Booking rail tickets from abroad- a Beginner's Guide

reddragon

Hi Guys.
I'm arriving in Delhi on 3 Feb and want to go out to Jodhpur via the lovely Indian rail system in 2AC or 3AC class on the Mandor Express.
On reading all the great info on this sight I decided to attempt ticket booking online.
Call me one of the silly ones, but I actually read the terms and conditions of booking online and it states under 'Services NOT offered':
15. Personal Collection of tickets by customers from any designated centres.
This is a little bit of a pain because I have a very tight schedule and must catch the train on 7 Feb.
I'm a little stumped on what to do, I really haven't organised a hotel as I prefer to check them out before so I'm not sure how/where to get my tickets delivered.
Any suggestions?

steven_ber

goatfarmer, you couldn't make a better start than the Fairlawn Hotel, I absolutely loved the place.


Welcome to indiamike.com

Namaste India Tours do an airport pick-up (Rs500), they will take you to an area for you to choose a hotel, they will also receive your rail tickets (for a small charge) and give them to you when they pick you up.

An airport pick-up may not be something you were considering, but after a long journey it is a relief to be able to just jump into a car and get to the hotel without any hassle.

Check out the following thread.

Namaste India Tours references.

__________________
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How to get helpful replies to your transport/Itinerary questions.


Train information.


RAC & Waitlists explained.

michellemm

Hello!

Can somebody help me?

I would like to know how much a rail ticket would cost from Kolkata to Varanasi (for 2nd a/c AND 2nd non a/c)!!!

Because I talked to a travel agencie and they are charging me INR2000 for a 2nd a/c, is this price right? If it is, how much is a 2nd class non a/c?

Thanks!!

steven_ber

Train 3009 departs Howrah (kolkata) daily at 20:35 and gets to Varanasi at 10:25 the next morning.

2 tier air con = Rs 1154
3 tier air con = Rs 741
Sleeper (2nd class non a/c) = Rs 273

michellemm

Thank you Steven very very much!!

michellemm

I have another question for you guys...

I tried the Namaste India Tours to arrange things for me in Kolkata, but they only assist tourists in Delhi....so, does anybody know any travel agency who could book the train tickets for me, pick me up at the airport, get me a hotel, etc...??? at least on my first day in India!

Thanks!

Dazzler

Hey ! I did it ! It's a bit like a video game though. You have to do everything very fast or you get kicked off. I booked Delhi - Varanasi on the Shiv Ganga Express. Looking forward to a great India Rail experience !

davey

Its our first trip to India and after trail and error I managed to order my tickets via the internet, Mumbai to Delhi, I then rang my brother in the UK to tell him the good news and I was told he had been in a motor vehicle accident, 20 weeks in plaster and he has had to cancell his trip to India. I've now found out I cannot cancel his ticket over the net and we dont arrive in Mumbai untill the night before our train journey. does anyone know if I can use the cost of his ticket to upgrade mine from A/c 2 sleeper to a first class sleeper, I'd rather do this than go through the hassells of refunds via the banks
cheers

davey

[quote=davey]Its our first trip to India and after trail and error I managed to order my tickets via the internet, Mumbai to Delhi, I then rang my brother in the UK to tell him the good news and I was told he had been in a motor vehicle accident, 20 weeks in plaster and he has had to cancell his trip to India. I've now found out I cannot cancel his ticket over the net and we dont arrive in Mumbai untill the night before our train journey. does anyone know if I can use the cost of his ticket to upgrade mine from A/c 2 sleeper to a first class sleeper, I'd rather do this than go through the hassells of refunds via the banks
cheers[I'M AN OPTIMIST...I CAN'T SEE THE POINT IN BEING MUCH ELSE...Mark Twain]

goatfarmer

Read my previous posts. I found only Redtreetravels in Australia who were willing to book rail tickets for delivery in Calcutta. Their service charge was equivalent to the price of the ticket. If you are going to stay a night in Calcutta you could book tickets via the internet and have them sent to your hotel. You don't need to be met at the airport. Just buy a prepaid taxi voucher at the airport. No hassle. The fare is fixed according to desitination. I would suggest not staying in Calcutta. I just spent a day there. (I did a ground survey of travel agents. None was willing to accept internet bookings for trains.)The city has few charms (I'm being generous). I would hot foot it to the railway station and get on the first train to somewhere else.

michellemm

Hey Goatfarmer!

I've written to them already...waiting for their answer...

Thank you!

beach

Thought of adding this too here as a number of questions regarding the delivery of tickets have been appeared recently.

Booking directly at the counter has its own advantages (like consulting the counter clerk about alternate trains, taking alternate decision, you have the ticket at hand soon after booking etc). But it has a bit disadvantage of you or your representative standing at the queue. Sometimes this can be very long too. The online booking facilities have been brought to cut short this trouble.

Primarily, this facility (online booking) has been intended for people (Indian or foreign) who already have an address. The payment systems listed are mostly the payment gateways of the popular banks in India. This is for the people who don’t have credit cards. Since most of the credit cards are associated with the widely accepted gateways (VISA/Master), using credit card from abroad is not a problem.

For anyone booking from abroad you have two options of receiving the ticket. The first one is to personally collect the ticket from the reservation office at Delhi. The second is to get the ticket couriered to a postal address in India.

If you are planning to book online and get the ticket couriered, the first thing you should do is to find out your receiving address in India. First contact a hotel if they can receive the ticket send by courier on your behalf. Most of the hotels don’t have a problem as they have been doing this for their guests. Some of them charge a nominal fee (rs 50 to 100) for receiving & safekeeping of the ticket and handover to you on arrival. Some of them do it for free as part of their service.

Strictly speaking, you need to give letter authorizing someone to collect the courier on behalf of you. Also you need to mention the name of the person who will collect it. The person then should show the proof of his identity to the courier agent.

But on a practical ground an email or fax authorization from you is accepted. This is not strictly as per rule, but the courier agents uses some amount of discretion in delivering the tickets based on an email or fax from you.

The customer care email ID for the service is care@irctc.com.in


The authorization should contain

Ticket details
Passenger details
PNR number and the
Transaction id.

Details about the person you’ve authorized.

The authorization letter to be send to the receiving address.

Courtesy to the Indiamike member gianni66, the format for the authorization letter he has used

______________________________ __________

Dear Sirs,

further to my previous inquiry and our agreement, I hereby authorize the personnel of (HOTEL NAME) - (ADDRESS) to collect on my behalf the following train tickets which will be delivered to the same hotel by IRCTC (PLEASE SHOW THIS AUTHORISATION LETTER TO THE COURIER TO COLLECT THE TICKETS):

TRANSACTION ID: XXXXXXXXXX
PNR NUMBER: XXXXXXXXXX
FROM: STATION CODE
TO: STATION CODE
DATE: DATE OF JOURNEY
PASSENGERS: NAME 1 / NAME 2

TRANSACTION ID: XXXXXXXXXX
PNR NUMBER: XXXXXXXXXX
FROM: STATION CODE
TO: STATION CODE
DATE: DATE OF JOURNEY
PASSENGERS: NAME 1 / NAME 2

Please acknowledge the reception of the three tickets.

I will collect the tickets on my arrival at (HOTEL NAME) on (DATE OF ARRIVAL AT THE HOTEL).

Thank you very much for your help.

Regards: SIGNATURE

goatfarmer

Two points. Never stand in a long queue. March up to the Reservations Supervisor and request assistance. The form letter from gianni looks fine. But I would request acknowledgment of 'receipt' rather than 'reception'. (Pardon my pedantry ).

goatfarmer

My experiece with the internet service was good. The courier service was efficient and responsive.

The hotel that I was staying in did not, at first, accept delivery of my tickets. I got an email from care@irctc.com.in informing me of this fact. I got on the blower and after a bit of prevarication, the hotel found my faxed letter of authorization, but insisted that it came after the courier had called. Wow! Considering I sent the fax a few hours after I booked the tickets, and that was on a Sunday, the courier is mighty efficient indeed! (More likely the hotel misplaced my fax and only found it after I called up.)

After the hotel took delivery of the tickets, I got another email from a Mr Divendra at care@irctc.com.in confirming delivery and receipt. Pretty efficient!

agogovicki

Hi, I'm traveling to India for 2 weeks in February. I've just tried to book Agra-Varanasi 2A sleeper on internet, but only waiting list is available now (WL-8 or something like that....). However, 3A sleeper is available on the same train.

Should I book for 3A directly, or should I request to be on waiting list?!

It's a bit of a headache right now..... Could you please give me some advice? Thanks!

cheers,

Vicki