Things to Remember for Reservation or Booking

With the advancement of technology and penetration of the Internet in the nooks and corners of the country, making a railway reservation is no less than a child’s play. However, there are a number of things that should be taken care of when booking a rail ticket. These things to remember vary from medium to medium (as to how you are booking your ticket) but the basics remain same. If you are booking a ticket on a railway reservation counter, please keep a note of the following:

1. Find out when the tickets counters open in your area
2. Start early from home, so that you don’t have to wait in long queues
3. Reaching early will give you enough time to fill in the booking form
4. It is better to fill in two or three booking forms, so that if tickets are not available in one train you can promptly request at the counter to check for availability for another train.
5. Recheck your dates and train number before handing over the booking form at the counter
6. Always check ‘up gradation’ of seat option
7. Please be sure of what options are you using for seat preference
8. Re-confirm your food preference

Today, a number of rail tickets are booked online. In fact most people in cities where the facility of the Internet is available prefer booking tickets online. There are some important things to remember when doing a rail reservation online or booking a train ticket on a website.

1. Be sure about your travel dates – both going and coming – in case of booking a return ticket
2. Select the ‘class’ you want to travel by. For e.g., 1st Class, 2nd Class…etc.
3. Check for the availability before booking a ticket
4. Only when you are satisfied proceed to check out
5. Keep your credit card/debit card handy, when booking a train ticket online
6. Don’t panic if your card is charged and your ticket is not booked
7. In all possibility the concerned bank or merchant will get back to you
8. You can also write to their customer care e-mail ID
9. Once your ticket is booked, check your e-mail to see if you have received your ticket or not
10. Don’t forget to take a print out of your train ticket before leaving your home to railway station.