NetBrowser07

Finally succeeded in booking Renfe tickets online and wanted to add my experience (Moderators: Please move this if necessary).

Here are some general points (in random order):

1. American Express does not work. Period.

2. Some people have reported MasterCard work but I could not get it to work (this may be related to #4).

3. Chase has a technical issue with 'Verified by Visa'. They don't admit it but one of the customer services guys mentioned it. This adds up because when using a Chase Visa, the security for 'Verifed By Visa' never pops up.

4. My MasterCard is with Chase so it's possible that they have issues with Master Secure also.

6. Registering your Chase card with 'Verified by Visa' does not work. It says that Chase cards are already 'Verified by Visa' but they don't work on the Renfe site.

5. You have to register your card with 'Verified by Visa'. I registered a VISA Debit Card (Issuing Bank: PNC) with 'Verified by Visa' and got a password.

6. The Renfe site will re-direct you to the 'Verified by Visa' password page where you enter the password.

7. Make sure you call your bank prior to trying the transaction. I messed it up and tried by PNC Card.. it took me to the 'Verified By Visa' page, but PNC blocked it. Renfe then puts some sort of hold on the card and I was not able to run the same card again for 24 hrs.

8. Another card that may have worked was 'Citi AAdvantage American Airlines Card'. It got blocked (because I did not call the bank) but it did bring me to a 'Verified By Visa' page.

9. Renfe phone number does not work.

10. Drop them an email using their site. They do respond back.

11. I did contact 'PetraBax' and they quoted me a price. The price was actually lower (not by much) than what Renfe.com was charging.



So.. 3 steps in order (may work, may not work):

1. Register you card with 'Verified by Visa' (and don't use Chase.. great cards but just does not work)

2. Call bank to let then know a foreign transaction is about to come through.

3. Book the tickets.

Thanks. Hope this helps!

andreadbc

You were probably calling a 902 number (it's like a premium rate number) that will only work when calling from Spain. It's annoying but customer service numbers are commonly 902 numbers instead of toll-free.

X3Skier

Last time I booked Renfe a couple of years ago, I went thru the London office via Skype from the USA. Gave up on the site after similar experiences to the OP.

Cheers

NetBrowser07

I was calling a 902 number. They do respond to email.

brettalb

Thanks for the post. I was going to buy Renfe tickets using my Chase Sapphire Preferred, but it looks like that isn't going to be an option.

NetBrowser07

I wanted to do the same so I would not be charged the foreign transaction fees but it did not work. In the end, paying the 3% fee was worth it to get the discounted tickets.

Amexpat

I successfully booked a couple of rail trips with Renfe online with a Visa card issued in Norway, but the site is buggy and it took a couple of tries. Perhaps there's a difference between US and European Visa cards?

mpeacock

Thanks NetBrowser07. I've been banging my head against the screen for about 24 hours on this. The two Visa cards I tried are with Chase and they're both failing. I was able to book one ticket on a Citi MasterCard but trying to buy a second ticket yielded the dreaded 0022 error. I'll wait 24 hrs and see if I have better luck.

mpeacock

Success! While I waited 24 hrs for Renfe's hold to clear, I re-registered my non-Chase Visa cards with Verified for Visa. Was happy to see the Verified by Visa screen pop up -- it hadn't displayed during yesterday's unsuccessful attempts at booking...

NetBrowser07

Glad I could help!

smilinganddialing

I was able to book the first ticket with no hiccups at all with my Chase United Club Card and it showed me the Verified by Visa verification box which I completed to successfully purchase the ticket.

I'm now trying to book more tickets and it just gives me the same error. I have:

1. Called Chase - they said they aren't even seeing a request on their end
2. Tried to "Activate" Verified by Visa which just sends me to some unclickable page about how Chase has updated their services and I just need to go to Chase.com
3. Tried IE, Chrome, and Safari
4. Tried being logged in and not being logged in
5. Tried clearing cookies and tried from home and work
6. Called RENFE and discussed in my best Castellano and was told they do not accept any foreign credit cards at all. What? This is after I managed to book one already.

I'd rather not use one of my other cards as the entire trip is booked on this card and it has no foreign transaction fees. Any tips?

smilinganddialing

Just a quick followup to the issue above.

1. I tried two different MCs including one from Citi and one from Chase - neither worked
2. Repeated use of the Chase United MileagePlus Club card yielded no success
3. I then used a Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Visa - got Verified by Visa to pop up and it went through. Then I figured there's an issue with Verified by Visa only working so many times in 24 hours so I used a Citi AA Visa card and Verified by Visa popped up again.

Neither Chase nor Citi can explain this issue. I wonder if there's a way to force a Verified by Visa reset.

Good luck to everyone else - I hope this data point helps.

enzian

Once Renfe takes your card the site should continue to recognize it, but there may be other causes of the error message, hard to know what. I had better luck (complete success actually) when I was NOT logged in. If the site seems to be cranky, give up and try later. And if it still fails, try Petrabax or Rumbo.es. Both agencies discount the tickets and then add a handling fee, so it ends up costing a bit more than Renfe. But the transaction should be trouble-free.

SFO777

It's a lot easier to ask your concierge to book them for you. @:-)

smilinganddialing

SFO777 - we don't travel in the style you do yet. One day

I love your TRs - keep them up.

@ enzian - I also tried logging out and just buying them as well. Basically 0 success with MCs, success only with new Visas that had not been used in the previous 24 hours but great customer service from both Citi and Chase (Citi even called RENFE for me - I did the speaking en Castellano).