{"id":225,"date":"2012-07-13T19:42:49","date_gmt":"2012-07-14T02:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/?p=225"},"modified":"2012-07-15T11:59:37","modified_gmt":"2012-07-15T18:59:37","slug":"direct-online-booking-of-renfe-spain-train-tickets-vs-eurail-pass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/?p=225","title":{"rendered":"Direct Online Booking of RENFE Spain Train Tickets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RenfeIn our past two trips to Europe, we have taken two different approaches to train travel in Europe: buying a Eurail pass or buying tickets in person once arriving in the country. \u00a0For our upcoming trip to Spain, we are taking a new approach by booking the tickets directly from the train operator (RENFE in Spain). \u00a0I wanted to share our experience, because we are realizing considerable savings, in addition to the added convenience of having digital copies of our tickets that can be printed before we even depart the United States, allowing us to directly board the train before departure.<\/p>\n

The original plan for our trip was to buy 3-day Eurail passes. \u00a0In comparison to the normal train fares, this seemed like a good value at $219 per person for 2nd class. \u00a0Unfortunately, with rail passes, reservation fees are often required for the faster trains. \u00a0We plan on taking the high speed AVE from Barcelona to Sevilla and the ALTARIA from Granada to Madrid, both which require reservation fees (10 Euros and 6.50 Euros). \u00a0Only one planned trip, a direct from Sevilla to Granada, did not have a fee for pass-holders. \u00a0At today’s bargain USD\/Euro exchange rates, we figured our train travel expenses would be about $240 per person<\/strong>. \u00a0This fit our budget, but I was concerned with procuring a reservation for the Barcelona-Sevilla trip. \u00a0There is only one direct AVE from Barcelona to Sevilla in the morning. \u00a0Although we had no issues getting reservations on the past trip, seats are limited for pass-holders, and I didn’t want to risk waiting till we arrived in Spain to make a reservation on a popular train with few back-up options. \u00a0The only option for getting reservations for pass-holders ahead of time is through the USA-friendly website\u00a0RailEurope.com<\/a>, but they charge additional shipping fees that drive-up the cost. \u00a0I started looking for alternatives.<\/p>\n

With a little research, I discovered that tickets bought directly from the train operator, RENFE, are offered at a significant discount if purchased far ahead of the travel date. \u00a0These discounts apply to long distance trains, such as the two requiring reservations with a pass. \u00a0RENFE offers “Web” fares<\/a> with a 50%-70% discount off the normal price 15-62 days ahead of departure, or until seats allocated to the discounted fare run-out. \u00a0“Estrella” fares<\/a> are also offered at 30%-40% off the normal price 7-62 days (also with limited seats). \u00a0The discounted tickets come with cancellation and change restrictions. \u00a0We booked while the “Web” fares were still available, which reduced the normal combined cost of all 3 trips without a pass from 237 Euros per person ($291\/person at current forex) to 126 Euros ($155\/person<\/strong> at current forex). \u00a0Unfortunately, we had to use a credit card with a 3% foreign transaction fee we wouldn’t need to use with the passes (more on that later), so our savings were around $80\/person (or $160 for the two of us) vs. the Eurail pass option.<\/p>\n

Taking advantage of direct booking for Europe rail tickets can lead to significant savings, but it isn’t easy and requires upfront planning. \u00a0Below are some important tips to help travelers with the process:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Book early<\/em>. \u00a0Our first leg, from Barcelona to Sevilla, is still 58 days out, yet the “Web fare” seats are already sold out! \u00a0Many “Estrella” fares for the same train are already sold-out one month ahead of time. \u00a0If you can plan ahead of time, setup a calendar reminder for 62 days from your planned departure date, and buy as soon as the tickets become available.<\/li>\n
  2. Practice navigating foreign websites<\/em>. \u00a0Many of the rail carrier websites are not optimized for foreign tourists. \u00a0That’s why American-friendly RailEurope.com is able to stay in business by charging extra fees. Go through the process of buying tickets on the direct train carrier’s website for an earlier date to test the system. \u00a0Looking at schedules isn’t enough–in fact, RENFE will only show you the undiscounted ticket price in their “Schedule and Prices” section. \u00a0Users need to actually attempt to purchase tickets<\/a> in order to see the discount options. \u00a0Search the web for tips on how to buy tickets, and be prepared for elements of the website to be in a foreign language. \u00a0For all Europe train lines, Seat61.com<\/a> is an excellent resource on buying tickets. \u00a0For RENFE, there is a great guide on TripAdvisor<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  3. Use a credit card with Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode<\/em>. \u00a0Most American credit cards do not work on European websites. \u00a0From what I’ve read, there is a different and more secure system credit card companies use for online transactions in Europe. \u00a0I tried 3 credit cards on trenitalia last year before giving-up, and I tried several on RENFE this year with no success. \u00a0I then read that the secret is using a credit card with\u00a0Verified by Visa<\/a><\/em> or\u00a0MasterCard SecureCode<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0You can visit Visa or MasterCard’s website to see if any of your cards are eligible for this service. \u00a0By signing-up, every time you purchase something online with a participating vendor, you are asked for a personal password to confirm the transaction in addition to the account number, CVV, and expiration date you usually provide. \u00a0You will want to enroll your card in one of these services before attempting a train ticket purchase. \u00a0RENFE, SNCF (France), and TrenItalia (Italy) all participate. \u00a0This appears to be the trick–we used a Banana Republic Visa that we hardly ever use for the purchase, because it was the first one we found that was eligible for\u00a0Verified by Visa<\/em>. \u00a0Our usual “go-to card” for foreign transactions, our Capital One Visa, does unfortunately not participate. \u00a0We like to use the Capital One because it has no foreign transaction fees. \u00a0The Banana Visa charged a 3% surcharge for all foreign transactions. \u00a0You may have issues with your bank not approving a foreign charge, but this can usually be resolved with a short phone call (and sometimes they will call you!).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    Now that we’ve had success booking directly, I definitely anticipate considering this technique for future trips. \u00a0We learned the Eurail pass isn’t always the best bargain. \u00a0Of course, this method isn’t for everyone–it requires that the trip itinerary be locked-down 2 months ahead of time, and requires a little bit of extra legwork. \u00a0We can look forward to arriving in Spain, however, without the distraction of needing to purchase train tickets.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In our past two trips to Europe, we have taken two different approaches to train travel in Europe: buying a Eurail pass or buying tickets in person once arriving in the country. \u00a0For our upcoming trip to Spain, we are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[52,53,57,8,30,51,21,5],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions\/341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}