To use discounted T-Jove ticket, you first need T-mobilitat

As of March 15, the T-Jove (the title with a specific discount for young people) has been completely renewed. Now it has the following features:

• Available for people under 30 (before only up to 25).
• Single price of €40 per month for all areas, valid for 3 months.

As you can see, it is quite a bargain. In some cases, the T-Jove is up to 4 times cheaper than before. The biggest problem, however, is that it is now only available through T-mobilitat.

What is T-mobilitat? Simply put, it’s Barcelona’s Oyster card. We’ve taken a long time, but here we are. For those who don’t know what Oyster is: T-mobilitat is the new contactless ticketing system implemented in Barcelona. So T-Jove is a ticket that you actually purchase and load inside a T-mobilitat.

How to request a T-mobilitat card

1. First, go to T-mobilitat’s official website.
2. Sign up for a new account. If you have a Spanish NIF or NIE (National ID number) you can select “automatic verification”. This means that the system will automatically check if you are under 30 and will approve your request faster. If you don’t have any of these two, then select “Manual verification” and use your Passport number. You will have to provide a photo of your passport, and it will have to be manually approved by ATM, which can take a little bit longer.
3. Fill in your details and attach a photo of your passport. Complete the process and proceed with the payment.

You can either choose a physical support (i.e., a card) or a phone support (more information in this, here). In this case, you will have to download the ATM app in your phone, log in with your details and download the card into your phone, which will cost €1. I personally use the phone support and I must say it’s really convenient: you tap your phone against the validation machine and the gates open almost immediately. There is no need to unlock your phone nor to open any app.

I already have my T-mobilitat support. How do I request T-Jove?

Once you have received your T-mobilitat, and your ID has been checked, you are automatically assigned a young profile. This means you can go to any ticket machine in any station, tap your T-mobilitat and buy a T-Jove in that machine.

When you ordered your T-mobilitat card, you weere given the option to already purchase a T-Jove ticket. If you didn’t (or if you are unsure), go to any ticket machine and tap your card. It will immediately tell you if your support has any linked tickets. If it hasn’t, you can buy it and load it on the spot.

Questions? Let us know in the comments below!

Hola Barcelona is TMB’s travel card targeted to tourists who want unlimited travel for a fixed period of time. Everything you need is pretty much included in the Hola Barcelona travel card:

• Metro
• FGC and Rodalies regional trains
• Bus (except for night buses)
• Airport travel
• Montjuïc funicular railway (but not the cable car!)

You can get different travel cards depending on how long you wish to stay in Barcelona. Its price, obviously, will depend on this.

These tickets only grant you unlimited travel within Zone 1, which covers the city of Barcelona and the airport. However, in case you are planning to visit neighbouring cities, you won’t be able to do so with Hola Barcelona tickets; you will need separate tickets for that. Hola Barcelona tickets can be bought in TMB’s official website. You get 10% discount if you buy online.

Is Hola Barcelona a good deal?

Only if you plan to use public transport in a very intensive way for short periods of time. Its main drawback is that most users won’t use public transport so much. For example, think about the Hola Barcelona 2-day ticket: it costs 16.30 € and gives you unlimited trips during 48 hours, but a 10-trip T-casual is cheaper (11.35 €). The question is: will you need more than 10 trips during 48 hours?

It really depends on the type of tourist you are. If you like spending hours in a given museum or landmark, taking time to enjoy a coffe or having a walk before moving somewhere else, you will probably only use 3-5 trips a day, and therefore a T-casual is better value for money. However, if you like to move fast, take a quick glance at things and then move on somewhere else, you will probably use 5-7 trips a day, and then a 2-day Hola Barcelona ticket will be better for you.

In my opinion, the 3-day Hola Barcelona ticket is a better deal, because 1 T-casual (10 trips) is likely to be too little for a 3-day period, but 2 T-casuals cost nearly as much as the 3-day Hola Barcelona, which gives you unlimited travel.

I still think that, for most users, two T-casual tickets are better value than a 4-day Hola Barcelona card. Finally, do not get a 5-day Hola Barcelona ticket. If you are going to spend 38 € for 5 days of unlimited travel, then simply buy a T-usual, which gives you a whole month for just 2 extra euros.

If you are a student, you live in Barcelona or its surroundings and you are a frequent user of public transport, you are very likely to use a T-Jove ticket, which is only available if you are under 26. As you know, university students stopped attending their face-to-face lessons due to the COVID pandemic, and all university teaching is now delivered remotely. You might be wondering, after all, whether a refund is possible.

You cannot get a money refund on your T-Jove ticket, but you can apply for a free replacement, provided that:

• You are enrolled in a university course in the Barcelona region.
• You validated your T-Jove for the first time before 16 October 2020 (in other words, it expires no later than 12 January 2021; the expiration date is written on the back).

Requests can only be made to the ATM (the Metropolitan Transport Authority) using their online form (only available in ES/CA). You have to fill in your details, provide two pictures of your T-Jove and upload your university enrolment document. They will check all this data and they will work out how many days of compensation you are entitled to. Afterwards, they will make a brand-new T-Jove for you (called T-compensació) and you will be able to collect it the nearest collection point.

Your new ticket is supposed to work exactly as the previous one did (but the amount of days may vary, depending on how many days you had left when the face-to-face lessons were cancelled). Even if your T-Jove is still valid and hasn’t expired yet, you can already claim your T-compensació. You will get a non-validated ticket, and only after you validate it for the first time, time will start to run.