Booking Train Tickets On IRCTC: Dos And Don’ts

Lakhs of Indians use the Indian Railways Tourism and Catering website irctc.co.in to book train tickets online and as part of this booking people sometimes prefer the lower berth for women and senior citizens. Keeping that in mind the railways has also increased the number of reserved seats in Sleeper and AC-classes for them

But a major glitch was recently spotted where the website allows the user to select a choice of berth while booking the tickets online.

This feature doesn't guarantee a berth or whether you will be allotted the same seats as opted. But it gives you the option to book tickets only if one or two lower berth is available.

Even if you still opt for any of these options, your tickets won't be booked if there is no lower berth available.

However, even if the ticket is not booked, the total amount will be deducted from your account.

Though the amount deducted will be refunded within a week this could leave the user disappointed over not getting the desired seat.

How to avoid the situation :

1. Select the dedicated lower-berth option only if you cannot travel without it.

2. See to it that there are at least 150 berths available in the train where there are higher chances of you getting the lower berth.

3. If there are only 50 or 60 berths available on the train, avoid selecting the option.

4. The IRCTC's new user-friendly interface allows you to enquire/search trains and check the availability of seats without login also, so you save time with this.

5.To enhance customer’s booking experience, another feature called the ‘Waitlist prediction’, has been introduced where you can get the probability of a Waitlisted or RAC ticket getting confirmed.

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