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How to book/reserve seats for Spanish trains? (Dummy edition)

  • 13 May 2023
  • 8 replies
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Matthew Kerr
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Hi all!

As mentioned above, I'm quite a dummy on understanding how to book trains; especially for the Spanish trains - it doesn't help that I've heard booking Spanish trains are trickier than the others!! I've had a search through the online community, and while helpful, it still doesn't answer some questions for me, like which website I should book, do I need to book in person/over the phone. My bookings are as follows:

- May 16: Barcelona to Madrid (afternoon trains, no ticket booked yet)

- May 19: Madrid to Barcelona (afternoon trains, no ticket booked yet)

​​​​​- May 22: Barcelona to somewhere in Paris (going to Disneyland on 24th, but want to stay as close to Paris Disneyland as possible as our Eurail pass runs out on this date)

Thank you in advance!

​​​​

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Best answer by thibcabe 13 May 2023, 11:28

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T
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Barcelona - Madrid : go to the first Spanish train station you encounter as soon as you enter Spain (holiday weekend so more people travelling). As there are many trains between the two cities, you are quite flexible.

22nd May : TGV Barcelona - Paris 14:32 - 21:21. Book ASAP on eurail.com, there are only 4 seats left (morning train sold out).

Paris - Disneyland is not covered with the pass as are all RER trains (and subways) across Paris

R
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Pass reservations for Spanish domestic trains cannot be booked online. Spanish railways (Renfe) don't want that anymore. If you're in Spain, go to the ticket office. There's also a list of known options here:

Barcelona ↔ Madrid has lots of trains and there are still many trains available on the dates you mentioned.

The TGV Barcelona-Paris can be booked online on eurail.com or by phone via SNCF and a number of other operators, see this post:

The morning TGV from Barcelona on 22 May is fully booked. The afternoon TGV still has seats available. Book it ASAP. Reservation is €35 plus booking fee (if any).

Please ask questions in the community and not via a private message. That's the quickest way to get a response. I don't work for Eurail/Interrail.
Matthew Kerr
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Amazing information and details as usual, thank you in advance, will do this once we get into Barcelona!!

Matthew Kerr
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Just to clarify that going to any Spain train station is for reserving seats only? Will I still need to use my Eurail pass to book tickets to and from the Spanish cities? 

R
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Just to clarify that going to any Spain train station is for reserving seats only? Will I still need to use my Eurail pass to book tickets to and from the Spanish cities? 

Reservations and pass are completely separate.

Your pass is your ticket. With the mobile pass, you always need to add the trains you take to your pass, since that will generate a QR code, which is the ticket you show to the ticket inspector. Adding a train to your pass doesn't book anything though. It's just the digital equivalent of writing a train on the trip report of a paper pass.

Please ask questions in the community and not via a private message. That's the quickest way to get a response. I don't work for Eurail/Interrail.
T

Just to clarify that going to any Spain train station is for reserving seats only? Will I still need to use my Eurail pass to book tickets to and from the Spanish cities? 

Reservations and pass are completely separate.

Your pass is your ticket. With the mobile pass, you always need to add the trains you take to your pass, since that will generate a QR code, which is the ticket you show to the ticket inspector. Adding a train to your pass doesn't book anything though. It's just the digital equivalent of writing a train on the trip report of a paper pass.

Regarding seat reservation costs, the question is: can I know in advance the price of the seat reservation I'm going to purchase?

I'm interested in two Spanish domestic routes, both on the 27th of June:

- train AVE 5080 from Madrid Chamartin (08:30) to Valencia Joaquin Sorolla (10:19)

- train EUR 1192 from Valencia Joaquin Sorolla (19:15) to Barcelona-Sants (22:15)

For both journeys, the website interrail.eu shows a price of 12€ in 2nd class and 25.50€ in 1st class. While the Renfe website shows prices starting from 30.90€ (Madrid-Valencia) and from 38€ (Valencia-Barcelona).

 

As I am a Global Pass holder living in Europe (Italy), which price am I going to pay when I will make the reservation physically in a Spanish train station?

 

Thank you for your help.

BrendanDB
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The price on the Interrail website, - 2 EUR (service fee of Interrail) 

T

The price on the Interrail website, - 2 EUR (service fee of Interrail) 

Wow, that's cool! Thanks ;)

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