After finally seeing that there are indeed two daily buses from ALSA (and reasonably priced @38 euros) from Porto to Santiago Compostela, and navigating thru their not so great website, I get to the very final step and receive a page saying, en espanol: "Incorrect Data, contact your bank". Having had a similar frustration with the Spanish RENFE train website, I had contacted my credit card companies, cleared my cards for foreign transactions, and was able to buy a very discounted train ticket from Barcelona to Madrid. However, even after having double checked with at least one of these credit card companies (Capital One Venture Visa which charges no foreign transaction fees), neither this Visa nor a MasterCard nor an AMEX card will be accepted. Any one else with similar frustration and (hopefully) a solution -- or must I wait until I'm in Portugal to buy there. If so, can I buy an ALSO bus ticket for this trip while I'm in Lisbon at a TI?
Posted by
Whittington
984 posts
Sorry, I have not purchased online, but I suspect if you dig in the website you will find you cannot purchase an international journey unless local to the event i.e. in Spain or Portugal, and this may be why your card is being rejected. It may not make sense to you and does not to me either, just something I think I have come across on another forum sometime.
'must I wait until I'm in Portugal to buy there' - I have never purchased a bus ticket for inter city travel in Portugal or Spain any more than a day in advance and never been disappointed.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
Renfe has been pretty notorious in the past few years for making credit card approval difficult. You can get some of the same advance purchase discounts at www.petrabax.com or by calling Rail Europe at 800-438-7245 (plus phone handling fee). Another commentor mentioned on this forum that PayPal could work on the Alsa site. I have previously bought bus tickets on the spot in Spain and Portugal with no problem, or you could buy them a few days ahead a bus station.
Posted by
Tacoma, WA, USA
613 posts
I was able to do it after a lot of problems with my credit card through paypal two years ago.