[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by shobhitk

There is one serious issue with the IRCTC online booking system. I have booked tickets for persons qualifying as senior citizen (ie. i tick the relevant box) but not even ONCE Indian Railways has issued them Lower Births, not even the Side Lowers!

I have recently made three ticket bookings for senior citizens and twice they did allocate lower berths but for one they offer side upper and lower berths. So I can assume that they do it 60% of the times in contrast to your experience. Hell I have got many a times lower berths when booked for myself, its a different thing that I had relinquish them to a senior citizen or ladies most of the times. I do that happily (i anyways dont get much sleep in the trains).

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by shobhitk

There is one serious issue with the IRCTC online booking system. I have booked tickets for persons qualifying as senior citizen (ie. i tick the relevant box) but not even ONCE Indian Railways has issued them Lower Births, not even the Side Lowers!
This is pure and simple common sense. I dont understand how can the indian railways ignore such a relevant fact?? They cant get away by saying that all the lower births were exhausted as they were already booked.
They should hold back a certain number of lower births in the senior citizen quota in each bogie. that is the least they can do to help make the journey of senior citizens a bit less challenging.

I hope Indian Railways is listening.

Originally Posted by ghodlur

I have recently made three ticket bookings for senior citizens and twice they did allocate lower berths but for one they offer side upper and lower berths. So I can assume that they do it 60% of the times in contrast to your experience. Hell I have got many a times lower berths when booked for myself, its a different thing that I had relinquish them to a senior citizen or ladies most of the times. I do that happily (i anyways dont get much sleep in the trains).

I had faced similar issue on many occasions. Thereafter I started booking tickets for my parents, both senior citizens, separately.
My process of booking their tickets is that firstly I check the number of seats available under senior citizen category from erail. If 2 or more seats are available, I book their seats separately and get lower berths for both. I generally book them in 2AC. Suppose a train has only 1 2AC coach, then they get seats in same coach. If number of coaches are more, chances are that they may get it in different coaches. In that scenario, while booking 2nd ticket, I put up the coach number(for ex. A1 of 1st ticket) in option and try. If I get in another coach (A2), I have even tried booking another ticket which will be in A2 and then cancel the other one(A1).
There is some loss but eventually tickets are in same coach. Nearly always I have got lower berths when booking this way. Generally I book Dad's ticket first if there is only 1 senior citizen berth available and then I book Mom's ticket which also falls under ladies quota and is entitled for lower berth.

If you try to book 1 senior citizen ticket with another full fare ticket, IRCTC will rarely give you a lower berth. Its most probably due to some fault in their booking system.

[shobhitk]

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

My process of booking their tickets is that firstly I check the number of seats available under senior citizen category from erail. If 2 or more seats are available, I book their seats separately and get lower berths for both. I generally book them in 2AC. Suppose a train has only 1 2AC coach, then they get seats in same coach. If number of coaches are more, chances are that they may get it in different coaches. In that scenario, while booking 2nd ticket, I put up the coach number(for ex. A1 of 1st ticket) in option and try. If I get in another coach (A2), I have even tried booking another ticket which will be in A2 and then cancel the other one(A1).
There is some loss but eventually tickets are in same coach. Nearly always I have got lower berths when booking this way. Generally I book Dad's ticket first if there is only 1 senior citizen berth available and then I book Mom's ticket which also falls under ladies quota and is entitled for lower berth.

Thanks for the useful tip! Will give it a try next time.

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

If you try to book 1 senior citizen ticket with another full fare ticket, IRCTC will rarely give you a lower berth. Its most probably due to some fault in their booking system.

Yes. thats exactly my point! i also suspected a faulty booking algorithm/code behind this issue. I hope they fine tune it without any further delay.

[Turbanator]

Now only one train ticket can be booked online with one login after which the booking session will expire during the peak hours. The restriction, which will be applicable while booking etickets between 0800 hours and 1200 hours, has been imposed to prevent touts from cornering tickets through single-user logging facility .


http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/A...24032015014033

[shobhitk]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Now only one train ticket can be booked online with one login after which the booking session will expire during the peak hours. The restriction, which will be applicable while booking etickets between 0800 hours and 1200 hours, has been imposed to prevent touts from cornering tickets through single-user logging facility .


http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/A...24032015014033

Not a smart move though. A person 'interested' would nevertheless relogin within seconds. It will only make the process of ticket booking for normal users like you and me even more miserable. Nothing new!

[luvDriving]

Originally Posted by shobhitk

. It will only make the process of ticket booking for normal users like you and me even more miserable. Nothing new!

+1 to that and furthermore it will push more and more customers towards these agents themselves for booking rail tickets in order to avoid all the online booking restrictions. What will happen to people who wish to book connecting trains or even return trains ?

[ravib]

Originally Posted by luvDriving

+1 to that and furthermore it will push more and more customers towards these agents themselves for booking rail tickets in order to avoid all the online booking restrictions. What will happen to people who wish to book connecting trains or even return trains ?

Exactly. In addition to that, currently only 6 passengers can be booked in one ticket. What will the families do with more than 6 people ?

This is going to drive people to have multiple login ids and multiple mobile numbers.

I really hope they realize this mistake and undo the decision.

-Ravi

[binand]

Originally Posted by ravib

Exactly. In addition to that, currently only 6 passengers can be booked in one ticket. What will the families do with more than 6 people ?

This restriction of 6 passengers per ticket has been around for several decades and is not IRCTC-specific. The procedure is to go to the PRS in person for bookings that have more than 6 passengers and get the approval of SM or some such big shot. Most people just book multiple tickets. :-)

[ravib]

Originally Posted by binand

This restriction of 6 passengers per ticket has been around for several decades and is not IRCTC-specific. The procedure is to go to the PRS in person for bookings that have more than 6 passengers and get the approval of SM or some such big shot. Most people just book multiple tickets. :-)

Hi Binand, Yes i know that and am aware of it. My point is that today we can book more than one ticket in multiple iterations. Say 2 tickets for a family of 8 people. When there is a restriction of one ticket for 6 people only, it is not practical to goto PRS to book tickets for the remaining 2 persons.

Benefit of online booking is lost and taking people back to Queues in manual method of PRS booking. I understand touts are misusing the online booking, however, even genuine travelers are also impacted by this move.

My 2 cents...

-Ravi

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by binand

This restriction of 6 passengers per ticket has been around for several decades and is not IRCTC-specific. The procedure is to go to the PRS in person for bookings that have more than 6 passengers and get the approval of SM or some such big shot. Most people just book multiple tickets. :-)

Originally Posted by ravib

Say 2 tickets for a family of 8 people. When there is a restriction of one ticket for 6 people only, it is not practical to goto PRS to book tickets for the remaining 2 persons.

I think you misunderstood. You can book for all 8 people in a single ticket after getting an approval from the Chief Reservation Officer (or some such) of the booking center. You just need to apply on a plain paper, giving the reason of travel (wedding/group tour/pilgrimage etc) and details of the persons travelling. Once you get the approval you can book the ticket normally through the counter just like you would any other ticket.

Booking 2 different tickets has the disadvantage of the group being split.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by luvDriving

What will happen to people who wish to book connecting trains or even return trains ?

Don't know about connecting trains, but you can book a return ticket within the same session. I booked an onward ticket today, after which it was allowing to book the return, but not another un-related ticket.

[shobhitk]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Don't know about connecting trains, but you can book a return ticket within the same session. I booked an onward ticket today, after which it was allowing to book the return, but not another un-related ticket.

Much relief! Thanks for sharing this vital information.

Indian railways has left no stone unturned to accommodate the ever increasing number of users especially in the morning session but nothing has clicked till date. as far as the server capacity is concerned, they should learn something from extremely popular sites such as rediff, flipkart, jabong etc. I also believe that poor coding/scripting of irctc website is definitely responsible to some extent for the morning chaos.

[binand]

Originally Posted by ravib

Benefit of online booking is lost and taking people back to Queues in manual method of PRS booking.

I don't know about this; as far as I'm concerned nothing will take me back to the PRS now. I don't mind any of the controls IRCTC implements; I just don't want to go back to those days when I've slept on the footpath outside Churchgate station just so that I could get a ticket to go home during summer vacations... :-)

In any case, IRCTC I believe has instructions from the parent organization to not make it too easy for online bookers so as to not put the offliners at a disadvantage. Hence many of their controls, especially during the rush hour.

Originally Posted by shobhitk

as far as the server capacity is concerned, they should learn something from extremely popular sites such as rediff, flipkart, jabong etc. I also believe that poor coding/scripting of irctc website is definitely responsible to some extent for the morning chaos.

I can't comment on the actual code, but being in the industry I can tell you that it is not that easy a task as it looks. Look at Flipkart's disaster a few months back. Even Amazon. There is a difference between normally high traffic (rediff etc.) and burst traffic that could be several times your average traffic. Especially in a transactional system with high consistency requirements like a reservation system.

[ravib]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Don't know about connecting trains, but you can book a return ticket within the same session. I booked an onward ticket today, after which it was allowing to book the return, but not another un-related ticket.

Hi SupremeBaleno, i think this is coming into effect from April 1st. So we have to check it out next month

-Ravi

[shobhitk]

Originally Posted by binand

I can't comment on the actual code, but being in the industry I can tell you that it is not that easy a task as it looks. Look at Flipkart's disaster a few months back. Even Amazon. There is a difference between normally high traffic (rediff etc.) and burst traffic that could be several times your average traffic. Especially in a transactional system with high consistency requirements like a reservation system.

I completely agree with that! and IRCTC is also differently placed vis-a-vis the above mentioned e-commerce sites in so far as the target audience is concerned. it is so because generally people have their own likings and dislikings for e-commerce sites. a person might be a regular customer of flipkart but he/she may give amazon, rediff etc. a complete miss. whereas in the case of railway ticket booking there is no choice. it is ONLY the server of the Indian railways which handles all the requests coming from whichever source, be it through ngpay or through irctc or may be makemytrip etc. add to that the manual ticket booking through the reservation counters of indian railways. it may be 'manual' for us but the booking officer uses exactly the same server resources of indian railways which handles the booking requests made through the irctc website.

So in short, yes the booking volume in the morning session must be in lacs! but railway sites of other countries are doing it the correct way. i just hope that indian railways comes out with a practical solution for its loyal customers soon.