2022 is coming, and the annual Spring Festival "ticket rush war" will also begin. For many wanderers who are outside, grabbing tickets is a "metaphysics", and it is not that hard work is effective.
High-speed rail station data map In the new longitude and latitude Chang Tao photo
For example, spending dozens of yuan to buy an acceleration package, but also sharing to the circle of friends to let friends help can not grab the ticket, others "snap" on the 12306 standby arrived. Have you ever wondered if these ticket-snatching software is an "IQ tax"?
Recently, Railway 12306 made it clear that the "acceleration package" used by consumers does not have the right of first refusal to purchase tickets, and no matter which ticketing software needs to queue up in the railway 12306 ticketing system.
However, the actual measurement of Zhongxin Jingwei found that each platform still sells its own fancy ticket snatching products, and the platform customer service told Zhongxin Jingwei that "the purchase of acceleration packages will be faster than 12306." ”
Actually measured: Acceleration packages are varied
What should I do if the high-speed rail has no tickets? rob! When encountering major holidays, high-speed rail tickets are often "difficult to find a ticket", and ticket snatching services have also come into being. At present, in addition to online travel platforms such as Ctrip and Fliggy, booking platforms such as high-speed rail butler, Panda Ticketing, and Zhixing all have ticket-grabbing products.
In recent years, in the circle of friends, "point a little" to help grab tickets, almost the same as Pinduoduo's "slash a knife".
However, compared with assisted forwarding, the purchase of "acceleration packages" is a more direct way to grab tickets. Zhongxin Jingwei randomly tested several platforms. On a well-known OTA platform, Zhongxin Jingwei chose a high-speed train from Shanghai to Hangzhou that has sold out. The page information shows that users can choose to pay 15 yuan to purchase "safe tickets", and the service is non-refundable after submission.
After paying the fare, you enter the "Quick and Secure Ticket Rush" page. Zhongxin Longitude and Latitude are located in the "fast" position, and there are also "high speed", "extreme speed", "speed of light" and "VIP" in the back.
To upgrade to "high speed", it costs 6 yuan to buy 3 booster packs, and if you increase to "speed of light", you need to spend 36 yuan to buy 18 booster packs. The platform also shows that 78% of users choose to increase to the "speed of light".
The same train, the high-speed rail butler App on the assured ticket snatching service is 10 yuan / person. Upgrade services are also various, such as speed to grab tickets 30 yuan / person; priority ticketing rights 20 yuan / person; lightning ticket grabbing 40 yuan / person, exclusive 100M optical fiber; as well as New Year's Day special to grab the limited edition, 10 yuan / person.
As for when you can grab the ticket, the instructions on the high-speed rail butler show that "after the payment is successful, every effort will be made to quickly grab the ticket on the cloud server before the ticket snatching deadline." Before the departure of the train, there will generally be a refund or a large number of remaining tickets released, and the success rate of ticket snatching is high. ”
On the Fliggy App, there are 3 levels from low speed to speed of light, and each upgrade is 20 yuan. The platform will also prompt that the low-cost ticket snatching "low success rate" and the +20 rapid ticket snatching "high success rate".
Screenshot of the ticket rush page
On the railway official ticketing platform 12306, if a ticket is sold out, you can only choose "standby ticket purchase". Users pay the fare first and then queue up according to the number of waitlists.
Zhongxin Jingwei noted that many ticketing platforms will list the 12306 standby channel and their own ticket snatching channel at the same time, and the latter will be marked with words such as "peace of mind" and "fast".
Is the acceleration package an "IQ tax"?
"I don't want to stare at the ticket all the time, if I don't buy the ticket I want, after setting the conditions, it is still very convenient to let the ticket snatching software help stare at the ticket, which is stronger than I have been brushing the ticket, and the candidate can only make up a few trains, there are restrictions." Talking about why he is willing to pay for ticket-snatching software, a netizen said on social platforms.
Zhongxin Jingwei noted that the standby channel of 12306 is only allowed to have 1 queued order at the same time for each user. Up to 2 adjacent dates and up to 2 different "train + seat" combinations can be added. Other platforms have no limit on the number of trains and time of candidates, and also set up a number of supporting services such as adjacent trains, cross-station plans, and ticket splitting programs.
But can acceleration packs really speed up? How useful is it?
Zhongxin Jingwei called the customer service hotline of a booking platform as a consumer, and a customer service said bluntly: "The difference between different levels of ticket snatching services is actually not very big." It's not necessarily that we're faster than 12306, and it's even more unpredictable if you just want to 'pick up leaks'. Because whether there will be a refund for this seat is difficult to guarantee. ”
The customer service also said, "This acceleration package may be more suitable for booking tickets." If you buy a service, not only because of the speed of the internet, but you will also put your position in the front when queuing, but the effect is really difficult to say. ”
The customer service of another platform told Zhongxin Jingwei that the acceleration packages at different prices are mainly the difference in network speed. "For example, if the speed is 50M fiber, the speed of light will be faster, and there is a dedicated server for ticket grabbing." You can buy as needed, but it will definitely be faster than the 12306. ”
In fact, whether the ticket rush acceleration package can be faster, 12306 has been very clear: no.
Recently, 12306 said that the "acceleration package" used by consumers does not have the right of first refusal to purchase tickets, and no matter which ticketing software needs to queue up in the railway 12306 ticketing system. If there is no ticket for the required train or seat, you can queue up online to wait. When there is a refund for the corresponding train or seat, the system will automatically purchase the ticket.
That is, the end of all ticket snatching software is 12306. When there is no ticket for the train and you need to wait for the ticket, the standby ticket purchase function of 12306 is the highest priority of all the ticket rushing channels.
Therefore, some netizens have doubted the "IQ tax" on ticket-snatching software.
Zhongxin Jingwei noted that if the ticket snatching is not successful, many apps can provide refund services, but most of them are conditional. For example, the "rest assured to grab tickets" service of high-speed rail butlers cancels in advance and does not refund the fee. On Ctrip, the "peace of mind" service of 15 yuan cannot be refunded after submission, and the compensation of 30 yuan / person is not grabbed.
Hu Gang, deputy secretary-general of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Internet Society of China, said in an interview with Zhongxin Jingwei that the so-called "ticket-snatching software" is to use technical means to continuously refresh information and improve the speed of information submission. But after the official launch of the "alternate channel" at 12306, users can directly queue the number, and this ticket-snatching software will eventually pass through 12306, "Is it 12306 queued or grabbed by the platform?" ”
"Now no platform dares to guarantee that it can completely grab tickets." Is it necessary for the relevant software operator to prove that it is capable of providing such services? If there is no guarantee that the services provided are genuine, is the charge reasonable? These are debatable. Hu Gang said.
Hu Gang also said, "After the 12306 clear statement, the platforms also continued to carry out marketing propaganda in the name of 'ticket grabbing', especially at the juncture of the Spring Festival, when consumers are homesick, they are undoubtedly taking advantage of the anxiety of the public." ”
Shan Xinghua, director of the 12306 Technology Department of the China Academy of Railway Sciences, also said in an interview with CCTV that third-party ticket-snatching software caters to the needs of passengers from a certain angle, but will cause the 12306 system to paralyze the service and consume resources. In addition, the refund processing rules of ticket snatching software are inconsistent with the social standards of the unified norms of the railway, and there are overcharged passenger refund fees and change fees. In addition, the passenger information retained by the software may do a lot of business behavior that the passengers do not know, which has certain security risks. (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)