What happens when you have to plan a travel in the last minute? Tickets for all the leading trains on your travel route would have been exhausted by now! Your Indian railway enquiry into seat availability will be met with only disappointments. During such travel emergencies, the Tatkal booking scheme is a blessing for the passengers. Under the IRCTC Tatkal scheme about 7-10% of seats in any given train are reserved under this last minute travel quota. But having said that, while booking Tatkal tickets, you are vying against thousands of other travelers to secure a confirmed berth . During the short Tatkal booking time, the IRCTC website is flooded with visitors. And as a result, most users have to confront the 503 Error message. So, in a quest to simplify your train travel woes, we bring you some simple tips to book IRTC Tatkal tickets in a flash.
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Tip #1: Keep the Travel List ready
Since Tatkal ticket booking is all about time, it is important that you keep all details like passenger name, journey date etc. ready. So go to ‘My Profile’ on the IRCTC website and make a Master List with all passenger details. This Master List can be used anytime for your consecutive bookings. For the specific travel for which you want to book your Tatkal ticket, make a separate ‘Travel List’. Details from this list can be pulled during the time of actual booking, hence making it possible for you to finish all requirement within a few minutes
Tip #2: Research beforehand about Station Codes
Too many people make this basic blunder. Before entering into an IRCTC Tatkal booking session you should not only have an idea about your source and destination stations but also have their station codes copied and pasted on a Notepad file. Searching for station codes after the screen appears, will minimize your chances of booking the ticket.
Tip #3: Prepare the Passenger/s Details
Before you login to the IRCTC app or website, make sure you have the passenger/s names and ages typed and ready to use. Every second you get after logging in should be optimized to the fullest extent. So, as soon as the Passenger details page appears you have to quickly copy and paste the details.
Tip #4: Decide on Berth Preferences
In the next step, you would be asked for Berth Preferences and again there is not a single second to waste pondering. So, you have to be clever in this respect. If you select the lower berth, there is a high probability of that not being available. In such a situation you would be taken two or three steps backward. Now, that would make your chances of getting a Tatkal ticket slim. This is why, we would suggest you not to select any berth preference so that the process remains simple.
Tip #5: Arrange the Bank details
Now that you have selected the train, class, and seats during the IRCTC Tatkal booking process the next step is to pay for the tickets. In the Payment Gateway, you would be asked for pertinent bank details. If you start the search for the Debit or Credit card once you are at the Payment Gateway, there are high chances of transaction failure, leading to the entire collapse of the process. Your session will expire and you will not get a second chance for Tatkal booking. So, have the cards and mobile phone (for OTP) ready beside you.
So, are you ready to whizz past the labyrinth of Tatkal booking? If you have any other tips, please do share it with us.
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