Is the third-party "ticket rush acceleration package" useful? Guangzhou Railway: "Standby ticket purchase" is more reliable

The Paper's reporter Chen Xuhou intern Shi Ke

Is the "acceleration package" of third-party software used to grab train tickets?

On January 19, 2022, China Railway Guangzhou Bureau Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Guangzhou Railway Group") launched the "Guangdong Folk Voice Hotline" program to respond to issues such as the trap of accelerated ticket purchase software.

"If we passenger friends buy train tickets, please look for the official website of 12306, the railway department has not authorized other websites to sell train tickets." Huang Jinbo, deputy director of the Ticket Management Office of the Passenger Transport Department of Guangzhou Railway Group, said that the "acceleration package" designed and provided by the third-party website is not the official function of railway 12306, and it is not guaranteed to provide tickets to users, and consumers cannot have the priority right to purchase tickets using the "acceleration package", no matter which ticketing software, they will eventually have to go to the 12306 ticketing system to "queue" to buy tickets.

Huang Jinbo said that the mobile phone client of the third-party website and the ticket-snatching software used by the purchasing website have problems such as delayed ticket sales, high refund and change fees, leakage of personal information, and slow refund, and it is recommended that passengers purchase tickets through the railway 12306 ticketing software. 12306 provides a 24-hour uninterrupted Internet ticket refund service every day, and the refund time is adjusted from "25 minutes before driving" to "until before driving".

According to laws and regulations, is the third-party software's ticket-grabbing service compliant? In response, Huang Jinbo responded that "it needs to be clarified by the relevant state departments."

Huang Jinbo also said that tickets can be purchased through the "standby ticket purchase" function of the 12306 official leak detection artifact, with an average redemption rate of 70%, and it is officially free of charge, without charging any handling fee. Standby tickets can be processed 2 hours before driving, each order can add 10 demands, and each user can add 2 pending orders. The success rate of candidates depends on the date, number of trains, and seat types, and it is recommended that passengers choose non-peak periods and non-popular directions as much as possible, and choose a combination of multiple seats and seats, so that the success rate of standby cash is higher. Passengers are called upon to use the official railway software to buy tickets, which is more secure.

In response to the problem of random charging at offline sales points, Huang Jinbo said that the railway department authorized other social organizations and individual industrial and commercial households to operate sales points, and with the approval of the state department and the price department, the sales points can charge a service fee of no more than 5 yuan for each ticket. If passengers encounter the above violations in the process of purchasing tickets, they can call the telephone number of 12306 to complain, and after verification, they will be punished or even cancel their business qualifications.

Public reports show that in the face of major holidays, high-speed rail tickets are often "difficult to find", and ticket snatching services have also come into being. In addition to online travel platforms such as Ctrip and Fliggy, booking platforms such as high-speed rail butler, panda ticketing, and Chi Heng all have ticket-grabbing products. Railroad 12306 makes 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.

Editor-in-Charge: Cui Xuan Photo Editor: Li Jingyun

Proofreader: Liu Wei