These are the new delay times to obtain a ticket refund
Renfe has approved a modification in your commitment to punctuality. As of July 1, the full amount of the Ave, Avlo, Alvia, Euromed and Intercity ticket will be refunded when the delay exceeds 90 minutes. This represents an hour more compared to the current 30 minutes. For the refund of 50% of the amount, the necessary delay time increases from the current 15 minutes to 60.
The Board of Directors of the public company approved these changes this Wednesday. Sources close to that organization have justified that with this decision, the company is placed in the same conditions as the rest of the high-speed operators (Ouigo and Iryo) regarding compensation for delays. However, it offers, they say, the best commitment to punctuality on the market and with more advantageous conditions than those established by the regulations.
Renfe has also introduced new features in the form of reimbursement. In addition to the possibility of receiving the money in cash (or on a bank card), the company adds two other ways. One of them is the refund of 200% of the amount to which you are entitled depending on the delay but in points, which have been called ‘Renfecitos’, through the Más Renfe loyalty card, to use on other trips. The third possibility is compensation in a purchase voucher for another ticket, with which the reimbursement in euros will be the equivalent of 150% of the compensable amount, both for delays of 60 minutes and for those greater than 90.
Tickets purchased before July 1 continue under the current commitment. Compensation for delays, which has been applied since 1992, cost Renfe 42 million euros in 2023 although, if all travelers who were entitled to it had requested it, the amount would have ranged between 60 and 70 million.
Refunds of ticket amounts occur whenever there is a delay in the arrival of the train, even if the causes of the delay are not attributable to Renfe itself. In fact, last week the company He calculated that he would have to return 800,000 euros due to delays due to a breakdown in the catenary, followed by a drop of passengers onto the track, which forced all traffic to stop in a tunnel near the Madrid-Chamartín station.
Some 50 trains and 20,000 passengers were affected throughout the day by this drop of passengers onto the tracks, which forced the tunnel to be completely closed to traffic complete and produced chain effects in the entrances and exits of Chamartín.
