I just had my Eurailpass Flexi validated at the Salamanca, Spain RENFE station this morning. I was planning on using my railpass in going to Lisbon tomorrow early morning (4:50 AM). When he validated my pass, he also gave me a paper ticket for Lisbon and charged me 11 euros for it (I guess that is the price for the fare) and told me to put the date in my eurailpass tomorrow before my trip (it´s a flexi pass). I don´t understand — I always thought that when you want to use your pass, you don´t need to pay for a ticket. Is this right? If so, why would he charge me for the point-to-point ticket and tell me to write the dates down on my pass for my trip tomorrow?

Anyway, 11 euros seems cheap and it´s not worth using the pass, but I was planning on going straight to Lagos from Lisbon because I can´t find an available room so using the pass seems quite advantageous.

So, I have already paid for the ticket to Lisbon. Do I need to write the dates down just like what the guy said, or should I just assume that he doesn´t know what a eurailpass flexi is and just use the point-to-point ticket that I bought?