How to book train tickets for a group of 8

Could all you more experienced travellers advise me on the best way to get train tickets for 8 persons. I assume that as we are limited to 6 tickets I need to make 2 bookings.

As one of our party is my 87 year old mum, I want to try and get AC1 tickets. One trip is go to Amritsar on the Golden Temple Mail from Delhi; the train shows 6 available berths in AC1. Coming back to Mathura Junction (to get to Agra) on the Golden Temple mail only shows 3 AC1 tickets available. As this is for the 30 November it seems to me that they are only making 3 berths available for this route.

So what would you advise me to do me to do that gives us the best chance of getting all or the most in AC1 for both trips?
Should I book 6 AC1 and 2 AC2 tickets for one trip and 3 AC1 and 5 AC2 tickets on the next train and tick the upgrade button?
I cannot see any comments on this button does anyone have any advice on how it works.

The alternative would seem to be to book as many as possible in AC1 and hope any RAC tickets get converted. Will they offer RAC tickets for an AC1 booking for a night section? If we have RAC booking will we be automatically be converted to AC2 if the AC1 tickets do not come available. The worst thing would be not to have enough berths so what is the best way to ensure we have berths and gives us the best chance to get the most berths in AC1.

Thank you to all of you who are so generous with your advice that makes this the best travel forum I have seen for any country.

We have a few resident train experts hope they come along soon and answer your queries.

Spending more time on the India Railways system I see that on 30 November there are 6 AC1 seats on 2904 (Golden Temple Mail) from Amritsar to Delhi and 3 AC1 seats from Amritsar to Mathara Junction. Does this mean that if I book the 3 seats to Mathara Junction there will only be 3 berths to Delhi? If not what happens if I book 3 seats from Amritsar to Mathara Junction and then 5 seats from Amritsar to Delhi all in AC1 and then try and book 5 seats in AC1 from Delhi to Mathara junction?

I am all confused now If you book seats only up to Mathura then from Mathura to Delhi they can be allocated to someone else.

First of all whetre do you want to go from where????
If it is Amritsar-Delhi, Delhi comes before Mathura. Buy tickets for Mathura and get down in Delhi... no issue at all and the differernce of fare is hardly any amount.

Sorry for confusing you.

I want to go from Amritsar to Mathara, in fact to Agra but this seems the quickest and most comfortable way as this train offers AC1 berths over night and is much faster than the alternatives. It is only 55 km to Agra and hat we can do by road. Any alternative suggestions would be welcome. We all love trains and find night trains a very good way to save time.

I can see 6 AC1 berths to Amritsar to Delhi but only 3 berths from Amritsar to Mathara.

As I need 8 berths I thought I might be able to book 3 berths Amritsar to Mathara and also book 5 berths to Delhi. That gives us 8 berths to Delhi. The question is how to then get 5 persons from Delhi to Mathara. I just wondered if I did this would I have a good chance of ending up with 8 berths from Amritsar to Mathara.

The best way is to reach comfortably is to book the 8 berths in 2AC to Mathura and have a peaceful journey. Book 4 tickets in one transaction and the Rest in secons. Use the option to get atleast one lower berth.

Dear Charles,

##Please look at this:
----
2904 GOLDN TEMPLE ML 1-12-2009 AMRITSAR JN MUMBAI CENTRAL GENERAL
S.No. Date (DD-MM-YYYY) Class - 1A Class -2A
1 1-12-2009 AVAILABLE- 0002 AVAILABLE- 0010
2 2-12-2009 AVAILABLE- 0002 AVAILABLE- 0001
.............................. ......................
2904 GOLDN TEMPLE ML 1-12-2009 AMRITSAR JN H NIZAMUDDIN GENERAL
S.No. Date (DD-MM-YYYY) Class - 1A Class -2A
1 1-12-2009 AVAILABLE- 0006 AVAILABLE- 0060
2 2-12-2009 AVAILABLE- 0006 AVAILABLE- 0051
.............................. .......................
2904 GOLDN TEMPLE ML 2-12-2009 H NIZAMUDDIN MUMBAI CENTRAL GENERAL
S.No. Date (DD-MM-YYYY) Class - 1A Class -2A
1 2-12-2009 AVAILABLE- 0002 AVAILABLE- 0010
2 3-12-2009 AVAILABLE- 0002 AVAILABLE- 0018
.............................. ...........
2904 GOLDN TEMPLE ML 1-12-2009 AMRITSAR JN KOTA JN GENERAL
S.No. Date (DD-MM-YYYY) Class - 1A Class -2A
1 1-12-2009 AVAILABLE- 0003 AVAILABLE- 0018
2 2-12-2009 AVAILABLE- 0003 AVAILABLE- 0009
.............................. .......................
2904 GOLDN TEMPLE ML 2-12-2009 KOTA JN MUMBAI CENTRAL GENERAL
S.No. Date (DD-MM-YYYY) Class - 1A Class -2A
1 2-12-2009 AVAILABLE- 0001 AVAILABLE- 0001
2 3-12-2009 AVAILABLE- 0001 AVAILABLE- 0001
.................
2904 GOLDN TEMPLE ML 2-12-2009 H NIZAMUDDIN MATHURA JN GENERAL
S.No. Date (DD-MM-YYYY) Class - 1A Class -2A
1 2-12-2009 AVAILABLE- 0002 AVAILABLE- 0010
2 3-12-2009 AVAILABLE- 0002 AVAILABLE- 0018
.............................. .......................

##So, all put together, at the most, you CAN get 3 Confirmed Berths in IAC for ASR-MTJ & when done separately, 2 Berths as ASR-NZM & NZM-MTJ!!!