Here’s the truth丨Buying tickets on standby, buying “accelerated packages”… Are these “ticket-grabbing remedies” really reliable?
As soon as the holidays arrive, train tickets in popular directions begin to be in short supply, and many "ticket-snatching remedies" emerge on the Internet. For example, many people think that the more waitlisted orders are placed, the higher the success rate of ticket-snatching. Is this true?
A netizen posted his own experience, saying that he spent more than 10,000 yuan and placed multiple waiting orders on the 12306 software, but he never got a ticket. What happened?
Railway passenger flow is concentrated during the National Day holiday, and tickets for popular periods and popular lines are very tight. Many passengers have a misunderstanding about ticket grabbing: they think that the more waitlist orders they place, the higher the success rate of ticket grabbing, so they place multiple orders repeatedly. As a result, they not only occupy a lot of funds, but also fail to grab tickets.
Pan Langtao, a senior engineer at the Digital Intelligence Passenger Transport Research Office of the Institute of Electronics of the Academy of Railway Sciences: During the holidays, the passenger flow on the railway is relatively large, and there may be a "cluster" of demand in some areas and time periods. Passengers who have not yet purchased tickets are recommended to make full use of the railway 12306 waitlist ticket purchase function and maximize the use of 60 "date + train" ticket purchase combinations. The more combinations you choose, the higher the waitlist success rate. Passengers are advised not to submit multiple duplicate standby orders.
The railway department will promptly increase the supply of transportation capacity in the direction of concentrated passenger flow based on the waiting demand data. When new ticket amounts are generated due to refunds, changes, or increased transportation capacity, the system will prioritize the new ticket allocation to passengers who have submitted waiting orders in accordance with the order in which the waiting orders submitted by the ticket buyers take effect, that is, the "first come, first served" principle. Passengers who choose "accept new trains" can further increase the ticket purchase success rate.
The advance payment for each waitlisted ticket purchase order is calculated based on the highest ticket amount among the waitlisted demands. After the waitlist is successful, the settlement will be based on the actual ticket price. The excess money collected in advance will be automatically refunded in the same way. Finally, the railway department reminds that standby ticket purchase is a free service provided by the railway department for passengers and no handling fee will be charged in addition to the ticket price.
Are these "vote-grabbing remedies" really reliable?
Tickets sold out
Can I buy tickets by purchasing an "acceleration package"?
After the train tickets are sold out, the third-party ticket grabbing platform still claims to provide consumers with various "acceleration packages" ranging from 10 to 50 yuan, corresponding to "bandwidths" ranging from 200M to 1000M, claiming that after purchasing the "acceleration package", "ticket grabbing is faster" and "the success rate is higher." In fact, when the tickets are sold out, there are no tickets for sale, and the third-party ticket grabbing platform has not implemented ticket grabbing behavior, and cannot achieve the acceleration effect at all.
Third-party ticket grabbing platform claims to be able to “monitor remaining tickets”
Is it true?
Zhang Zhi, associate researcher at the Digital Intelligence Passenger Transport Research Office of the Institute of Electronics of the Academy of Railway Sciences: The “remaining ticket monitoring” function claimed by the third-party ticket grabbing platform is actually unreliable. First of all, Railway 12306 has not cooperated with any third-party platform. The so-called "real-time monitoring of remaining tickets and instant sales of existing tickets" does not actually achieve the real-time monitoring function it claims. They can only swipe the public information updated on the Railway 12306 platform page, and cannot obtain or lock the ticket source in advance, let alone monitor the remaining tickets issued to the waiting queue.
"All-round ticket grabbing" of third-party platforms
Is the "special person to grab tickets" service really useful?
The "all-round ticket grabbing" and "specialized ticket grabbing" ticket grabbing services sold by third-party ticket grabbing platforms will charge different fees. Among them, the "all-round ticket grabbing" fee ranges from 27 to 58 yuan, and the "dedicated ticket grabbing" fee ranges from 10 to 50 yuan.
After consumers pay for the tickets, the third-party platform will open the "wait-list ticket purchase" for these users. This actually turns the free wait-list provided by 12306 into a paid service. It uses misleading propaganda such as "getting tickets faster" and "higher success rate" to induce consumers to pay additional fees and increase travel costs.
