Sagrada Familia

Do you have a reservation for lodging? Depending on where you are staying, I'd reach out to them to see if they would purchase the tickets for you. I've had inns offer to do this for me, and I've also asked. I typically stay at smaller, locally owned properties, but I'd imagine that many full service hotels would help you with this, as well.

We purchased tickets online in late Jan for late March tour using Costco Citi Visa. We did have issues with various cards getting tickets for several venues in Spain, trying multiple times, multiple cards, sometimes getting the additional security questions, etc. I don't recall if the Sagrada Familia was one of them, but we DID get that ticket online using Costco Citi visa. The guided tour was fantastic and a must to make sense of all the details of the building. I doubt there is any chance at all of buying tickets at door. Also recommend the guided tour of Parc Guell.

last year i was able to purchase tickets online while standing in front of the building! i had 6 days in Barcelona and therefore not under a strict schedule. i arrived early before the 1st time slot and looked for a ticket office. the guards told me i could only buy online. thinking i would have to buy for another day i was surprised that tickets were available for the 9:00 am slot. got on the phone and used one of my american cards to purchase. no issues. the previous year in Italy i had similar issues as you. there was a lot of back and forth with cc companies and banks, each passing the buck to the other. i remember i had to speak with visa to allow a security exemption. i can't recall if it worked and i believe, in the end, i used my boa debit card.

regarding visiting the church I suggest going early. besides fewer people, on a clear day, with the sun low in the sky the interior just lights up with a riot of colors from the stained glass windows. i believe you will get the same effect in the afternoon as well but probably more people.

No, it's not just you, this is a frequently reported problem with Sagrada Familia on this site and on TA.

Chase CC never seems to work for anyone. Capital One does for most people, so you may have a different problem. I have a few suggestions, some may seem silly but they have all been noted as helping.

Make sure that your contact information with Cap one is correct so you are able to receive the authorization text code.

Are you trying through the website or app? Whichever, try the other. Also when using the app on your phone, switch off wifi and try it using your cellular data. (something about Wifi location data messes things up).

Try a different email address. I've seen many reports of "it worked when I used my gmail address".

Make sure the name, phone number and email on the order match your CC contact details. (this might be the reason that changing the email address as above fixed the problem for some).

We had a similar problem with our family Visa and were told by our bank which issues the card that Visa blocked the purchase because Visa thought the organizational name of Sagrada Familia seemed fraudulent to their system. This is The Construction Board of the Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Família. That would boggle the mind of a NA computer. Also, on the payment page SG advise that the EU regs require credit cards with two-factor format only. We finally got one to work…good luck.

Every day I read about people who want to buy tour tickets for famous sites like Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and the Colosseum in Rome. They are spending thousands of dollars on airfare and hotels, but then they want the direct tickets for these famous sites at the cheapest price, and they try to get them for weeks and weeks as they attempt to negotiate international websites. I no longer try to operate like that, nor do I have any wish to wait in line for hours.

I now use a great tour company called Walks, that I used a lot in Rome and Venice, and I have now started booking with them for Spain. They offer reservations available months in advance, the guides are wonderful, and some of the tours are very creative. I pay in dollars and the entire tour is confirmed in advance. They will contact me if there are any changes, and it is quite easy to find the group meeting places. They are highly recommended, and for me the convenience, peace of mind and excellent service is absolutely worth the cost.

By the way, I have an American Airlines Visa credit card, and every time I use it internationally it asks me to provide a code via my email to ensure the transaction is secure and not fraudulent. I have never had any problems purchasing any kinds of tickets with that card.

Best wishes y buena suerte!

We had no problems purchasing tickets to Sagrada Familia with our Costco Citi Visa 3 weeks in advance. We let the credit card companies know of our travel then a day later starting purchasing tickets.

We did have problems purchasing train tickets with the Visa as well as Mastercard. Spent a lot of time on the phone--one CS agent was able to see the problem and after verifying that all of our previous purchases were valid, had something in the system "cleared". We were able to purchase the train tickets without problem after that.

I wonder if you could contact CapitalOne and Chase and have them do a deeper dive into the problem and get the automatic rejection flag removed? It took us a couple of calls to get to a CS agent that went beyond the "not a problem on our side" line on the script.

It seems that tickets quickly disappear from the SF site, so I definitely would not wait to purchase tickets after arrival.

Another idea--have you tried purchasing the tickets using different browsers? There may be something in the browsers history/cache that is causing the transactions to be denied. Clearing the cache and history may help.

We will be in Barcelona after a cruise on June 1 and 2. I couldn't get tickets on line, but went with a tour of Parc Guell and Sagrada, guide and tickets included. I picked our time and day. I may have paid a bit more, but will have a small tour, ride from Parc to Sagrada, and personal guide. It wasn't much more than the tickets alone so that may be an option too. We used Viator. The last time we booked through them was in Rome for Coliseum and Forum and they were fantastic. I'll let you all know how this tour goes.

I was able to get tickets to the Picasso Museum on line from the museum site.

We've battled this also, but, today we were successful! I downloaded the Sagrada app, used a Gmail address AND turned off the wifi. Good luck!

Sewgirl, thanks for reporting your experience. It is nice to verify that some of those tricks really do work!