Last week, I was trying to book tickets for travel between Barcelona and Madrid on the relatively-new AVE high-speed rail line. I soon realized that the price quoted on the website of RENFE, Spain’s national railway, depended on the language in which you chose to conduct your searches.
When I searched the site earlier that day from my office, I searched in Spanish. A one-way ticket from Barcelona to Madrid could be had for around 44 euros on a “tarifa Web,” their Internet special fare with 30 day advance purchase.
When I was at home, ready to finalize my purchase, I opted to search with the site language set to English. The price was nearly 110 euros.
(On the positive side, RENFE’s full-fare ticket is still less than the $253 per person that Rail Europe is charging… Where on earth is that fare coming from?…)
A little digging revealed that the Spanish-language RENFE site offered three tiers of ticket, including the deep-discounted 15-day advance purchase “Tarifa Web” and the discounted 7-day advance purchase “Tarifa Estrella.” (Terms of which are described here.)
The English-language site only offered the full-price fare, with an indication of how much that fare would cost if you bought it in the station vs. on the web. Web and Estrella fares were missing.
My one year of high school Spanish, limited travel experience in the Spanish-speaking world, and Google Translate were enough to figure out what I was buying on the Spanish-language site. And I was able to get the lower fare, using a US billing address and an American Visa card, with two tickets costing less than one ticket on the English site. But why is this necessary?
A quick search shows that other English-speakers have had similar experiences, and that some users have been unable to complete a purchase at all.
The bothersome part is that RENFE has actively constructed a site that looks and acts differently for different users, based solely on their language. It’s not based on your IP address, or your billing address. It affects Americans, Britons, and anyone who opts for English in the same way.
I just did another search, for different dates, and it’s not just a fluke. It’s systematic. Here’s a screenshot of Spanish-language search results (note that fares in the search images below are different from what I booked):
And here’s the same search, on the English site:
A very different look on the English site. And no discounts.
(The two-price system reminds me of a trip through eastern Europe in 1992. At the Vilnius train station, where I was trying to buy a ticket to Warsaw, the rail station cashiers had a simple standard for outsiders: The fare was 200. 200 rubles, dollars, Deutschmarks, whatever. Your nationality determined your currency. It always cost 200.)
Segmenting your customers, and pitching different products to them accordingly, is one thing. Discriminating against them wholesale is quite another.
——
UPDATE 1:
An unnamed RENFE representative writes in:
Subject: Renfe website doesn’t charge double
The information found in the Upgrade Travel Better blog, stating that the price for tickets purchased in the English language option on Renfe’s website is much more expensive than in the Spanish version, is incorrect. The prices referred to in the above-mentioned information relate exclusively to the Timetables Search section; legally, Renfe is obliged to publish the prices to which the various discounts are applied. However, when tickets are actually acquired (by pressing the shopping trolley icon) the purchaser is taken directly to the ticket purchase application, which shows all special offer prices, identically in all languages. The area designed for purchasing tickets also has an English version.
As I indicated in my comment last night, it is indeed possible to find the discounted web fares. But this misses the point: The initial English quoted price is still double the initial Spanish quoted price. Why would anyone who searches in English assume that the price would go down from there? There’s no indication on the initial English search page that web or estrella fares even exist.
Renfe’s English site is the equivalent of going to a supermarket and seeing a pack of gum labeled for sale for $5. If you see the $5 price, you’ll probably just leave it there. Or, you could ask the cashier about the price, and when he doesn’t know why it’s so expensive, he could call over the manager, who would politely explain that you could buy the pack of gum for $1. So, yes, after much time and negotiation, the gum actually costs $1, but why would you go through that trouble?
Renfe’s response shows that they’re content to sell their services with mislabeled prices. Why is this an acceptable business practice, exactly?
UPDATE 2:
The folks from Renfe just won’t give up on denying that their site misrepresents their prices! But they admit their site needs work, and they indicate that a relaunch of the site is coming. If the response to this post is any indicator, that relaunch can’t come soon enough.
This post is already incredibly long, so I share their latest e-mail to me, and my response to it, after the jump.
Subject: The prices quote are the same, definetively
Dear Mark,
Your update of the post regarding Renfe’s website maintains the same mistake there was in the main post, as it’s to say “The initial English quoted price is still double the initial Spanish quoted price”. That’s no true, so let’s hope we could break the misunderstanding. Spanish Renfe’s home have two different sections: Tickets Sale (Venta de Billetes) and Timetable Search (Buscador de Horarios). If you enter into the second section you’ll find, of course, only timetables with general fares. But if you want actually purchase the tickets, then –and only then- you have to enter into the first section. There you can choose your train, the web “question” the system about the availability of tickets and shows the places, the offers, etc.
Since a simple timetable can’t say anything about availability, it’s as well not possible for it say anything about discount or special fares, that are subjected to a availability and, furthermore, they’re changing (the discount are NOT 40 or 60%, but UP TO 40 or 60).
The misunderstanding begins when you select a language (any language, not only English) and you’re droved directly to “Timetable Search”. If you want to know how are the prices and availability you’re addressed to the proper section. Maybe all these steps are not so clear for everyone, so from now on we’ll put a note explaining that if you want to check’em you have to go to Ticket Sales.
In short, when you say “the initial Spanish quoted price” probably you mean the banner with a list of fares: Estrella, up to 40%, etc. But, Mark, this is not a quoted price, neither a price! It’s only an advertisement…
Moreover, it’s not a double price of any other, since you don’t even know if there’s a discount available for your train!
On the other hand, this “English website”, like the other languages websites, is only a provisional solution, because we’re currently building a brand new website, clearer for the purchaser and with proper translations.
Sincerely,
Renfe Operadora
Press Office
My response, in an attempt to be as detailed as possible, to avoid any further misunderstandings, and hopefully guide their efforts to improve the customer experience…:
First, thank you for your note. I appreciate the fact that RENFE is answering these concerns, though I disagree strongly with your assessment. The problems are not simply a “misunderstanding.” They are a failure of RENFE to build a sensible website, and your defensiveness shows a lack of comprehension of the consumer experience.
So, dear RENFE, let me try to help you. I think you need to understand how visitors actually enter your site, rather than the abstract notion of what information is out there on your site.
Let’s compare the user experience of the Spanish-speaker and the English-speaker.
Here’s the Spanish-language flow through the site:
1) I go to www.renfe.es. On the left sidebar, I choose cities, dates, etc., in Spanish. I click “buscar.”2) A new window opens (annoying, I might add). The fares are all there, including web and estrella fares. Fares are as low as 43.80 euros for a one-way AVE ticket between Barcelona and Madrid. (THIS is what I refer to as the “initial Spanish quoted price” in the post above. Not the advertised “fares as low as 60% off” banner, which you seem to think I’m referring to.) I choose a specific train/fare option, scroll to the bottom, enter the CAPTCHA number, and click “continuar.”
3) Next screen: I enter my billing information, check the terms/conditions box, and click “comprar.”
The Spanish version is relatively simple. (Of course, when booking two tickets, and choosing web fare, your site sometimes hiccups when only one seat is available at that price… that’s another problem but let’s stay on topic…)
In contrast, here’s the English-language experience. If you haven’t done this yourself, try it sometime, and imagine that you don’t understand the Spanish words that appear on the screen…:
1) I go to www.renfe.es. I look for something that suggests an option to view in another language, which most sites indicate with, say, the word “English,” or a small icon of a UK flag. Alas, there isn’t anything obvious for those who can’t read Spanish. Instead, at the bottom left, there is a pulldown labeled “Seleccione su idioma” with a stylized European Union flag adjacent. Somehow, despite the lack of clarity, I don’t give up, and I click on the pulldown and choose “English.” Next page automatically loads…
2) I arrive at a page entitled “Timetables and Prices.” There is no indication that this page is just information, vs. a way to purchase. The English-speaking visitor is unaware, at this point, that there is a separate process for buying tickets, and that there might conceivably be any discounts available. There is no mention of web or estrella fares. I choose my cities, my date of travel, etc., and I click “search.”
3) A new window opens (annoying, again). Fares are listed in the English-language format as pictured in the original post above. Despite this being the English site, fares are labeled in Spanish: “precio Internet,” for example. No discounts are shown. Again, no information about the EXISTENCE or POSSIBILITY of discounted web or estrella fares is shown. Prices here are full-fare, with the lowest fare at 109.50 euros; I refer to this as the “initial English quoted price” above. I click the shopping cart icon in the column labeled “compra,” rather than “buy.”
4) Another new window opens (have I mentioned that all these new windows are annoying?). I’m brought to a page that’s entirely in Spanish. Irritated, I start looking for a way to change the language to English. At the bottom left, I see some text in Spanish, and a pulldown with the word “espanol” on it. I click it, and see English as an option. I choose English…
5) The page refreshes, with the left sidebar and tabs at the top in partial English. The main frame of the screen is in Spanish. I now need to re-enter all the information I entered earlier (annoying, again) to perform a new search. I enter my cities, dates, etc., and click “buscar” — again, in Spanish, not in English, despite this being the “English” version.
6) FINALLY, I get a screen with bookable fares, with web and estrella discounts. I choose a fare, enter the CAPTCHA, and click “continue.”
7) Billing information, terms/conditions, etc., with a “purchase” option at the bottom.
Why are there all these unnecessary steps in the English version? Why not simply bring an English user to the search page that features bookable fares, as you do for Spanish customers? Instead, you route English-language visitors to timetables which look like booking pages. Note also that a reasonable person should expect the quoted price to be the price available for purchase. If you’re listing the highest prices, with no indication of alternative fares, you’re doing yourselves and your customers a grave disservice.
You’re costing yourselves sales, and good will.
I look forward to seeing the promised improvements to the website. But above all, I look forward to my travel between Barcelona and Madrid.
Sincerely,
Mark Ashley
RSS (FeedBurner)
Read with Amazon Kindle
Subscribe by E-mail
Follow on Twitter
December 31st, 1969 at 11:59 pm
Gracias! Spanish rail website charges double if you search in English http://bit.ly/5INMR [for all your Spanish wine tourism...]
December 31st, 1969 at 11:59 pm
RT @patkiernan: Buyer beware- Spain railway website charges double if you search in English http://tinyurl.com/q7qc4l (RT via @NewYorkology)
December 31st, 1969 at 11:59 pm
RT @bootsnall /@jasonparrish: Very interesting article on Euro train site charging more for using site in English: http://tinyurl.com/q7qc4l
December 31st, 1969 at 11:59 pm
Rail website charges double if you search in English – http://tinyurl.com/q7qc4l
December 31st, 1969 at 11:59 pm
Buyer beware – Spain railway website charges double if you search in English http://tinyurl.com/q7qc4l (via @NewYorkology) (via @patkiernan)
December 31st, 1969 at 11:59 pm
RT @NewYorkology: Not NY, but great/disconcerting travel story: Rail site charges double if you search in English http://tinyurl.com/q7qc4l
December 31st, 1969 at 11:59 pm
Not NY, but great/disconcerting travel story: Rail website charges double if you search in English http://tinyurl.com/q7qc4l
December 31st, 1969 at 11:59 pm
Wow, from @jasonparrish: Very interesting article on Euro train site charging more for using site in English: http://tinyurl.com/q7qc4l
December 31st, 1969 at 11:59 pm
TIP if travel provider (eg airline) has multiple websites, always recheck fares on the local or home language site http://is.gd/yVB4 #travel
December 31st, 1969 at 11:59 pm
@BootsnAll thought ya might like this article: http://tinyurl.com/q7qc4l
May 11th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
This could be the beginning of a PR disaster.
May 11th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Or, in other news, the train in Spain can be quite a pain.
May 11th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I like how the “English” site lists “precio internet” and invites you to “compra” your tickets.
Pretty half-assed for the national railway.
May 11th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
The reason is quite simple. Theenglish version is the old one, used before the new “web” and “estrella” fares were introduced for the AVE. So there isn’t any second intention to charge more the english people and more the lazy IT people of Renfe (a lot of complains here in Spain too because the system is far from being smooth).
May 11th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
I agree with Daniel – this is more of a technical issue than a business one, however they changed how they do business to cover themselves for their poor technical implementation.
mp/m
May 11th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
LAN airlines does similar. Domestic fares in Chile are cheaper on the Spanish language site than on the English language site.
Many airlines discriminate based on portal. A couple of examples – use United Airlines’ Australian website and get different fares than on their main US website for the same flights, or Air New Zealand domestic flights are cheaper on their main NZ website than on the international websites.
May 11th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Twitter Comment
RT @globtrav: TIP if airline has multiple websites, always recheck fares on the local or home language site [link to post] #travel
– Posted using Chat Catcher
May 11th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
There are no units on the English version. How do readers know we’re comparing Euros to Euros and not some other currency, e.g., pounds Sterling?
May 11th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Alarmingly, this is becoming a more common occurrence.
Whenever we now search for rental cars, we do so in 4 currencies – US$, €, NZ$ and UAE dirham. We can do so because my partner’s German and has both € and US$ accounts, I’m an NZer and we have UAE bank accounts and credit cards because we once lived there.
One of these 4 different currencies will get us a better price than the others, and there seems to be no logic about it – it’s like a lucky dip!
Just on Spain and the Renfe website, Mark – here’s another example of the English website being more expensive than the Spanish equivalent.
When we moved to Barcelona a couple of months ago, we had to set up our internet and phone lines. We discovered that Telefonica, the main provider, had a website in Spanish and one in English.
It was easier for us to use the English one, and we ordered online, paying a €100 fee, only to later discover that the English Telefonica website has NOTHING to do with Telefonica Spain. All they do is take the order (and the money, thank you) from the gringos and pass it onto Telefonica Spain, after which you have to deal with them in Spanish!
It’s a great con which we initially fell for and there is no way to cancel with Telefonica in English. So we also placed an order with Telefonica Spain and they made the connection in 2 working days for us. So far, no credit card charges have appeared for the other “Telefonica”!
I’m not saying that the Renfe English site is set up in this way, but it does pay to do a lot of homework before committing to buying anything online nowadays.
There are a lot of “middleman” websites acting as if they are legit agents for companies when all they are doing is making money from charging extra for services and products that would cost less if you purchased from the source. These middlemen had identified that the original companies (often non-english speaking) have little to no services for English speakers, and that’s what they exploit.
Look me up in Barcelona if I can be of any help to you!
cheers
Michele
May 11th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Go to Alamo.com for car rentals and their online form will ask you “Where do you live?”. Last year when I was renting a car in Calgary Canada I got very suspicious and tried to query the same rental place, period and car but entering different countries (I live in the US but I a citizen of Sweden, so what are they really asking for?)
This is what you get if you ask search for the following car rental:
Pickup/Dropoff: Calgary-10th Ave S.w. (YYCC74), 120 10th Ave Sw, Calgary , AB T2R 0A2, CA
Period: June 12-17, 2009 (noon-noon)
Car compared: Economy, 4-Door/Automatic/Air, Chevrolet Aveo
A: Country: USA => 210.00 CAD
B: Country: Canada => 248.16 CAD
C: Country: Sweden => 287.00 CAD
D: Country: Switzerland => 287.00 CAD
I haven’t check other countries that Canada, but Canada, but is really irritating. I also don’t know if they differentiate your price depending on the country your IP-number is based on; could be that you’re supposed to feel special (I was doing the above searches from the US).
May 11th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Twitter Comment
Buyer beware – Spain railway website charges double if you search in English [link to post] (RT via @NewYorkology)
– Posted using Chat Catcher
May 11th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
[...] Travel Better discovers that the Spanish trains will sell you cheaper advance purchase tickets if you’re searching in [...]
May 12th, 2009 at 1:37 am
Yup. This reminds me of how I used to buy one way tickets to Korea because I knew I could get the return ticket back for hundreds of dollars less.
May 12th, 2009 at 4:01 am
I think that it is more a technical issue than a business one.
I have been able to found the cheap tickets (tarifa web) in english. In order to do that I have entered the Spanish web site, then ‘Ave Madrid Barcelona’ , then switch the language to english, and then you can buy the cheap tickets. Be conscient that the tarifa web fare requires to buy the tickets about two weeks in advance.
Renfe’s web site is known for its bad usability.
May 12th, 2009 at 4:48 am
This is not a new issue. Deutshce Bahn does the same thing for German rail.
I learned years ago to first conduct my search in english to get an idea of what i wanted, and then go back in original language. Often is not even price which is different. Original language searches often give you better times or choices of car (We did National for a car rental in France. Was able to get the “same” car on the French website for £150 less than using the English site) Using the tools you mentioned (Google translate is the best) you can navigate your way around.
I don’t fault them for this. These systems have to support extra websites, support staffe and platforms to account for english speaking travelers who are too lazy to take the 5 extra minutes to conduct a transaction in the original language.
May 12th, 2009 at 6:01 am
For commenters who say “it’s a technical issue, not a business issue,” or who say “I don’t fault them for this” like Mike writes above, I ask you this. Why is this not a problem for you? Even if you assume it’s because of technical incompetence or laziness, it still harms a lot of people. If someone points out a problem, and that problem doesn’t get fixed, it starts to look like it’s intentional. And that makes it a business issue, not a technical issue. And I **do** fault them for this.
May 12th, 2009 at 9:41 am
T Anderson-
I guess the question is – who does it “harm”? In day to day life, do you pay more for milk at a CVS or Walgreens than you do at Krogers? The reason you pay more is convenience. It is quicker and easier to get milk at a drugstore than going through an entire supermarket.
Deutsche Banh shouldn’t have to offer an English speaking site because the company speaks German and doesn’t operate in any English speaking countries. However, they decided to create an entire english speaking website with entails additional support costs and fees to make it easier for people who don’t speak German.
Did they have to do this? No. Should their main market who speaks their main language have to support these extra costs? No. Should the market which is paying for the convenience(i.e. not using Google Translate to figure things out) pay for it? Yes.
NZM further supports this with his/her example in that a lot of companies crop up to target this non-native speaking consumer segment.
I absolutely believe these companies do it purposely. Most important lesson i learned early on in my travels is that life isn’t fair or free.
May 12th, 2009 at 11:51 am
I disagree, Mike. The real answer for T Anderson question is “because we are tired of trying”. Theres been thousands of complains to RENFE because of all the bugs and terrible usability of their site and they have done nothing. Nothing at all. So, yes, this is a technical issue and, yes, they don’t care. Why should they? They have no competence. It is not like car rentals or cheap flights, where you almost always have a choice. RENFE is the only national train company, so if you don’t like go take a bus. And if you want to get cheaper tickets you will have to use their website no matter how lame it is.
May 12th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
It seems this would violate EU rules in some way
May 12th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Thanks for the comments on this thread. A few replies:
To the Global Traveller, nzm, HenrikB, and Dan, thanks for reminding us that it’s wise to check fares and prices in the local language, if you can. Google Translate can be a big help, but it’s not perfect.
Nzm, thanks for the invite!
Henry Higgins, with regard to an EU standard, you may be onto something. See this excerpt from a DPA article on EU rules against deceptive and discriminatory airline ticket pricing:
Emphasis mine. Draw your own conclusions.
My father likes to say that one shouldn’t assume malice when incompetence is an equally good explanation. The Ockham’s Razor theory of bad behavior, if you will. And in that vein, I should have assumed incompetence first, as several commenters point out.
But I want to echo T Anderson’s point above, which addresses incompetence vs. malice: “If someone points out a problem, and that problem doesn’t get fixed, it starts to look like it’s intentional. And that makes it a business issue, not a technical issue.” The technical incompetence at Renfe seems to be widespread, if the comments on this thread on Meneame, the Spanish equivalent of Digg, are to be believed.
Finally, in an effort to give the site another shot, I actually tested the RENFE web purchase procedure again and was able to find a screen that listed the web and estrella fares in semi-English (or Spanglish). The page isn’t intuitively found, and it’s not the linked page from the English “compra” shopping cart icon. Rather, clicking “compra” sends you to this page, which may have an English sidebar, but is otherwise entirely in Spanish. You need to re-enter your search on forms that are half Spanish, half English. A few clicks and the results are indeed in partial English. And sure enough, the discounted fares are there. These extra steps are a semi-pleasant surprise, after the initially quoted higher prices. For the sake of fairness, a screenshot (click it to enlarge):
May 12th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
This has been the case, at least for the French railway, SNCF, for years. In 2004, I booked a number of last minute fares on the french version of the website http://www.sncf.fr. which were absolutely unavailable on the english version, and wished I had not spent the money on a France Rail Pass. The mistake I made the first time was NOT clicking the correct country that I was in when I bought the ticket…I was in Brussels and mistakenly clicked that I was in France…and when I went to the train station in Brussels, the ticket would not come up on the kiosk…When I queried the ticket agent, en francais, bien sur, he told me that I had to go to FRANCE to pick that ticket up…..oy…so much for saving 65 dollars!!
May 13th, 2009 at 2:23 am
Well, RENFE is not known for their Customer Service and we ARE talking Spain here…
May 13th, 2009 at 6:12 am
You are completely right: renfe’s web is a full disaster. If you speak Spanish, I recommend you to visit this post in my blog about my horrible personal experience. Of course, if you don’t speak Spanish I will charge you 5 pounds for your visit
Kind regards,
http://comunicacionsellamaeljuego.com/2009/03/24/renfees-que-dificil-es-comprar-billetes-de-tren/
May 13th, 2009 at 6:29 am
This will be my last post, because clearly i am in the minority here, but I find it quite amusing that this forum is equating these different prices to potential discrimination and deceptive practices. I think this forum is over reacting just a bit.
When you go outside the traditional travel and leisure revenue streams and channels (like second language sales or rewards redemptions for example), you should expect the the organization to throw some surprises in to try and make some money. I don’t fault them for that because i need them to stay in business so i can go visit Barcelona, Hong Kong, Sydney or Dubai.
In conclusion, when you go to book somewhere overseas, always try your best to “go local” and just enjoy the journey – because it’s a helluva lot better to do that than being pissed off over 30 Euros. Happy travels!
May 13th, 2009 at 6:53 am
FYI, for those who may be subscribing to the comments thread:
The original post has been updated to include a reply from Renfe, disputing the premise of the original post, along with my response.
That same reply to me has been published (in Spanish) at Periodista Digital. EDIT: link to Periodista Digital removed, because their server accuses clickthroughs from this comment to them of being the work of a spammer. I see their website is as well-configured as Renfe’s. You can see a Google-translated version of the article in English.
May 13th, 2009 at 7:06 am
Mike, while your defense of market segmentation by language may be in the minority here, your comments have certainly been constructive, and I hope you’ll continue to participate.
Pablo, I’m not sure if it’s comforting or not that a similar degree of problems exist on the Spanish language site. (For those who wish to read an English translation of Pablo’s post, here you go.)
May 13th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Does the last screenshot really say “TRAIN NOT AVAILABLE FOR TICKEY SALE” ?
Tickey ?!? Hahahahahaha…
I also like how some things are in English (albeit wrong English, e.g., “places”) and others are still in Spanish (”tarifa general”).
Keepin’ it classy, Renfe!
May 14th, 2009 at 3:17 am
Mark-
Thanks for the note. What I meant was that was my last post on this topic – I think your blog raises some good issues and notices for people who are looking to travel and explore outside their normal comfort zone.
This was actually a good forum to discuss as most times comments devolve into ad hominem attacks on someone’s intelligence or propensity to have sex with themselves.
Keep up the good work and civil discourse!
May 14th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Another note for subscribers to the comments feed:
Yet another update to this post, with correspondence from and to Renfe.
May 14th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Christ, these Renfe people are dense. No wonder their site sucks so much.
May 15th, 2009 at 8:13 am
Twitter Comment
Fascinating: [link to post]
To get a good deal, default to the local language?
– Posted using Chat Catcher
May 18th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
[...] Spain’s high-speed rail website charges double if you search in English—get ready to put your high-school Spanish to good use. [Upgrade: Travel Better] [...]
May 20th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
[...] sets of prices: one for people booking in English, and one for those who use Spanish. The Web site Upgrade: Travel Better reports that booking the popular AVE high-speed rail line between Barcelona and Madrid costs [...]
May 31st, 2009 at 1:37 am
This article is extremely helpful to me. I was putting off buying bcn-mad tix because they were too $$$. Now I can afford them!Thanks!
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:26 am
I think that there are several matters for which RENFE should be taken to account. Firstly It is obvious that the fact that the english section is not up to date is down to them not considering it a priority….. In a country where tourism is clearly not at all important to the economy!! Secondly in a country with so many expatriates and their children who speak and write fluently in both languages their half arsed translation attempt is entirely inexcusable. In fact perhaps the press officer who has replied in such fine english should help with the translation. Anyone who has passed through Madrid Atocha station will have heard the “english” announcements shouted over the PA system by what sounds like a middle european woman overdosing on testosterone who has learnt english from an internet translator!! Thirdly their responses prove that they don’t want to have to do anything about this issue and therefore are guilty of discriminating against non Spanish speakers through inaction. (I must add that this is my opinion and is not based on any legal background).
Great post Mark, it’s time Spain stopped discriminating all over the place (you can still see job ads for waiters, receptionists etc. specifying gender, nationality, age etc.) and came in to the 21st century .
June 17th, 2009 at 9:30 am
[...] the price you are quoted when you search for fares on Spain’s high-speed railway depends on whether you search in English or Spanish: When I searched the site earlier that day from my office, I searched in Spanish. A one-way ticket [...]
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Thanks so much for this great post. Saved me a lot of money and confusion. I’m not going to get into the politics of whether non-English speaking companies should/shouldn’t provide English translations on their websites, but RENFE definitely seemed to make it hard in this increasingly English-speaking world.
MY TIP: Have Google Translate opened in another window while purchasing your ticket. I translated every word, sentence and phrase that I couldn’t guess what it meant. VERY HELPFUL!
August 25th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
[...] Rail website charges double if you search in English | Upgrade: Travel Better http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/2009/05/11/renfe-website-charges-double-if-you-search-in-english – view page – cached Last week, I was trying to book tickets for travel between Barcelona and Madrid on the relatively-new AVE high-speed rail line. I soon realized that the price — From the page [...]