Renfe

I have a ticket class (Elige Confort) that permits me to change tickets once for free. When I go through the workflow, after I pick my new seat, the Continue button is non-clickable. Clearly a coding error. Also, the checkout seems to suggest that you will be charged again for your new ticket even though you are just changing time of travel with no change fee. I will have to try to do this change in person at station as the website is even worse (I am an experienced user of that website). Clearly the app has improved recently since it now accepts Apple Pay and tickets go into Apple Wallet, but there are still hidden bugs when you try to do things more complicated than buying ticket. If AI bots are replacing humans, they better not replace humans at train station ticket counters.

This has made all of our travel and ticket purchases incredibly easy. No need to go to the station and purchase tickets there. You can plan ahead; it keeps track of all your tickets and you can store to your Apple wallet. It even reminds you when it’s time to take the train. Best app I’ve downloaded for use in Spain.

This app is 95% there. But that 5% of unpolished and not well-tested software makes for a very frustrating experience. After paying with my credit card and authorizing the purchase, I returned to the Renfe app only to see the initial payment screen again, as though I had not entered the info and had not payed. Now what?! I saw the charge on my CC so now what do I do?! I just killed the app and restarted it and voila, the tickets were actually there under My Journeys. The website is similarly frustrating. We’re talking about the largest train company in Spain that cannot do proper QA of its application and website?! Come on guys!