IRCTC Waiting list : If you are traveling by Indian Railway, you know the struggles of booking the ticket last moment. Since the railway system is the most preferred means of travel in India, people who book tickets close to travel date end up being on the waiting list. So, that is what a waiting list is- it means you might or might not be able to travel because of all seats being already taken. Being on the waiting list also means you need to educate yourself about things related to it. Some of them are- knowing how to check your waiting list status, confirmation of waiting list, and if needed, how to cancel it. Here’s all that you need to know about!
How to check waiting list status
The answer to this question takes us to another term called “PNR”. PNR stands for Passenger Name Record that you see on the top-left side of the ticket. It is a 10-digit code that stores all your travel related information and updates. So, you can use this PNR number and find out what’s the status of your seat availability, that is, the status of your waiting list. When your name in the waiting list moves up, you’d know about it using your PNR number. Click here to know the “passenger current status enquiry” and find out about your waiting list status.
To know more about PNR, read this article- What To Do To Make An IRCTC PNR Current Status enquiry
Chances of confirmation of waiting list
It is impossible to make a concrete prediction if a ticket on the waiting list would get confirmed or not. However, some trends can give a rough idea about it. The most common notion that makes sense (but might not always be true) is a lower number on the waiting list gets confirmed as opposed to a high number. But this depends on additional factors, like what time of the year you are traveling and what’s the travel class. During the festive season, the chances of your waiting list ticket getting confirmed are low. While the chances of a sleeper class ticket getting confirmed are higher, it is really low for AC tickets.
And then, there are different categories of waitlists. If you have a general waiting list (GNWL), there are higher chances of your ticket getting confirmed. If it is any of these- RLWL, RSWL, PQWL, RQWL, or a tatkal waitlist, the chances of being confirmed reduces. People have started making use of the online sources that can make the most accurate prediction if a waiting list ticket can get confirmed. Click here if you want to get a prediction of the chances of your waiting list ticket confirmation.
How to cancel a ticket on waiting list
You can cancel an e-ticket in waitlist online, by logging in to your IRCTC account. You get the refund of the ticket fare 30 minutes before the train departs. This refund is credited to the account details using which you made the transaction for paying the ticket fare. However, the cancellation charges are deducted. If your train is late by more than 3 hours, no cancellation charges will be deducted. To know about the online cancellation of counter ticket, click here.
Tatkal Ticket Booking
Know what RAC is
RAC stands for Reservation Against Cancellation. There’s a reason why you need to know about RAC as a waitlist ticket holder. The reason is- when your name crawls up on the waitlist, many a time it gets to the list of RAC. This means, your ticket will get confirmed if someone else cancels their ticket. Here again, there are a number of people with an RAC ticket. So, depending on what number you are at, your ticket might or might not get confirmed. But what’s a matter of relief here is, even if it doesn’t get confirmed, you can still travel on the train. The only catch is, you will be allocated half the seat and need to share the other half with another RAC ticket holder.
You should know the importance of booking tickets well before time to avoid the waitinglist. And in case you fail to do so or get a waitlist ticket, wisely use the predictor. You should also always keep a backup plan in case your waitlist doesn’t get cleared.
