Things to know Before Booking Tickets in Premium Special Trains
Premium special trains are those trains that offer a luxurious travel experience to the passengers with great onboard facilities. These trains usually cater with the name of Suvidha Express trains and Hamsafar Express We have noticed the names of the train attached with a tag called “Special” mentioned after the name. This notifies that such trains are premium special trains managed by the Indian Railways. Currently, there’re more than 50 premium special trains running under this category. These trains were introduced with an aim to provide accommodation in trains within a short span of time for a long-distance journey. No doubt that these train proved to be a boon for those passengers who need to travel with a last-minute plan. These premium special trains connect long-distance located cities with each other. These trains are usually scheduled once or twice in the week with a dynamic fare pricing system. It was first launched in 2013 during the festive season of Christmas and New Year. Premium train service in India started with the commencement of the Premium AC special train from Mumbai to Delhi. The success of this train promoted the need to announce more such premium AC-special trains on busy routes.
Train Ticket booking in the Premium Special Train
Usually, the Indian Railways allow passengers to book their train tickets 120 days in advance of the scheduled departure of the train. However, premium trains have different rules and regulations regarding ticket booking. One must know about the ticket booking rules in these trains to plan their travel with convenience and check PNR status online to know the exact status of the ticket.
Only Online Reservations are made: IRCTC’s ticket booking portal enables the passengers to book train tickets online for premium trains. One cannot reserve tickets via offline mode. PRS counters or reservation windows in any station are not authorized to book tickets in premium special trains.
Advance Booking: The premium special trains are opened for booking just before 15 days of the scheduled departure of the premium train from its origin station. Tickets under premium special trains are reserved fast on the opening days, as the fare price is charged at the least cost. As the train berths are booked, the price of the tickets shows an increase in its price subsequently.
No Intermediaries (Agents) are involved: The tickets in the premium special train can be booked online only by the passenger through their IRCTC account. No agents can intervene in the process or they aren’t allowed to book tickets for premium special trains. Booking ticket is totally dependent on the availability of seats.
No Concession provided in fare – There is no concession applied while booking tickets in the premium trains. The ticket booking price will be equally levied on all the passengers travelling via these trains.
No Quota Placement: Quotas are specially reserved berths allocated for the special class of travellers. There’s no provision of senior citizen quota, ladies quota, student quota or any other quotas provided by the Indian Railways.
No Modification after Reservation: The Indian Railways give flexibility to the passengers to modify their booked tickets in the mail/express trains like changing for boarding station, transfer of tickets etc., but when it comes to booking in premium special trains, railways don’t provide flexibility to change or modify any details. Once the reservation is made in any of the premium special trains; there’s no scope to update or modify any details.
No Cancellation allowed: Once the ticket is booked neither you can cancel the ticket nor any refund will be granted.
Fare of the Premium Trains
If you are booking tickets on the premium special train, then you must know that the least fare prices in these trains will be equivalent to the fare of Rajdhani /Duranto trains. The fare of the premium special trains is set by the “dynamic fare standards”. Dynamic fare prices are set according to the berth being reserved by the passengers. For the first 10 % berths of each class is charged minimum as the basic fare but the prices of the tickets get 10 % higher than previous fare price with each 10% of the tickets sold or reserved by the passengers. The dynamic fare rules ars also applied in some of the Rajdhani/ Duranto and Shatabdi trains which are usually known as the Flexi-fare rules.
Ticket Status
Usually, the tickets generated have many status attached to it. You might be familiar with the status like waitlist, RAC status and different types of quotas in trains. When you book tickets on the premium special train then you have generated either a confirmed ticket for the journey or a RAC ticket. There’s no provision of waitlist tickets in these trains or any chances of upgradation. Tickets having RAC status under these trains has a high confirmation probability.