as it often does it seems from scores of complaints on Fodor's.

www.seat61.com has a commercial link to RailEurope so see if that is really true and if so may be the best way for others to get renfe.com rates with a small surcharge for the convenience.