Interrail and Eurail passholders rejoice, as you can now skip the queues and reserve your seats on long- and medium-distance RENFE trains online.
Rail Europe, a European train booking platform, has expanded its offering to include trains operated by Spain’s state-owned railway, eliminating a major hurdle that has dogged rail passholders for years.
“The addition of RENFE’s passholder fares to our platform is a game-changer for travellers eager to explore Spain with ease,” says Jürgen Witte, Chief Product and Technology Officer of Rail Europe. “This enhancement ensures Interrail and Eurail Global Pass holders can navigate its world-class rail system seamlessly.”
With the new service, passholders can easily see if a seat reservation is required for their journey and what the associated costs will be.
From there, they can make their reservation online, eliminating the need for time-consuming in-person bookings where a lack of Spanish language skills is sometimes an issue.
What’s the problem with booking RENFE seats with a rail pass?
While many Interrail and Eurail trains don’t require seat reservations, Spanish high-speed trains – the Alta Velocidad Española (AVE) – do.
Although Interrail purports to allow bookings on some AVE trains via its self-service system, users report extensive issues in getting the platform to work. Some trains available on Interrail/Eurail are not bookable via the self-service system at all.
Previously, the only option to secure a seat reservation without buying a ticket on a RENFE high-speed train was to call the company. The traveller would then have to go to a RENFE station to pick up and pay for the reservation within 72 hours of booking, which is often not convenient.
“In Spain, almost all trains, apart from purely suburban ones, require a reservation, and RENFE’s own website doesn’t offer passholder reservations,” explains train travel expert Mark Smith, who runs the website The Man in Seat 61.
“Furthermore, Spanish trains can leave fully booked, so you ideally need to book ahead. This was a major issue for using an Interrail or Eurail pass in Spain.”
Smith warns that, particularly on peak travel days, such as Fridays and Saturdays in the summer months, queues can be atrocious. At major stations in Madrid and Barcelona, passengers can wait as long as one or two hours to be served.
The complexity has caused confusion and frustration among travellers. On the Eurail forum, one user said, “Not gonna jump through hoops to go to Spain. I’ll cancel the Spain leg and stay in France.”
How to book seat reservations with RENFE
To reserve a seat on a RENFE high-speed AVE train, simply head to the Rail Europe website.
Click ‘add rail pass’ below the journey planner and select the type and class of pass you hold. Then, you can search for a journey as normal, but you should only see the passholder reservation costs rather than the normal ticket costs.
Smith notes that the Rail Europe system defaults to a second-class reservation in the search results. Holders of first-class passes need to manually change the price drop-down if they want to reserve a first-class seat.
There are other options for booking seats on RENFE with a pass. These include using Dutch agency HappyRail, which has proven to be successful at booking seats on AVE trains, but charges a 3.5 per cent fee.
Interrail and Eurail reservation services have been available since 2023, but success is patchy. Smith notes that, when the systems do work, they allow booking in first or second class, but not in the ‘premium’ class that gets passholders Sala Club lounge access and a meal with wine included on AVE and Euromed trains.
Smith has long recommended Rail Europe as a booking service for Interrail and Eurail passholders, as it has more seat choices, more benefits for first-class passholders, and no booking fees.
“This is a big step forward,” says Smith, “and if one system won’t get you the reservation you want, try the other.”
Where can you travel with RENFE?
RENFE operates a comprehensive route network across Spain, with both its AVE (high-speed) and Larga Distancia (long-distance) trains. On the map below, the purple lines are AVE trains, and the grey lines are the slower long-distance routes.
As well as travelling within Spain, RENFE connects to several international destinations. These include Oporto in Portugal and several destinations in France.
From 23 April, RENFE will launch a new direct Seville-Barcelona train service, cutting out the transfer in Madrid and making it easier to get between the two popular cities.
Along the way, it stops in Córdoba, Puertollano, Ciudad Real, Madrid, Zaragoza, Lleida, Tarragona, and Girona, which are all attractive destinations to visit, too. The high-speed service takes around six hours and is set to make travel between the south and northeast of Spain a much more convenient option.
