Renfe fares
 

Hi,
We are going to Spain in October (Madrid-Cordoba - Granada -Seville - Madrid) and I've bought all the tickets on the Renfe site (actually with no problems) except one because of the following. I discovered that the price of the train from Madrid to Cordoba on the date that I need (Saturday, October 10th) is more expensive than the identical train the week before (6 euros)and the identical train the week after(12 euros). I double checked on loco and it was the same.
I wrote to Renfe customer service to try to understand this. This is the answer that I got:
"Promotional rates are incorporated into the sale according to the constant
> analysis making the pricing system for every market, product, train and
> day. The behavior of these variables generates prices which in any case
> guarantee a homogeneous pattern for each case."

What does that mean??????Has anyone encountered this in the past? Is there any possibility that the "variables" will lower the price in the near future? Is October 10th a special day? I know that October 12th is a national holiday. Do the Spaniards begin celebrating two days in advance?
Thanks.

The following is from the Renfe web site:
"We remind you that these prices are limited and several customers may be requesting at the same time. Price availability is subject to purchase validation."

As indicated, promotional prices vary depening on the number of seats available on a given train. It no different then how the airlines price their seats.

You're looking a traveling on a Saturday, two days before a national holiday. It's when a lot of Spaniards will also be traveling, some going home, others off for the weekend.

I checked the 11:00 AVE 02110. The price difference for a tourist class, P or P+ fares, is 5,60€ between Saturday the 3rd and Saturday the 10th.

Is difference of a few euros going to impact your trip?
Spaniards, like those in other countries, travel during holidays .

What's to understand? Train fares can always vary by date or day of the week or time. What you are expecting doesn't make sense. Of course people take long holidays, just like they do in the US and other countries, to combine weekends with a holiday off.

Where I live, prices remain the same all the time unless there is an overall increase. So it seemed unusual.

It would be a real coincidence if the price of the same train on three separate consecutive Saturdays was identical, wouldn't it?

The same as it being a real coincidence if the same EasyJet, RyanAir or Jet Blue flight had exactly the same price on three consecutive Saturdays.

" where I live"....
other countries ( and companies) in the world
have their own policies.

There are two likely explanations.

1. They know it's right before a holiday and lots of people will be travelling so they can raise the price and still sell the tickets.

2. There were cheaper tickets and some of the Spanish holiday travellers bought them before you had a chance.

I think the first explanation is the right one. And if the difference is only six Euros it's not that bad.

Have you looked at the prices for bus travel on that date? If the cost is that important maybe it would be worth the longer travel time.

Not sure why you find that so strange. Promotional fares (ie the cheaper fares) are limited. So, if for whatever reason more people bought tickets for the date you prefer than in the other dates. it goes to reason that the fare that day would be higher. Hasn't that ever happen to you when looking at plane fares?

Thanks for all the input. Who doesn't love a bargain, but that's not why I wrote the post! I had read quite a few posts on Fodor's and other forums from people who described confusing situation with the Renfe site. I just wanted to check if someone else had experiences this before.