New regulations on Cleartrip.com

Haha, I've had a few of those "lifetime-validity" SIMs. They aways died before my next annual visit to Delhi (SIMs from Ladakh don't work in Delhi so I had to have a separate one). It turns out that your "lifetime" expires if you don't use it for six months! If you ccan find a way to charge it with a couple hundred rupees from wherever you are now, perhaps that would keep it alive even though you don't make or receive calls on it.

You have correctly said, it is needed to make a call at least once in six months to keep the connection alive. Else, it would die early!

Why ? In the past I never needed cleartrip to book any rail tickets. I booked it straight at irctc. Am I missing something ? What value add does cleartrip bring to rail booking ?

Nowadays it adds value by accepting foreign non-Amex cards.

Makes sense. I gather IRCTC does not take foreign Visa/MC ?

Yes, apparently IRCTC takes Amex only.

I too had been wondering so if one can register with IRCTC, why would one bother with ClearTrip at all anymore (no offense to the latter, but just wouldn't seem to add much), but this is one argument I'd missed, as well.

It goes through phases.

As I was getting ready to book trains mid last year it seemed Amex was the only way to go, but then suddenly they allowed Visa and Mastercard. Then just as suddenly they stopped it again.

Apparently the IRCTC alludes to a payment gateway for foreign non-AMEX. I have not tested. https://www.irctc.co.in/payment.html

This (so it accepting only Amex/American Express) is nonetheless what people have reported here who have actually used this workaround for foreigners with IRCTC.

See also again http://www.indiamike.com/india/india...phone-t154338/.

Me, I wouldn't know, I don't use any of that stuff Nor even own a credit card, how's about that; they're in fact still not all that common where I live, I guess in fact they wouldn't be so common still in much of Europe. (And/but yes, can only concur that I've found not going by any online pre-bookings quite difficult and time- and nerve-consuming to get around by train in India in recent years. As in not so rarely being driven to near-insanity just trying to figure out your transport options. Time and patience and flexibility it will certainly take; not all have that luxury. And so even trying to be my happy-go-lucky ol' self about it I didn't always find all that pleasurable, far from it. It isn't easy.)

I probably will -- so not pre-booking, other than the usual enquiring some days or of course preferably as long as you can ahead on the spot with a railway station or travel agent -- even a next time, that just doesn't suit me; but I know it's difficult. And I might well bring my area to cover ever-more back to size, because of it, in fact that's certainly what I plan to do, if I do return. Buses are still usually easy to catch at short notice, but of course not so great the further you go.

So it seems AXIS is ok with international debit cards and CITI is okay with international credit cards.

I was ready to grab my taktal tickets at 9.59 AM yesterday so was quite surprised to have all this nonsense appear in Cleartrip. I didn't have my phone and besides, by time I understood what was happening the taktal chello'd! So last evening went through setting up the whole process which was a pain but today everything working and thankfully have a ticket to Mumbai from Goa.

The only problem I had was that the zip code I had supplied IRCTC with (a geniune one but for my address in the UK) was rejected by Cleartrip so I had to log back into IRCTC and give the zip code for a charity I am associated with in New Delhi. I think any six diget number will suffice... not sure if they check these things either way?

So not really an issue for me at the moment but it will be frustrating not to be able to book in advance from aboard. If anything, dosn't this just play into the hands of touts who exploit tourists lack of understanding about IR?

Agreed, especially now redbus.in and online services similar have launched. I used this once from Chennai to Bangalore without issue but still a bit of a hassle, perhaps more so for inexperienced tourists, as the private wallahs tend you drop you off in odd places and pick ups are obviously not as easy as heading to central train station.

Does clear-trip is not complied to irctc cancellation policy??? because in my case as per irctc cancellation rules I suppose to get the some refund amount.. even the clear trip rules says the same but when I cancelled the ticket at the time well before chart is prepared I haven't got ant penny as refund amount.

If some one had similar experience why clear trip is not refunding the amount as per cancellation refund policy, please share …

Thanks
John

Getting Care@IRCTC to email a Mobile Verification Code is easy, if then any payment gate (including AMEX) actually works is another matter.

How to synchronise Cleartrip with IRCTC without an Indian mobile!

This method worked for me today.

There are two important points.
A Mobile Verification Code can be the same as a Mobile OPT (One Time Password) and verification of IRCTC account and the synchronising of Cleartrip account with IRCTC occur simultaneously.

The process is all from the Cleartrip site, no need to visit IRCTC.
Register for a IRCTC account at Cleartrip and receive an email with the title of ‘SUCCESSFUL REGISTRATION of ‘user name here’ for IRCTC Bookings’.
Then send a copy of your passport to IRCTC and get back a Mobile Verification Code.
Use the Mobile Verification Code as the Mobile OTP - and yes it was done.

There will be other problems along the way, but this method worked.

hello,

I just wonder if anyone booked the tickets successfully on IRCTC and Cleartrip. They are driving me crazy.

Thanks for sharing any experience.

lovetif