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I have been trying for several days to book my reservation for a leg of my family’s trip between two Spanish cities. In the booking website I can see the value of each trip but when clicking, there is a message about online booking are not possible and that we should only book at a train station in Madrid.

A friend of mine who lives in Madrid tried to buy the seats for me today with all my details, but she couldn't do it because the person at the station wouldn’t sell th seats if she does not have a QR code in the Eurorail App.

This means we would be only able to book our seats once we get to Spain, for travelling the next day, which is very uncertain and stressing for a family of four with young children. This situation is under no circumstance something mentioned in the global pass Q & A or terms and conditions and it is making the planning of our holidays very stressful.

I would like an explanation ASAP, and exact dates about when we will be able to book online for trains in Spain for travelling in August.

Here's a link where you can see what different possibilities you have to make reservations for domestic Spanish trains.

https://community.eurail.com/train-connections-reservations-47/how-to-get-reservations-105/index2.html?postid=18419#post18419

 

This is absurd, how are travelers supposed to book in advance if the possibilities only include buying face-to-face at offices in some countries (none of those countries is where I live) or via phone call to Renfe? 

Eurail should clearly warn customers beforehand that it is not possible to book domestic trains online in Spain. I would have never bought the global pass should I’ve known this hidden issue.

Hi there - it’s very frustrating isn’t it. I wonder if it mght work if you make the reservations with RENFE by phone and then your friend pick up the reservations in Madrid? I know that you have to collect / pay for in person reservations within 72 hours … the other option that seems to work for people is calling DB reservations who can apparanetly book the reservations for you if you know the train numbers. I;m goingto give this a whirl for my trip in September … good luck!

This is just RENFE, not the most customer-friendly railway company (and that is an understatement). Reservations were possible online via Interrail until the beginning of 2020 and then RENFE shut down the connection many others were using (including Interrail) to book reservations.

There are many more things wrong with RENFE. They don't really deserve passengers but they just keep on coming...

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