Cert. de Empadronamiento para viajar required from 1 September for resident travel discount

[Janet]

There have been many rumours recently, after certain comments from the national Government, that the resident discount for travel from the Canaries was in jeopardy, but the minister for Industria, Energía y Turismo, José Manuel Soria, himelf a Canarian, has now guaranteed the 50% discount for residents of the Canaries, Balearics, and the two Spanish settlements in north Africa, Ceuta and Melilla. Sr Soria said that the discount for travel to the mainland had never been in question.

As far as the newly required travel certificate is concerned, however, the whole of September was a period of grace, with the cost of the ticket being refunded for anyone who had booked without the "Certificado de viajes", but now that the "period of adaptation" is over, any traveller turning up without one will either be refused permission to board, or will be required to buy a new, undiscounted, ticket, with the original ticket being cancelled. Travellers are reminded that these certificates are available from their local Ayuntamientos, are valid for six months, and one must be presented for each ticket bought. JA

[poker]

Cyberhiker got also money back and could change flight from madrid to here from Ryanair this week.
Now i understand how it was possible to get a refund so easy .

[Janet]

 In what is being called a pioneering pilot project (I don't know whether the pun is intended or not!), passengers travelling between the Canary islands with BinterCanarias will not need to prove their residency by means of a Certificado de Empadronamiento para viajar if they book online. Residents will be able to accredit their resident status at the point of ticket purchase and will not be required to go to their local Ayuntamiento. The new measure applies from today, and is called SARA (Sistema Acreditación Residencia Automático): BinterCanarias has developed it in conjunction with the Ministerio de Fomento.

SARA works by facilitating a telematic check with the Ministerio de Fomento's database when travellers buy tickets online through www.bintercanarias.com. This check will validate whether or not the passenger is resident in the Canaries, and if it is confirmed, then the discount will be applied automatically, and no further action will need to be taken by the traveller to prove where they live. JA

[Janet]

 The automatic confirmation of residency system (SARA) that Binter has been piloting is now ready for use by all other airlines, says the Ministerio de Fomento. It is expected that all airlines will be using it by the end of the year. JA

[Janet]

  The Ministerio de Fomento is likely to put a limit on the cost of a ticket eligible for the 50% discount. Secretaria general de Transporte, Carmen Libero, said that the average price should be what the discount is based on, rather than high-end peak-time ticket prices. She stressed that given the current economic situation, it was unreasonable to expect the government to subsidise 50% of tickets of up to around €550-600 when the average price was between €70 and €120. It is unclear at present whether only average price tickets will be discounted, or whether the "average price discount" is what will be applied to all tickets regardless of purchase price. JA

[Janet]

As I posted on 9 August, there were eleven Ayuntamientos offering this service: Arona, Guía de Isora, San Miguel de Abona, Granadilla de Abona, Güímar, Vilaflor, La Guancha, Santa Úrsula, Santa Cruz, La Laguna, and El Sauzal. Guía de Isora has now joined the list of Ayuntamientos facilitating this document online. JA

[Janet]

The Government has now confirmed that it will maintain the 50% discount for residents who live outside of the mainland, namely in the Canaries, Balearics, and Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa. Minister Ana Pastor will meet with airline representatives to study tariffs and attempt to improve efficiency, but the full discount will continue.  JA

[El Profesor]

The Government has now confirmed that it will maintain the 50% discount for residents who live outside of the mainland, namely in the Canaries, Balearics, and Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa. Minister Ana Pastor will meet with airline representatives to study tariffs and attempt to improve efficiency, but the full discount will continue.  JA

Yes I heard on the radio that they were going to look into how to limit it for the 800€ first class flights but keep it for the normal budget flights.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

Getting the viajes online :

This will only be for Spanish citizens as they have an eletronic DNI i fear that can be chequed online with a chipreader via computer.

Foreingeners with a paper green NIE will still have to go to the municipalety and ask the viajes in person.

I have just tried to get my digital certificate and failed.  First, Firefox does not like the site www.cert.fmnt.es and refused to go further than about step 3.  So I tried Internet Explorer, and it does allow you to enter a NIE, but it simply came back and said it could not generate my private key.  It gave the option to try it again, which I did, and it failed.  So no go.

FYI if you manage to generate a key, you then have 10 days to show up in person at your Ayuntamiento where they will wave a magic wand, then you can go home to your computer to complete the steps and generate your empadronamiento para viajar. 

Pffffft. 

[Janet]

and so if you have to turn up in person at the town hall anyway, may as well take a physical empadronamiento away with you! FFS.