I am looking for rail tickets from Madrid-Granada and Seville-Madrid. I checked on both Renfe and Rail Europe and the prices seem to be the same. Since navigating Renfe
seems to be quite difficult, what is the advantage of using Renfe?? I am looking for first class tickets.
Thank you for anyone that might "know" the system.

Renfe's website should show you the discounted fares too, if still available. I don't think RailEurope sells the discounted Renfe fares.

These are web fares and Estrella fares, which offer 40-60% off regular price.

Here's the link to Maribel's Renfe tutorial:
http://maribelsguides.com/mg_renfe_tutorial.html

Rail Europe is never a good deal in Spain when you can purchase the discounted web fares (40 to 60%).

If you do use Rail Europe, you will not be able to reserve a train on-line unless it's done through Rail Europe. There will also be a reservation fee for any booking of the high-speed trains.

I think I understand the problem now as explained in Maribel's renfe tutorial. After choosing my language as English (which is the only language I speak unfortunately), I am being switched to a web site that discount fares do not appear.
Robert, thank you for your response, but I do not understand your last paragraph. "If you do use Rail Europe, you will not be able to reserve a train on-line unless it's done through Rail Europe. and, who charges a reservation fee for any booking of the high-speed trains? Sorry, this paragraph does not make sense to me, lol. Must be the language problem again that I have.

I don't speak/read Spanish, and I was still able to purchase 4 separate tickets via renfe.com last year, and saved a huge chunk of money taking advantage of the WEB fares. It's not that difficult. Don't forget that RailEurope also charges shipping fees if you buy from them.

Here's a link to an English step-by-step guide on how to purchase tickets on Renfe.com. Scroll down just a tad, under the <b>Step-by-step instructions for using key train ticket websites...</b> heading, click on the "Spanish Railways" link.
http://www.seat61.com/Europe-train-tickets.htm

Thank you yk. I am going to give it a try. My husband speaks some Spanish so we will be brave and glad to save the euro.! The website you suggested seems to be very helpful.
Again, gracias!

BTW, there have been reports in the past about Renfe's website NOT accepting US credit cards. However, I think that issue has been resolved since.

Make sure you disable your pop-up blocker when you do your purchase. The ticket "pops up" in a PDF file.

Come back and let us know if you have any trouble, and I'm sure other Spain experts can help.

You can also call Renfe's int'l line and get all the fares EXCEPT the webfare. So, when no webfare is showing, if you have some booking problmes just call them.

Remember with the first class tickets you get VIP Room before departure access.

On the Seville to Madrid ticket, they do not have Web fares or estrella fares just adult, carnet joven, nino or tarjeta dorado. In your opinion, are all the web fares and estrella fares already purchased or are they just not available for this train?
On the Madrid to Granada, they have estrella fares but no web fares. Same question----will they have web fares later or do you think they are already sold?
No advantage to purchasing with Renfe on the Seville to Madrid ticket and only a small reduction on the Madrid to Granada.
Any opinions????

When are you traveling? If you are traveling soon, that probably is a good chance the discounted fares have been sold out.

If you are going to buy full fare tickets, you can wait until you arrive in Spain and buy your tickets then.

I think what Robert2533 meant (I'm not 100% sure), is if you buy your tickets via RailEurope, they will first sell you the ticket, then you have to pay extra to RailEurope for the seat reservation on the AVE. Plus the shipping costs.

If you buy tickets via renfe, the ticket you buy comes with a seat reservation automatically, so there are no extra charges in addition to the face value of the ticket.

At least that's my interpretation of his post.

We are travelling from Madrid to Granada on October 12 and Seville to Madrid on October 23. Tickets are available for purchase on the Seville to Madrid trains but not on the Madrid to Granada trains yet.

Another question, please----when purchasing the tickets, it asks for number of tickets on the first page, but when purchasing the ticket, it only asks for one person's information. Can I purchase tickets for my husband and I in the same transaction or do I have to make two different transactions for separate tickets?

That is a huge holiday weekend. So I am not sure too many more cheap fares will come up if the Estrella fare is already loaded. You can wait a bit and see. Recently someone posted that no reduced fares were available and then later they were posted. But as i said, being a holiday weekend may change that.

You can buy tickets for more than one person. They are only askig for one person's name for the credit card purchase. These tickets are totally transferrable. No name is on them.

Rail Europe is a Ticket-Broker organization that I believe operates out of Westchester County, NY. Renfe is 'Red Naciónal de Ferrocariles Español.' It's just like anywhere else: use a broker and be prepared to pay for their services

You can buy a SpainPass (railpass) at most major Renfe City locations: just show passports with entry stamp. With the SpainPass you have to buy reservations for each leg of your journey in addition

Which weekend is a huge holiday weekend -- the 10th and 11th or the 23rd? Just for a heads up!
Thank you all very much for the information. I am going to go ahead and purchase my tickets on Renfe. My first plunge into the pool of my experiencing the Spanish life.
I will let you know how it turns out.

good luck!

october 10-12

Two more questions--be patient, lol.
I have signed up with the log in and a password. The instructions of how to buy tickets from Tripadvisor and seat 61 do not instruct you to sign on to that first. I know it must be important to have that information attached to the purchase if there are any problems or if you want to go back and check your reservations at some point. Both Tripadvisor and seat 61 tell you to go straight to the renfe.es site and start purchasing tickets. I do not see anywhere in this process that you put in your Renfe username and password. I hope this question make sense.
Secondly, what is the "selectionar plaza graficamente"? Does it allow you to pick your seat or is allowing Renfe to pick your seat or none of the above.
Thank you again. I will get this done with you help.

I don't think I ever set up an account when I bought my tickets.

yk,
on the seat 61 instructions, sixth paragraph, it says, "it is a good idea to register at this stage, rather than continue to use their site as a guest, even if you're only going to buy one ticket, as you can then log in and retrieve your booking if for any reason a connection fais or the ticket pop-up fails to appear (if you're registered, you can also log in to change or cancel bookings)."
It just that during the process of purchasing, it does not call for your user name and password. Oh, well. Thanks again!!

I don't remember the exact details now, since it's been a year and a half since I was in Spain. When you go thru the ticket purchase process, doesn't it ask you for an email address?

Again, I did not register for an account, but I definitely have entered my email address. After each purchase, I received an email confirmation which also has the locator #. So if you failed to print out the pop-up ticket, you can still go to the email for the locator # and use that to pick up your ticket at the train station.