Comments on: Rail website charges double if you search in English

By: Renfe elimina las tarifas ‘última hora’ y ‘estrella’ que ofrecían descuentos de hasta el 60% « MundoRenfe.wordpress.com

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:24:46 +0000

[...] la reputada fama que tiene Renfe con su web, como la de cobrar el doble del importe si ingresabas en inglés o la de ubicar las tarifas con descuento en sitios inverosímiles, algo a lo que también apuntó [...]

By: Starla

Starla — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:20:31 +0000

I am planning a trip to Spain in June and just went through this exact situation. Fortunately my friend somehow found the difference and we were able to make the reservations in spanish – saving us a lot of money. I would not have known and paid more…..

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Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:41:35 +0000

[...] Zum Blogeintrag [...]

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:10:53 +0000

Is it possible that RENFE is using language as the basis to identify visitors from outside Spain, and therefore attempting to charge higher rates? The normal route these days is to identify the country of the visitor and then display local market rates.

Many, if not all railways do this. Example: Eurostar.com displays different currencies AND different fares depending on your country. Try France vs United States. The theory is that overseas travelers, in particular US travelers, can afford to pay more.

Blaming it on an IT issue is ridiculous. Their site and back-end architecture has been upgraded a few times over the past 15 years. It’s probably more a matter of not sufficiently scoping out the language needs and implementing properly.

By: Twitter Trackbacks for Rail website charges double if you search in English | Upgrade: Travel Better [upgradetravelbetter.com] on Topsy.com

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:53:45 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:31:49 +0000

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!

By: Price Discrimination by Search Language « Cheap Talk

Price Discrimination by Search Language « Cheap Talk — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:30:16 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Barrie

Barrie — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:26:43 +0000

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 .

By: Carla/@redyelllow

Carla/@redyelllow — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:37:43 +0000

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!

By: Train Web site charges more than double to book in English | WalletPop

Train Web site charges more than double to book in English | WalletPop — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:57:45 +0000

[...] 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 [...]