Good Morning,
I have been trying to buy tickets to Sagrada Familia and Alhambra from their official ticket sites online and keep being rejected. The problem isn't with my credit cards since I have reached out to my card issuer to check. I get the error message saying: Sorry, there was a problem in the purchase process. I have emailed the help line for Sagrada tickets and was sent the following response: "Requires SCA authentication". I have also tried a different browser and gotten the same message.
Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?
Posted by
Eastern Iowa, USA
8934 posts
SCA is an authentication often used in the EU for online transactions. Basically you make the transaction, you get a text, and you verify that you are actually doing that transaction, much like Two Factor Authentication (2FA) when you log on to your bank or credit card website. If the vendor does not get confirmation back you approved the transaction in some time period, it voids the transaction.
I did not run into this when using the Alhambra website, maybe because it knew I was in the US, or I went through a different portal, don't know. I have run into it only when I was physically in Europe, using local data or wifi.
If you are using a VPN, that might be an issue, the site cannot determine where you are by IP address.
You can call your card company and ask if they offer SCA, but I have not heard many people on here talk about it.
Posted by
OP
28 posts
I was able to get the Alhambra tickets on my third attempt. The VPN maybe the culprit on the Sagrada Familia. I will try from my phone.
Posted by
OP
28 posts
I tried to buy the Sagrada Familia tickets using my phone and this time I got an error message that says: "Your Card issuer requires owner authentication for this operation and the merchant/web where you try does not have this function activated. Contact that merchant for more information".
Is this something new? The site doesn't accept PayPal of ApplePay.
Any other ideas?
Posted by
Vancouver, BC, Canada
1513 posts
Did you try the iOS or Android app?
In the FAQ: "If you have any problems purchasing tickets and/or downloading the app, contact the Booking Management Centre by phone on 931 980 705 or email at [email protected]."
Good luck.
Posted by
OP
28 posts
We were able to get tickets to SF after trying different credit cards and saying a prayer ;-))). It was just sheer luck and persistence. It is finicky buying tickets and just trial and error. I don’t like using the third party sites like “get your guide” and the numerous others out there so it required a little extra work.
We just got back yesterday and we didn’t have any problems with credit cards and ticket purchases once we were there. But, please buy the tickets ahead of time! I wanted to go back to SF for a follow up visit when the sun was out and the tickets were sold out for the rest of the week.