I've read a few topics about this issue. We are heading to Barcelona next week for our first time. We have tried many times to purchase tickets on-line for Sagrada Familia, but have had no luck. After speaking with our bank each time they clear us for fraud alert, the issue appeared to be on Sagrada side of payment. I emailed their customer service and was told "the error that appears in the system is due to an incompatibility between the security system of our payment platform and the bank that issued your card". As we only have credit cards from this one bank, it looks like we'll be unable to visit Sagrada. (bummer!) We were able to get Park Guell tickets with no problem. In all the years we've been traveling to Europe, this is the first time we've run into this issue. For the hotel and other tours we have booked so far, we're good. I'm just worried we may run into this issue for something else while we're there. For those of you who have experienced the same problem....did you have any other sights/restaurants/bars, etc that had the same issue? Thanks for any insight you can provide!
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
7786 posts
Spain is occasionally problematic for me. Are you using VISA? I always make sure to have AMEX, VISA and MasterCard. MasterCard has occasionally worked for me when VISA has not. Also, oddly, AMEX has occasionally worked as well when VISA hasn't.
I'm sorry you are having problems, this would be very frustrating. IMO, a person traveling to Europe should have more than one credit card, preferably of different types. This doesn't help you now, but for the future.
I would contact your accommodation, and perhaps they could help you acquire tickets.
Posted by
OP
Fort Myers, FL. USA
25 posts
Thanks Jules. We've never had this problem before and we travel a lot. I guess we'll just see what happens....we can always hit an ATM and get euro's. I've looked at tour companies and we can pay more to purchase tickets through them.
Posted by
Canada
61 posts
I'm likely too late for OP's trip, but this must be a quirk of the Sagrada Familia website. We ran into this same issue a few years ago, even with different credit cards. I don't normally recommend buying tickets from a third party but we were able to secure tickets in person from the tourism office on Plaça d'Espanya, for a nominal fee (a euro or two extra per ticket compared to basic ticket on Sagrada website).
I'm not sure they do this anymore and obviously you'd need to be staying long enough that you can take what's available.
Posted by
OP
Fort Myers, FL. USA
25 posts
Saucerful....we are back from Barcelona and had no other problems with our credit card. We got lucky at our hotel and they were able to secure us tickets for the last day we were there, using the same credit card. Had a great time and will definitely be going back there!