If you have the power to know your whereabouts after about 4 months, book your train tickets in utmost comfort without competition. But if you are like me, with out-of-the-blue plans have a fat wallet (for flight). Booking a tatkal ticket is not everybody’s piece of cake. Very recently, I joined this elite group. It cost me one and a half weeks of emotional oscillation between enthusiastic hope and utter despair.
You might wonder why I didn’t just opt for a flight. Well, you see, by looking at the subsequent week’s air fares, I realised that amount could take me on an international trip to a nearby country.
Initially the agent tried for a few days. I guess he wasn’t assured enough commission for his efforts, because (I’m sure), he tried for tatkal atleast an hour after the sale started. My patience ran out. The wait made me sick (actually). Then I was asked to step in.
Each morning the struggle began. As the days passed, strategies were devised to maximise the chances of booking, in the minimum time that’s available. Approach was decided the night before. Tactics made, tactics rejected.
Based on the trend observed, I’d like to give some pointers to newbies:
· Login atleast 30 mins before Tatkal booking begins. The more you delay the more difficult it becomes to even log into your account.
· If the availability has considerable reduced, don’t test your luck. You may end up paying service charges for no service at all.
· When you see tickets available & proceed with booking, the website does not block a berth. There maybe atleast ‘n’ number of people booking for the same berth, at the same time!
· Even if you get beyond the booking page with sufficient tickets available, there are high chances you might get stuck on that page till all tickets are sold out. I doubt the website’s increased bandwidth claims.
· Form filled, ready to pay? Captcha stuck. Refresh. Reload. Refresh. Availability- waitlisted.
The demand is enormous, the supply is miserable. One of the most used websites in the country is flawed! Sometime after the railway website starts showing on your ‘most visited’ list, you’ll be lucky.
The only advice from an experienced (by implementing all strategies) is- pray before you log in. The day you will be able to successfully login, book & finally travel is already decided. :)
Haha, well that was cute.
ReplyDeleteLet's talk about the real deal now:
First of all, I do not believe in reserving Tatkal tickets via Internet. You just cannot expect a government maintained site to not break down when thousands and thousands of people are hitting it multiple times within a few seconds. As far as I know, they don't have separate pages for payment and booking of tickets, for separate train.
So, you, as you said, are on your luck if you do want to book tickets online.
What's the alternative? Go directly and to the railway reservation counters which are available on almost every other railway station.
But, with experience of reserving Tatkal tickets at least half a dozen times, should tell you that if you plan reach the counter at exactly 10 am then you should not even dare to expect to get a ticket.
So, when should you be there? At least 5 hours before! Well that's the bare minimum, unfortunately. Alternatively, you can reach there almost around midnight and write your name on a random list that democratic people of our country make reserve their number in the queue to be made at counter at 10. Then go home, get a good night's sleep and then return back around 8. With some luck your name will still be there and you get to be almost at the start of the queue.
But you gonna do standing for so long in the queue? Well that's where you bust bud comes in handy! If they are not available then you ear buds with some music will do just fine. Or if you are an observer like me then probably you can just listen to the people around you. They always have some amazing stories to tell!
Reserving tatkal tickets is an adventure, and I have had to opportunity to get to see the sun rising a few times due to that.
Be thankful to Indian Railways and the population of India.