What exactly is hidden in the ticket-snatching "acceleration package"? What are the risks?

The Spring Festival is in full swing, and although this year's railway capacity is relatively abundant, some popular lines are still difficult to find in the days around the Spring Festival holiday. "I want to buy a high-speed rail ticket to return to my hometown of Jiangxi on the 30th, but I don't have a ticket for the time being." So I tried the ticket snatching function on several Apps, some let me add money to buy 'acceleration packs', and some let me share it with my friends to help speed up the ticket. Ms. Huang, who works in Shanghai, said, "But now that 12306 has a standby function, is it still useful to grab tickets 'acceleration package'?" ”

There are not a few passengers who have the same questions as Ms. Huang. The official WeChat public account of railway 12306 also issued a reminder: the so-called "acceleration package" does not have the right of priority to purchase tickets, no matter which third-party software to buy tickets, you need to queue up in the railway 12306 ticket purchase system. Is the ticket-snatching "acceleration package" useful? What are the risks of purchasing tickets in this way? Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporters launched an investigation into this.

There are many "acceleration" routines for ticket snatching

According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 50 platforms that provide train ticket rush acceleration functions, mainly comprehensive online travel platforms (OTAs) represented by Ctrip, Fliggy, Qunar, and ticketing apps such as Chi Heng Train Tickets. These platforms have taken the rush of train tickets as the most important functional highlight, and marked the words "Spring Festival ticket rush" and "free ticket grab" on the App icon.

The reporter tried to buy high-speed rail tickets from Shanghai to Anqing, Anhui on multiple platforms, and found that the rules for speeding up tickets on different platforms were different, but they were all complicated. Some apps can choose different price points to speed up, pay 0 yuan, 20 yuan, 40 yuan, 60 yuan, corresponding to low speed, fast, high speed, and speed of light, respectively. Some apps can not only choose acceleration packages at different prices, but also invite friends to help speed up, and even open a special person to grab tickets, and the platform introduces the function of "there are special people to grab tickets all day" and so on.

The complex "acceleration" rules for ticket snatching have been complained about by consumers, among which there are many "routines":

Purchase the "Acceleration Pack" without your knowledge. White-collar Ms. Fan said that during the "Eleventh" period last year, she bought a train ticket to Quanzhou on the platform, and was induced to click on the "acceleration package" to buy tickets, inexplicably spending 20 yuan more.

The distinction between acceleration levels is unclear. Aside from the literal difference, the platform's ratings of low speed, fast, high speed, and speed of light do not indicate any difference. Some netizens complained that the rules are not transparent enough, resulting in a success probability that the platform can set as much as it wants, very arbitrary and unfounded.

Whether there is a "standby ticket" is not known. Most platforms provide two channels: "remaining ticket monitoring" and "standby ticket purchase". The reporter opened the option of "standby ticket purchase" on a ticketing App, but it was not queried in the standby order of the Railway 12306App.

Ticket snatching software has no advantage?

Railway 12306 has repeatedly publicly reminded that the "acceleration package" used by consumers does not have the right of first refusal to purchase tickets, and no matter which ticketing software must be queued in the railway 12306 ticketing system. If you encounter the required train number of trains and seats without tickets, 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.

Industry insiders pointed out that in the early days of the railway 12306 platform, when there was no "standby" function, some ticket-snatching software used the function of machine ticket brushing to grab tickets, seizing a certain time advantage, but after the 12306 platform launched the "standby" function, the advantages of such software no longer existed. In 2021, the success rate of "standby" ticket purchase on the 12306 platform will reach more than 70%, which can effectively meet the needs of passengers under the guarantee of capacity supply.

Although some platforms have launched the "Spring Festival ticket snatching" function as a "fist" product, the reporter learned that no ticket snatching software has cooperated with the railway department, and the success rate of ticket snatching has nothing to do with the railway department. These acts may be suspected of false propaganda and unjust enrichment. Even some ticket-snatching software cracks the 12306 platform interface, threatening the security of passenger information and interfering with the fair and just order of ticket purchase.

It is understood that the railway 12306 platform is also increasing the intensity of technical identification, through big data to more accurately identify ticket-snatching software, once identified, it will not be released to the ticket-snatching software, passengers with ticket-snatching software the probability of successful ticketing will be lower.

Many netizens said that the "acceleration package" of ticket snatching is an "IQ tax", but in the Spring Festival or holidays and other periods that need to grab tickets, they are willing to have one more ticketing channel as psychological comfort, and the platform also uses this mentality to promote the ticket snatching function.

Risks such as hidden information leakage

Industry insiders pointed out that the ticket snatching "acceleration package" is a confusing account, and there is a hidden danger of leaking passengers' personal information. Some passengers reported that they obviously did not buy tickets, but they had their own ticket purchase information on the 12306 platform; there were also cases where passengers were preemptively registered for 12306 accounts by others because of their personal information, but they could not register.

Some netizens also questioned whether the platform's ticket-snatching function was suspected of being a "technical scalper", which undermined the fairness of passenger ticket purchase? Li Junhui, director of the Social Governance Research Center of the China Judicial Big Data Research Institute, said that in the same "standby ticket purchase" scenario, if the ticket snatching "acceleration package" does have the functions of automatic monitoring of tickets and automatic standby queuing, it may cause unfairness to other users who have not used this function and damage the fairness of users' "standby ticket purchase".

Xing Tong, a lawyer at Beijing Kangda Law Firm, believes that if the platform publicizes on its prominent page to ensure that it can grab tickets, or promises the success rate of ticket snatching, it may constitute false publicity and is suspected of violating the E-commerce Law, the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law and other regulations.

"Under the premise that the 12306 platform has provided the 'standby ticket purchase' function, other Internet platforms provide 'ticket snatching' services or charging 'ticket grabbing' services, and there are huge problems in the rationality, necessity and legality of their services, and users using the ticket-snatching functions of multiple platforms are bound to increase the pressure of the 12306 website standby ticketing function server access, if the website or server is paralyzed, it is bound to affect the rights and interests of more users and even the public interest." Li Junhui suggested that relevant departments should actively intervene and gradually promote relevant platforms to cancel the "ticket snatching" service that infringes on consumers' rights and interests, or abuse the name of "ticket snatching" service to carry out publicity or attract and attract users.

Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph