Thanks to all the help from this forum, I have been working on my train tickets. After using RENFE & Petrabax websites for info, as well as Seat61, I went to the raileurope.ca site to purchase the tickets.
I found out that RENFE is now releasing schedules and pricing 120 days in advance, instead of the previous 62.
Using raileurope.ca, I booked our tickets Barcelona - Madrid on AVE for $72 CAD pp including fees for Sept 28, and Madrid - Granada on Alteria for $43 CAD pp, all in for Oct 3. Our seats were selected and reserved for when we received our tickets by email.
I beliieve that is only a $14 fee total for two people for two trips! Pretty reasonable.
I printed the tickets out from the email they sent me, and we are good to go.
I think these rates are pretty cheap and comparable to the best rates I saw on RENFE, but I could stand to be corrected on that.
Anyway, hope this is useful to any else buying tix for Spain.

It's difficult to believe that you were able to purchase tickets cheaper from Rail Europe than directly from Renfe. It's something I've never experienced. But if you think you got the best deal, then good for you!

Renfe's web fares are still less expensive then the Rail Europe rates for these days. Barcelona/Madrid web fares run from 35-58 euros and Granada to Madrid is 27 euro.

After three days of trying on renfe's site with several credit and debit cards, I was finally successful with purchasing my tickets from Madrid to Barcelona - didn't get them to print yet but I have the reference number so I can print them at the station if worse comes to worse....

The renfe web price was €36/$44 versus $65 plus about $13 service charge on RailEurope so you can save a bit if you have the patience to keep trying.....

I'm in the US....

In my case my Visa cards didn't seem to work even though one of them brought up a screen from Verified by Visa....the card that ultimately worked was a Master Card.

I had read that one should try to get into the Verified by Visa program - I spent most of an afternoon trying that and was told by Capital One that they are no longer in the program, another bank never heard of it and Citibank said that you apply when the merchant asks you....

I have been trying for a few weeks now to buy tickets from Madrid to Barcelona. I looked at both Renfe and Rail Europe. The date that we want (Oct 7) was blocked on Renfe and not available for web purchase on Rail Europe. I found out today that there is a Real Madrid / Barcelona match in Barcelona on Oct 7. So I think that means we're out of luck and we'll be either flying or taking a bus. Who knew?!

Renfe does not block out trains for a football gave. What it means is that the tickets are not yet available (From the Petrabax web site: Reservations not available more than 62 days before your trip).

You can check tickets at Petrabax.com if you're having problems buying them online from Renfe. Petrabax is the official rep in North America, not Rail Europe.

Robert2533 - there are Renfe tickets available on some routes in Spain 120 days out, of which Madrid to Barcelona is one. I bought my tickets on that route for a date in mid November from the renfe site today. They were also available on RailEurope at a higher price though.

Of course tickets are available, which the Renfe website is working properly. For those located outside of the EU it can be a problem.