Team-BHP - Indian Railways Thread | Info, Queries & Reviews

Quote:

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno (Post 2760171)

In a long time, I failed to get a Tatkal ticket today. Infact from 8AM to 8:30AM, I could not even login to IRCTC - tried different browsers, but no use. I was on Reliance NetConnect which is usually pretty good with Net speeds.

@Oxy, How does n/w traffic increase due to QuickBook ? I would think it would be the other way round - with QuickBook, its a single-page access/submit at IRCTC, move on to bank-page and get back. With PlanMyTravel, we need to flit through multiple pages on IRCTC itself before getting to the bank. And what is the whole point anyway when it is a level playing field - QuickBook is anyway accessible to all, so why bar it at all ?

Yeah, my bad. Quick book cannot contribute to network traffic.

No idea why the morons don't allow it for the initial one hour then. Maybe some cut involved for the agents!

And I have repeated observed, you can't access the site till 9 AM anyway, on whatever network you are and whatever browser you open the site on.

Tried again today hoping for the best. Till 8:20AM it was the same story like yesterday and I almost gave up hope. What helped was the other window that I had open with the remaining seats available for the train and which I continously refreshed to know latest status. At 8:20AM, there were still 150 odd seats left of the 259 total, which gave me hope. Things improved after 8:20AM with each page coming up slowly but without issues and finally at 8:30AM I had the ticket. Phew !!! Same Reliance connection as yesterday.

I have also observed that using AMEX credit cards for booking your tickets is faster. In case of VISA/Mastercard, the site redirects you to the bank's website, processes the payment and returns back to the IRCTC website.

I tried my AMEX yesterday and I did not encounter the usual "Processing... Please do not press refresh button" page.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oxy (Post 2762198)

Booked two tatkal tickets last weeks using AMEX for the same reason that I can avoid one step of getting redirected.

I have observed that these days, the occurence of 'Communication Failure' error messages have reduced drastically. Also IRCTC has really improved their service by leaps and bounds. I am a huge fan of Mobility and I think IRCTC has taken a step in the right direction by offering Waiting Ticket confirmation message feature to mobile phones.

Also the SMS features on 139 is splendid. Yes, sometimes there is a delay in receiving messages, but that can depend on several factors like - technical difficulties at the operator's end, network congestion, etc. All-in-all, I see IRCTC getting really proactive in terms of providing better service to customers.

I haven't tried booking hotels or flights through IRCTC though. Would like to know from fellow BHPians about it, who have done so.

Redirection to Bank websites is better safty.There was a news item y'day in Hindi papers, one can deposit the money in IRCTC account via a/c to a/c xfer (Sort of top up ) and use it while booking tkts so no need to go to any other bank website. but that stuff needs RBI approval. Taking deposits and all.

Tatkal booking for this friday weekend rush lead to 'service unavailable' message when loading home page itself. By 8:20, all tatkal tickets were sold.

And then the page loaded very fast though!

Logged on to redbus and found a last seat in hindusthan travels. Phew.

I searched the forum and couldn't find anyone shared this link yet, so here it is.

This is an application, which acts like an autofill, will help people to quickly fill the Tatkal reservation form, thereby saving precious seconds.

Hope this helps my fellow Team BHP'ians.:)

Cheers

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arunshek (Post 2794842)

This is an application, which acts like an autofill, will help people to quickly fill the Tatkal reservation form, thereby saving precious seconds.

Hope this helps my fellow Team BHP'ians.:)

Indeed it helps, a real value addition, especially for people with a long list of passengers and slow typing speed :thumbs up

Thanks a lot Arunshek for the tip clap:

I just tried if it works and it works fine. The only glitch was that, since I tried it on a day-train, the 'Berth Preference' options did not match 'Window Seat'. But that is just a selection of the 'Berth Preference' drop-down once again before you hit 'Go'.

So true.......

Indian Railways Thread | Info, Queries & Reviews-ab.jpg

For Hindi Challanged:
AB: Till today I have not asked anything from you.
AB: Today for the first time I am here begging you.
AB: Please get me a tatkaal ticket via IRCTC.
God: Sorry son. Even I am not able to login before 9.00 AM.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fillmore

I see a couple of transactions in my online A/c ' IRCTC CH+ST 28/05/12 321576752' each charged a fixed amount of Rs 11.25
Does anyone know what is this new charge levied ?

Looks like the service charge of Rs10 charged by your bank/credit-card + the 12.5% service tax on it. Which account does this figure in ? Bank statement / credit card statement ?
Some banks (eg. Federal Bank) don't levy this surcharge, while most banks/credit-cards do charge this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fillmore (Post 2794998)

I see a couple of transactions in my online A/c ' IRCTC CH+ST 28/05/12 321576752'
each charged a fixed amount of Rs 11.25

Does anyone know what is this new charge levied ?

Some banks and Credit Card companies charge additional Service charge for the IRCTC transactions. You can read the description before making the payment to find out which banks charge these. I book through HDFC Netbanking and Standard Chartered Credit card and always have this additional charge.