IRCTC Alert: Things to remember before booking train tickets this new year

Bhubaneswar: Lakhs of people everyday use the website of the Indian Railways Tourism and Catering (IRCTC) to book tickets. While booking tickets on www.irctc.co.in, someone has to take care of a few important things.

Usually people go for the lower berth for women and senior citizens. During booking on the IRCTC website, even if someone selects a berth of his/her own choice, there is no guarantee that the same berth will be allotted to him/her.

Though the ticket will not be booked, ticket money will be debited from the bank account. In that case one has to wait for around a week to get back the money. If the money is not refunded after one week period, someone can raise a request with the IRCTC quoting the transaction number.

Therefore, someone should not select the dedicated lower-berth option only if he/she cannot travel without it. It is advisable to select the lower berth option only if there are at least 150 berths available in a train.
The IRCTC website, developed by the CRIS, allows users to serach trains and check availability of seats without logging in.

Besides, a user can check ‘My Transactions’ to view their booked tickets based on Journey Date and Booking Date.

The ‘Waitlist prediction’ feature can help a user get the probability of a Waitlisted or RAC ticket getting confirmed.

An official of the CRIS told the zeebiz.com that availability of the berths changes every second on the online booking system. Therefore, there’s a more chances that someone who gets the early access can get the desired berth.