Travelling by Indian Railways? Should know how to change journey dates, upgrade class and more

With travels jumping at its maximum during the summer vacations, there are frequent instances wherein one does not get a confirmed ticket. Moreover, sometimes due to an unforeseen turn of events one might just need to postpone their trip. To assist the travellers, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation or IRCTC caters to the need of the pre scheduling as well as postponing of railway tickets. But to keep the process smooth and hassle-free, IRCTC imposes certain rules that one as a passenger of the Indian Railways, should be aware about.

Further adding to the facilities that IRCTC provides the travelers is that the passenger can extend their ticket's destination, change their boarding station and also upgrade their ticket to a higher class boggy. The passenger should keep a note, however, that most of them are available on offline ticket booking. They need to cross check with the IRCTC helpline if the facility is provided online as well.

The facility of pre scheduling or postponing of one's ticket is available over the counter only once. the passenger must note that the accommodation thereby availed can be confirmed, RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation) or wait-listed. 

When the passenger decides to either pre-pone or postpone their journey, they have to surrender their existing ticket during the working hours of the reservation office. The ticket is to be submitted within 48 hours of the scheduled time of departures mentioned on the ticket. However, this is only available over the counter or offline.

To extend one's journey destination, the passenger needs to approach the ticket checking staff either before reaching the destination or after completion of booked journey.

For changing the boarding station of the journey, the passenger needs to submit a written request to the station manager or the computerized reservation centre. This needs to be done at least 24 hours before the date of the journey. It is to be noted that there is no refund for the unused portion of the journey. This facility is available both online and offline.

The reserved ticket can be upgraded to higher class. However, this is subject to availability of accommodation. The ticket is upgraded once the charges of fresh reservation and fare difference is collected. This can also be done by approaching the Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) travelling in the same train, according to Indian Railways.