A friend who was having trouble at the RENFE site said when she called they informed her to only use Internet Explorer, to type in the correct URL, www.renfe dot com, NOT to use google or Chrome or others. Sure enough, after that all the pages loaded perfectly in English and she apparently had no trouble booking her trains.

Hopefully this MIGHT help someone. The customer service on the phone even admitted what a mess the website has been.

With IE a minority browser these days, that's SUCH bad practice for ANY professional website!

Two back-up sites which connect directly to Renfe's ticketing system, if you can't get Renfe.com to work (or, even if it works, accept your credit card):

1. www.loco2.com - exactly same prices, trains, self-print tickets and lack of any booking fee as renfe.com. The ONLY downside is that unlike renfe itself, it can't let you choose a specific seat.

2. www.petrabax.com/renfe - small mark-up on renfe, but same self-print tickets.

thanks.. yes.. they are hoping to fix the glitches but who knows. Amazing others have been able to and not them. Good to know about loco2.com.

Man in.... my thoughts too. I also wonder which is the min version of IE that should be used.
And to be fair to RENFE. I have found lot of Spanish government websites do not work in anything other than IE or one receives a warning about some sort of problems with scripts. Hay ho that is Spain for you!

Writing about RENFE, has anyone paid by paypal yet?

Good to know! I am needing to book soon and would have used chrome had I not seen this and most likely would have pulled my hair out of my head wondering what was wrong!

let's hope it DOES work for you.

I have heard of leaves on the line for reasons for delays, but goats on the line? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e20VcaWhV0
Now you know why IE is so popular. Love Spain.

I had days of trouble getting renfe to accept any of my credit cards, but PayPal went through immediately

Lin, The experience with your friend is interesting. Before my trip to Spain I was ecstatic that the Renfe website worked for me! I used Google Chrome. The only different thing I did from other times I've tried is that I registered with Renfe.

This was a friend using the site here in Spain with a Spanish credit card to boot!

I just used RENFE a month or so ago and my problem wasn't the website but that they would not accept my American credit cards. The message claimed my bank wouldn't allow it, but I called them and they said they had never gotten the transmittal (the credit card), so it was not them. And I tried two different cards.

So I ended up using Paypal and it worked but I was not happy as Paypal charges a 2.5% foreign transaction fee, you can't escape it. My credit cards don't charge any. I called Paypal to complain and said I couldn't even find that anywhere on their website and they finally pointed to some small print in an obscure part of their terms that says they do that. It doesn't matter what credit card you use with Paypal, it is Paypal doing it.

I couldn't get Chrome or Firefox to work w/ RENFE and ended up using Raileurope (for tickets booked at the last minute). Did I get screwed? I compared prices and they were similar. Is the only advantage of RENFE the advance promotions?

If the prices are the same, how could you have gotten screwed? I'm not understanding. Although I thought you usually had to pay a large mailing fee from Raileurope, also. It used to be Raileurope's prices were a lot higher than a country's own website, but they have some better deals now. For last minute, they should be closer.

The bottom line is what you paid, that's all, and whether you actually have the tickets.

After all these years and feeble attempts,how very sad and embarassing that RENFE has failed to create a user friendly site.

I meant to imply that I might have gotten screwed by not purchasing sooner. I waited until several days before each trip.

I also had lots of frustrating issues with the Renfe site when planning our vacation in Spain. Then someone mentioned Loco2.com which was a breeze, and even better, when we decided to make some changes (after already purchasing some tickets) their customer service was excellent in helping us make the change. But unlike what Man_in_seat_61 posted here, they do charge for "Credit card handling fee" and you pay in British Pounds. Still, well worth it!

Pricing on Loco2 is in UK pounds or Euros.
https://loco2.com/booking-terms-and-conditions#pricing
As to the fees. (and please remember IANL)that the fees could be breaking the law(s).
http://www.out-law.com/en/topics/fin...s-regulations/
***The Regulations are intended to apply only to payment surcharges, not to other forms of surcharge which are unrelated to the method of payment. This means that traders are free to continue charging administration charges, booking fees and so on, provided that they do not relate to the method of payment used.***
***If a trader imposes a payment surcharge on a customer which exceeds the trader's costs related to the particular payment method, the trader may be required by the relevant enforcement authority to give a suitable undertaking or face injunction proceedings. The trader will also be liable to repay the excess to the customer.***

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/secto...c/index_en.htm

Used IE to buy tickets tonight. All good, til we got to paying. Credit card rejected. I ended up paying with paypal. No fees, just the conversion from euros to dollars at about the going exchange rate.

The RENFE site is the leading cause of people walking the 500 mile Camino.