Gone are the days when one had to go to the station to book train tickets and used to stand in long queues for seat booking before holidays. Now the facility of ticket booking has been made online, but now getting tickets has become even more difficult. Tickets are booked within 5 minutes as soon as the Tatkal window opens. If you want to make a normal booking, then you will have to book the ticket two to three months in advance.
While booking Tatkal tickets, most people complain that it is easily done through agents, but if you want to do it yourself, it is not possible. Tatkal opens from 10 am for any coach of AC class for booking and 11 am for sleeper class.
If you also have to book Tatkal tickets, then it is better to prepare beforehand.
IRCTC master list
Maintaining a master list in your IRCTC account is the best and foolproof way to book Tatkal tickets. Actually, through this list, you can already store the list of passengers.
You will find this option in the My Profile section of your IRCTC account. By going here you can already enter the passenger's name, age, gender, seat details, senior citizen or quota, ID card etc.
You can add up to 20 passengers to this list to book tickets. In this case, at the time of Tatkal ticket booking, you will only have to select their name, date and destination and your entire form will be filled out.
Money in Wallet or UPI
Suppose you have filled out the form while booking a Tatkal ticket, but if the OTP does not come on time in net banking etc., then the ticket will not be booked. There is no option to pay cash at the time of the Tatkal ticket booking. In such a situation, you should choose a payment gateway where OTP is not required. In this case, transfer money to Paytm, Google Pay, IRCTC Wallet etc.
In such a situation there will be no problem of OTP.
Create travel list
Along with the master list, a travel list can also be made. You will find it in the My Profile section only. This list will be active only after making the master list.
Here you can fill in passenger-wise details on the travel list page. For example, if Mr A has to travel frequently from Delhi to Bhopal, then you first add his name to the master list and then add travel preferences to the travel list.
How to use Travel and Master List?
You can use them to save time. For example, if you have to travel with five people, then you should add their names separately in advance and also make your travel list.
In this case, as soon as it is opened, you select the names of the first two passengers from the master list and then select them from the travel list so that all the travel details are filled together. Just after this you save the details and proceed towards payment. The whole process will not take more than two minutes.
Other Tips to Book Tatkal Tickets
You can use the Rail Connect app which is the official app of IRCTC. This increases the scope of getting confirmed immediately.
There is also the Quick Tatkal app which can help in Tatkal and General ticket booking.
Do check the internet speed. This is the first option available while booking Tatkal tickets.
Image Credit: IRCTC
