Hi all, I live in Buffalo, NY, actually looked up the Venezuelan Federation's telephone number at fifa.com, and called there last week (I am a fluent Spanish speaker). The man told me to call back this week and he would have a web address for me to buy tickets online. I am almost certainly going, probably alone, so would love to hook up with some cool US fans to hang with. Maybe we can get tix together or close by? Anyone interested, look me up: hotpoint369@hotmail.com I'm a cool guy up for some soccer, drinking, and whatever else.
Since the planning for this seems to have stalled, I've started making my own plans. Please indicate here or in a PM if you would like to join me or help in any way. Please read on for a description of my plan. I would like to plan an itinerary that includes stays in Maracaibo, Barinas, Merida (non-match-day), and Barquisimeto. The goal is to see all three USA matches, with the total trip spanning from June 27 through July 6 or 7. The trip may or may not include: - booking hotels in advance or winging it - cabin rental in Barinas - paragliding in Merida - arrival and departure from Maracaibo or Caracas - some sort of group coordination on the 27th - connections between cities via air or bus, maybe car rentals - day trips to Angel Falls or Catatumbo - eco tours - cheap or mid-range hotels - rainy days (our summer is their rainy season) I've met a lot of people at away USA matches and there are clearly groups that can handle a little bit of hardship and those that prefer American hotels, bermuda shorts, and guided tours. I am thinking it will be a lot of the former for a Copa America trip. I would like to travel light and cheap and take in as much of Venezuela as possible. If it sounds scary or daunting, don't worry. Don't be afraid to expand your horizons. If you enjoy rich cultural experiences and you like to have fun, you will do fine. If there is enough interest, we will set up more planning resources. This could include a planning wiki and a blog. Is anyone else interested? Wes369? Let me know in this thread, via PM, or email to ajwatt@visi.com.
with my tix in hand I'm ready . I'll be cheering for Colombia, but I'm in... I'll be missing the 1st game though, which sux but it was a barganing point with the wife. I speak fluent spanish so hopefully I can help. Some of the points you mention I don't know if I'm in 100% but it's good to discuss: - booking hotels in advance or winging it Me: I would book in advance otherwise we're going to be left to choose from hotels in some 'undesired areas'. From the research I've started, there are very few choices that have decent accomodations. - cabin rental in Barinas Me: sounds good. - paragliding in Merida Me: I'll be drinking at the bar below - arrival and departure from Maracaibo or Caracas Me: I've looked at some local flights. Mostly priced at around $70 per trip The Maracaibo - Barinas/Merida can be done by bus. - some sort of group coordination on the 27th Me: wont be around but can catch up - connections between cities via air or bus, maybe car rentals Me: No driving for me. buses are pretty cheap relative to renting a car. - day trips to Angel Falls or Catatumbo Me: that's on the other side of the country. You'd lose a full day just in travel to and from Angel Falls. - eco tours Me: why not! - cheap or mid-range hotels Me: mid-range to high-range. Most "4-5" star hotels are going to be mid-range in Venezuela and are relatively affordable if split 2-3 folks. I'd rather have a hotel room that's in a safe area and where my crap wont be stolen by the staff! All I'm looking to do, is catch 3-4 matches (including the Peru v Vez match in San Cristobal -- wanna see how the 'home' team parties!), party like the locals and just take in the country...
I went to the link Fabio provided... http://www.delujopromociones.com/comprar.html In Spanish it states tickets go on sale May 11 from 8am to 8pm via the website, phone, or at offices at each venue city. I'll be checking it out tomorrow.
I just checked out the site today. Tickets went on sale by phone yesterday and supposedly going on the website today. I tried calling several times yesterday and got busy signals the whole time. In case there is an update today at the webpage or if i can secure anything by phone.
I've got a few people together. Keep the messages coming if you are interested in joining us. I think I've replied to everyone, so get in touch if you haven't heard from me. The ticket portal is open now. I created an account for myself. They only have the first double-header match listed. lfsr1544, does "with my tix in hand" mean match tickets or plane tickets? Tickets come in four prices: VIP I: $89 VIP II: $32 Cat III (behind goals): $16 Cat IV: $0 (I'm guessing that means there is no Cat IV) One can order up to three tickets. But all four classes are listed as "Disponible: 0" (zero available). I hope that is just temporary... I would tend to prefer behind the goals. The party is always better there and you can cheer on the US keeper for one half. It is unclear whether US fans will be situated in a group. Can someone who knows Spanish try emailing or calling them to see if they can set aside a block for US fans? I'm willing to front some money for a block if they'll do it for us.
The Cat IV says that they will only be sold on the day of the match from the stadium. There will be two other dates where the rest of the tickets will be sold, the idea is to sell in batches so that everyone has a fighting chance it seems.
Check out what the bozos are selling Copa Tix for.... http://shop.oleole.com/buy1.asp?action=NEW&DP=&ProgramID=PP100167&lang=en
I tried at various points of the day, to no avail. Even emailing them this morning when their website seemed to 'not connect' to the purchasing link. All I received was a canned auto-response. Finally tonight, after reading Thunderpac's post, I realized each user has to register, so I did. But this seems to lead only to the "store". Tickets are not available as mentioned, above. 0 disponible = 0 available. I'll keep trying.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the tix are gone. They released 54% of the tix. They sold them over the phone while the website was "down". I do know they will release whatever is left after the promoters, gov. and others have got what they want.
I've been trying all day on the website. It either kept timing out or rejecting my purchase. But, I was just successful a few minutes ago at ordering the max, 3 tickets for each US first round match. I just spent 1,500,000 Bolivares on my Visa. There are 700 VIP category tix left for the US-Argentina match and about 2,000 for the other two games. The server is REALLY SLOW. Don't get impatient and start clicking multiple times. Especially don't click on the 'Back' button. This will mess you up royally. You have to be very patient to use this slow-boat website. At the bottom of the webpage, on my Apple it would display 2 of 7 or 5 of 7, etc, so you know it's still pulling info from web server. I'm telling you, it's SLOW. Here are some helpful glossary terms. Bs. = Venezuelan Bolivares carrito = shopping cart pais = country. Don't click on 'pais'. Instead, locate tickets by group, not by country grupo = group grupo c = Group C, of course confirmar = confirm tickets = after saving in carrito, shopping cart, each game, click on tickets. This word happens to appear on the website in English for some reason. Everything else is in Spanish. actualizar = to initiate the ticket purchase, only use after you have tickets for all three games in your carrito (shopping cart) sequiente = next screen realizar = initiate the transaction pagar ahora = pay now the site will ask for the last three digits on the back of the credit card. "Ultimos tres digitos en el reverso de la tarjeta" It's a very onerous process. Banco de Venezuela Total Bs.: 1.437.750,00 or about $670 US dollars
I was able to order Cat 3 tickets for all of the USA games. There were no tickets available in the other categories. Cat 3 had between 3500 and 4500 left for each match according to the "disponible" count. To add to DanteSoccer's recommendations: - don't bother trying to order more than one ticket per match. The best I was able to do was get it to show three for the first match but not the others. - the checkout process will ask for your passport number too. I didn't want to enter one, but it would not proceed without a valid one. - the site is a pile of crap.
Dude email them about the passport!!! The tickets are personalized to prevent scalping, meaning they might ask for your passport at the entrance.
I can't even get the site to let me register. It craps out when I try to enter my info and just results in a blank screen . . .
I was only able to get USA v. Paraguay and Venezuela v. Uruguay tickets today about an hour ago. They had nothing available for USA v. Colombia / Argentina v. Paragua doubleheader on 7/5. I didn't check the 6/30 game in Maracaibo USA v. Argentina since I won't be going to that one.
Another thing I just thought of that might help: you need to create an account on the ticket site to order tickets. If you fill out the form and submit it, you will get no indication that it was successful. Just try logging in using the two fields at the top. After you log in, it will put you back at the same form as though nothing happened. But this time it should show your name at the upper right. That means you're logged in. When you're logged in, click on the "listar" link on the left. Click on "en grupo" or something like that and then find group C. From there, I think it is fairly self-explanatory to add tickets to your shopping cart. It'll take a few tries to get it to show what you want. Once you finalize your order, it will transfer you to a bank site (Venezuela Santander I'm thinking...) to get your credit card details. Enter your name as it appears on the card, your passport number, the card type, expiration date, and 3digits from the back. Submit that and you'll get a summary screen. A box will pop up that tells you to write down the reference number. I clicked the box away thinking I could print the page, but it forwarded me to a thank-you screen. I clicked the "back" button on the web browser and got the summary screen back, which I then printed. I got a confirmation email message, but it was sent before the credit card details were entered. If that doesn't help, try sprinkling baking soda on your keyboard and repeat the process while standing on only one leg
Interestingly, the credit card charge hasn't appeared on my bank account. Perhaps it's due to being an overseas bank? Anyway, to add a few twists to the sorry internet experience, I received two automated emails after ordering last night. Both emails had the identical subject line message, even the order number was the same. I opened the first one, all looked OK, it was exactly what I had ordered. Thinking the second one was a duplicate I clicked it opened and read an order for a Jose Javier Sanguinetti in Merida, Venezuela! Very odd. His order seemed to have rejected based on the info on the email. But it was strange because the subject line had MY order number. His email was listed in the order so I tried to email him but the message rejected as undeliverable. What a mess. My friend also tried to order last night, he had trouble getting past the "pagar ahora" part. He kept running into dead-ends. At one point being directed to another website un-associated with Banco de Venezuela (Banco Santandar). He checked his email and lo and behold, he had NINE auto messages in his inbox from the website. So now he doesn't know if he was successful or not. Crazy.
This ticket distribution thing is a DISASTER... I too got "confirmation" e-mails sent before I had entered in my credit card details. At that time, the "Paga Ahora" link wasn't even up. Does this mean payment instructions will follow or am I screwed? A day later the "paga ahora" link was up, but not for my "pending order". So I tried to buy fresh tickets. I got to the credit card link this time, but they were unable to process it. Again, however, I got a "confirmation" e-mail. Did I get THESE tickets? For those of you who were "successful", a few questions: 1)Did your cards get debited? 2)Did they provide any info as to how you will actually GET your tickets? Have they made provisions to ship to the U.S.? If so, any indications as to when they would ship and at what cost? I heard at one point that there was some sort of "voucher" system going on where you had to redeem online purchases at brick-and-mortar ticket offices in Venezuela. Anybody know about this? 3)Wasn't there also supposed to be a 3-ticket-per-person limit? Is this per game or per tournament? Could those of you who bought tix to more than one game be looking down the barrel of a forced cancellation if it turns out to be 3 per tourney? I too got "confirmations" for OTHER customers sent to MY email. What a joke. Lastly, is there any word on a U.S. Soccer Fed allocation?
I sent them an email about it yesterday, but they are yet to respond. Hopefully they're just busy with the naming the new coach thing...
1) no debit has appeared on my Credit Card yet for my two purchases yesterday. 2) You are right about the brick and mortar option to pick up your tickets. Under the FAQ on the website ( preguntas frecuentes) it states that there is going to be a courier service available but does not mention that it will be available outside venezuela. I doubt it would be... It says under the same FAQ section that tickets can be picked up at the brick and mortar ticket offices starting june 20. 3) The allocation should be 3 tickets per game, not for the tournament. Incidentally. I did read on the website somewhere that if you place an order and do not pay for it, it will be automatically cancelled. You can check at the bottom of the "purchase orders" you place whether or not there is actually confirmed payment information for your order or not. Still, even this is not a guarantee. I placed two orders, both with confirmed payment info and I have not received ANY confirmation e-mail yet and I placed both orders yesterday. If I could only get thorugh by phone I would ( i speak fluent spanish ) but the lines are always busy no matter when you call.
No charge on my CC yet, but I expect it will take a few days. The confirmation email I got is just a list of what I ordered and my contact details.
Thanks for the info guys. So if one has to pick up tickets from a brick-and-mortar ticketing center, did you guys who completed orders get a prompt to choose WHICH center you might pick them up from? I think I read somewhere that there are like 10 centers throughout the country. I still haven't booked my flights and I'm debating flying directly into Maracaibo via American. I just don't want to buy game tickets and book flights and then be told I have to travel across the country to Caracas to pick them up. Yikes. One other question: why the heck don't these Federations suck it up, swallow their pride and hire out some consultants with some actual experience handling ticket sales for massive events? Even the Germans, who were relatively efficient for the World Cup, forced us all to spend dazed hours hitting refresh...as much as I think Ticketmaster is an evil monopolistic empire, I'd think we'd have a much smoother time... Again, thanks for the help. And good luck.
62% of the tix sold...beyond their expectations. they say next Monday the next phase of tix begins which is opening tix centers accross the country where you can physically buy your tix.