My passport number is judged as being invalid

[Lydia Gillen]

I have been trying to book a bus ticket from Santiago to Valenca.
However the Alsa site keeps insisting that my passport number is invalid.
They want digits and then one letter. mine has two letters followed by 8 digits.
Can anyone help me please?

 

[Tincatinker]

I suspect the ALSA website is anticipating a Spanish passport number, try simply omiting it. Repute suggests its unlikely to accept your credit card number either, though some succeed in paying via PayPal(tm). Unless you are planning to travel on or around a public holiday I would suggest you buy the ticket when you get there.

 

[Theatregal]

I had a booking problem with ALSA once and contacted them directly. On their website, under Contact Details, there is an online chat help line. They responded pretty quickly when I used it.

 

[Silverton]

Hi, Lydia
With the caveat that I don't think I'm very knowledgeable. Have you an Irish passport book, or passport card? I've had some complications (mostly with airlines!), with my card. Perhaps you might book your bus with the Movelia website. I've used them in the past and I don't think they require a passport number. Then you take their booking info to the Alsa office at your departure point. Life has got too complicated, even for us simple-peregrinas!
Best wishes,
Mary, Dublin

 

[Lydia Gillen]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I find it strange as I have often purchased Alsa tickets in the past and no problem.

I have contacted the site and have 'chatted' with a very helpful young man who said it was a fault on the network 'red' and that if i logged out and tried again in twenty minutes he would have it fixed. Three hours later and it is still invalid. I have tried putting in my passport number to look Spanish and that lets me through to the next stage. but I would be afraid to mess about with a passport number.

I have also gone on the Movelia site through which I have purchased tickets in the past but am getting nowhere

I will be staying in Santiago on Thursday night and will just make my way to the bus station early in the morning and hopefully there will not be a long queue for tickets, and if I miss the ten o'clock I will just have to get the twelve o'clock one.

Once again thank you all for taking time to answer me.

 

[bryans]

We booked alsa tickets today and had to contact them as we had difficulty booking online.

1. Make sure that the word passport is highlighted in the appropriate box .

2. It is best to pay by paypal if you have a non spanish card.

Doing the above we were successful.

 

[bryans]

I forgot to mention that my passport has 2 letters and 8 digits and worked ok using the above information.

 

[Saint Mike II]

I have been trying to book a bus ticket from Santiago to Valenca.
However the Alsa site keeps insisting that my passport number is invalid.
They want digits and then one letter. mine has two letters followed by 8 digits.
Can anyone help me please?

So Alsa has finally determined that you are a non-person? Does this mean you no longer have to pay tax?. LOL! Suggest you follow Tinca’s advice, I find many Spanish booking sites are unable to accept outsiders. Good luck!

 

[MinaKamina]

A few years ago, I wanted to order a book from a Portuguese internetstore, and I needed a NIF-number to complete the purchase. I had no NIF-number, and I had no idea what it was all about either. Nudity In Freedom was one of the possible meanings of NIF, though not very likely. I decided on Número de Identificación Fiscal, and I do not have a Portuguese Fiscal Number, I simply wanted to order a book and the website wouldn't budge.
I ended up typing something like 9012345678 and bingo! The book arrived within three days, and no questions asked. Ever, it has been 3 years since.

If you do not want to mess with your passport number, I can understand that, but no one is obliged to comply with the impossible. You can always plead the Fifth, and express your honest surprise at this obvious mistake, if and when this should be necessary.

 

[trecile]

I wouldn't be too worried about an incorrect passport number. I haven't taken many buses in Spain, but I haven't had my passport checked. Also, you could also just tell them that you had made an error when you entered the number. I'm sure that your ticket would still be valid.
I had a bit of trouble booking on the Alsa site this summer, because it wasn't showing all the available buses to Madrid. I downloaded their app, and the process was smoother. I also use the Renfe app for the same reason.

 

[Edward Reardon]

So Alsa has finally determined that you are a non-person? Does this mean you no longer have to pay tax?. LOL! Suggest you follow Tinca’s advice, I find many Spanish booking sites are unable to accept outsiders. Good luck!

Is that why I cannot book a bed at Roncevalles with a US card. I tried several times over three days with no luck. When I contacted them by email they just directed me back to the booking page. I gave up!

 

[Saint Mike II]

Hola @MinaKamina that NIF post reminds about all the rigmarole you have to go through to open a bank account in Spain. You need a similar number in Galicia, it’s even difficult to rent a house or unit without one, even for EU citizens. Still like the way you circumvented the Portuguese!

 

[Shuttle666]

I had something similiar with the Correos website which required an ID. No option worked, even tried a Spanish one. Gave up and called into the local post office and job done without any request for ID.

 

[MinaKamina]

Hola @MinaKamina that NIF post reminds about all the rigmarole you have to go through to open a bank account in Spain. You need a similar number in Galicia, it’s even difficult to rent a house or unit without one, even for EU citizens. Still like the way you circumvented the Portuguese!

I wouldn't do this in case of a bank account, but for buying a book I did and I vouched never to return.

 

[t2andreo]

Is that why I cannot book a bed at Roncevalles with a US card. I tried several times over three days with no luck. When I contacted them by email they just directed me back to the booking page. I gave up!

Have you tried booking a room through booking.com? I regularly use my US CC to travel globally and have NEVER had a problem. I book almost exclusively through booking.com.

If you try to book directly, you frequently have to deal with one off programming issues on these individual websites. This is less a problem if you are trying to book a room in a city in a large, chain hotel, like an IBIS, or other Accor property, for example.

I hope this helps.

 

[Lydia Gillen]

Well Thank you all for your contributions to help me.

I do feel so stupid that I am not computer savvy.

I know that the clues are on the screen in front of me, but somehow I am not able to read them. like someone who cannot see arrows made with twigs or stones on the track through the forest!!

However I am just about to go upstairs and check through everything for the umpteenth time and decided that first I will try once again, there must be a way to get paying for my alsa ticket.

So I started as I did ten or more times yesterday and came to the square NIF and beside it the rectangle for the number. There is a little chevron beside the NIF I tipped it - nothing happened, just like yesterday, then today I tipped the I of NIF and a little box with the word Passport appeared I tipped it immediately before it could disappear, and then put my passport number in the rectangular box fast as I could and I am through .

So all is well. I am all ready to go. When I get home I will try to enter the 21st century!!!

To thank you all again and maybe this thread will be of help to somebody else.

 

[NolaVulling]

I have been trying to book a bus ticket from Santiago to Valenca.
However the Alsa site keeps insisting that my passport number is invalid.
They want digits and then one letter. mine has two letters followed by 8 digits.
Can anyone help me please?

Lydia, ALSA and RENFE now have an office together with the Correos in the same building as the pilgrim office in Santiago. The counter is notmanned over lunch time but otherwise offers great service.

 

[timr]

@Lydia Gillen Have a great time! Are you doing Ingles or Portugues?
I am glad you got it sorted. I have often given up with the ALSA booking site, but have never(!) had a problem booking ALSA through the Movelia site. But also I have always found booking with the ALSA app on my phone works very easily. Some years ago I had printed ticket for ALSA which he was not interested in one bit, but insisted on seeing just my passport to check against his manifest.
I use the Irish passport card almost exclusively now, and have never had any problem or complication with it.
Well done for getting through to ALSA and getting them to acknowledge they had a problem......er even if that didn't exactly sort out the problem.

 

[Lydia Gillen]

Hi Tim, I am doing the Portugues, starting in Valenca and going very very slowly, have booked everywhere except Valga and Hebron. have even arranged with tuitrans to carry my rucksack. Will have lots of time to visit Cathedrals and churches and sit in the sun and just be present to God's gift of this lovely little planet to us. and to thank him for all the reasons that make this trip possible for me Thank you for the notes on the detour before Porrino.

Before my first Camino in Spring 2007 I was scared silly, now 10 years later The rats are still gnawing at my entrails. They do this ever time I go. I know I will be ok once I get started. There is nothing logical in this fear, but the rats don't know this and wont listen to me.

 

[jay quintero]

I have been trying to book a bus ticket from Santiago to Valenca.
However the Alsa site keeps insisting that my passport number is invalid.
They want digits and then one letter. mine has two letters followed by 8 digits.
Can anyone help me please?

This post originally concerned me somewhat because my passport has nine digits ONLY ... no letters ... hmmmm ...

 

[Lydia Gillen]

I did the last bit of the Portugues route starting in Valenca. I flew into Santiago stayed the night in San Martin Pinario and took the bus to Valenca next morning in order that I would have at least one Portuguese stamp on my credential.

I n 2007 When I started on the Camino I carried my ruck and stayed in Albergues. I was always anxious about getting a bed or even floor space. 10 years later and 3 journeys from the Pyrenees to Santiago and being either on Camino or volunteering each year I decided that in my 70's I should book ahead and get my rucksack carried. A very very good decision!!!. Every day was pure pleasure as I walked through forests , vineyards and past patches of corn with people cutting the ripe ears. I paced myself and had time to see things.

Unfortunately, but not really bad. two days out of Santiago whilst walking with a fellow pilgrim, we could see the smoke from Vigo behind us, and she found it was affecting her lungs and decided to forge ahead to somewhere much nearer Santiago. I was walking very well and and said "I will go with you" Phoned and made reservations, cancelled previous reservation It was several Klm later and way past where I should have stopped that I remembered my rucksack. To make a long story short I arrived into Santiago one day early in order to get together with my ruck. We came into that lovely city in pouring rain in a Mercedes taxi!!!. The ruck had not yet arrived and would not for another two hours, so I decided to stay there rather than take the taxi back to where I had originally got it and so continue my Camino. So I have made the decision to go back again in Spring and enjoy the same Camino all over again and to Walk into Santiago.

I had always thought that staying in albergues and carrying one's rucksack was the way to do the Camino. It has taken me a long time to learn to have compassion on my advancing years. A lesson I intend to put into practice in everyday life.

 

[HedaP]

Thank you for giving us a rather too exciting for you but over all happy ending. I’m thinking if I walk the Portuguese alone next year, as is possible, that I might follow your lead about booking accommodation. I don’t mind carrying my pack and most times I’m fine but sometimes when walking alone I do get over the search for where to stay. Met a fellow this year doing his I think 4th or maybe 6th CF and he had booked every night in advance and he was laughing.