Book a Ferry Ticket on Hellenic Seaways

This rings a bell about something in the past. Something to do with the first 4 digits of the card number and whole blocks being excluded by 3rd party payment systems. Can't remember the details but if you don't get a meaningful answer here raise it again in the General Europe forum headed as "CitiBank Visa rejection"

Blueflax505, have you tried using a different credit card? If you have a Mastercard, you might want to try that. Sometimes they are a bit more successful. That happens to me occasionally. I have a number of credit cards, and if one doesn't work, I'll try another, and usually that one will. Sometimes I have to try three of them. 😊

If that doesn't work, you might try emailing them at [email protected].

Edit: You also might want to try it in a different browser. For example, I usually use Chrome, but sometimes if there is some glitch and I can't get through, I'll switch to Firefox and try it there. Often that will do the trick.

I usually don't suggest third-party services, but if you're having trouble purchasing your ticket from the Hellenic Seaways website (and Piraeus Bank) , you might try to buy it on Ferryhopper.

https://www.ferryhopper.com/en/

Keep in mind that buying your ticket to Hydra in advance isn't necessary. As mentioned in a previous thread, you can easily purchase it at the port on the day of your trip.

Thanks everybody. All around very helpful.
I also sent an email to Hellenic Seaways and will call their Customer Service phone number during business hours. They also seem to have a pay-by-phone system which I will also try during business hours. An adventure already! I'm kind of a heavy planner and of course buy timed museum tickets in advance. Does anybody else have any insight about buying at the port the day of travel? I'm going in October (I know, I know = heavy planner) which is definitely the shoulder season. (Already have my Hydra hotel.)

You just need to follow what I recommended in your thread last week:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/greece/pick-up-a-printed-ferry-ticket

Booking a Piraeus–Hydra ferry ticket 5 months in advance is like trying to reserve a seat on the metro.

To put your "heavy planner" tendencies into perspective, keep in mind that digital tickets are a very recent thing, not even 10 years ago you still had to stop by a ticket office to pick up a physical paper ticket. If you had booked it online you only got a booking number and you had to show your passport to get the actual paper ticket. It was actually a legal requirement.

That's how I did it for years, and it's still how I do it most of the time.

And barely 20 years ago online booking didn't exist at all. Millions of travelers just bought their tickets directly at the ticket offices.

As said there is absolutely no reason to purchase ferry tickets in advance for an October departure.
Local office at port is by far the thing to do. Even as you say a heavy-planner ahead just take a breather on this one.

As others have mentioned there is absolutely no need to book a ferry ticket online for travel in October. I have never ever booked a ticket online for ferry travel in Greece in April, May, June, September and October (I never travel in July and August). I always support the local ticket offices with buying my tickets there on the day of travel or 1-2 days beforehand.

Please, please, blueflax, stop being a worrywart. The need to organize & secure minor travel aspects far far in advance will just bring more anxiety. Experienced Greece travelers book tickets near to sailing time ... the only instances when you might want to book a bit ahead would be at the Very height of High Season (Mid July - Sept 1) for ferries lkeaving Pireaus on Fridays, or returning from Islands to Athens on Sundays. And even then, a few days or a week ahead would be fine. Just calm down, and as the greeks say, siga siga.