Source: Central Broadcasting Network
As the "Double Festival" holiday approaches, topics such as "12306 ticket grab", "12306 waitstand" and "can't grab tickets" have frequently appeared on hot searches. It is understood that passengers who have not purchased tickets usually choose to wait, third-party software real-time ticket grabbing and other ways to continue to purchase tickets. So, is the waitlist success rate high? Is the acceleration package of the third-party ticketing website reliable? Does 12306 press the ticket and then release the ticket? In this regard, the reporter interviewed 12306 official customer service personnel and related experts.
Q1: Is the success rate of the candidate high?
During this year's National Day holiday, Chen Yu (pseudonym) submitted a standby order for two consecutive days in order to grab a ticket from Beijing to her hometown in Shanxi. Chen Yu said that after submitting the order, she found that the waiting order page showed that there were "fewer waitlists" for the selected trains on September 30 and October 1. "Does the small number of candidates mean that the success rate of the waiting list is greater?"
The order page shows "fewer waitlists" (Photo provided by interviewee)
On the afternoon of September 22, the reporter called the 12306 official customer service, and the customer service staff said that the number of waitlists or the probability is not directly related to whether the waiting can be successful, and whether the waiting list can be successful depends on the refund or change of other passengers. Even if the number of waitlists is small, but no one refunds or changes, the waiting list cannot be successful.
The customer service staff suggested that if the ticket is not successfully purchased, the standby order needs to be submitted in time, and if someone refunds the ticket, the sooner the passenger who submits the standby order, the greater the probability of successful waiting.
Previously, China Railway Group said that the railway 12306 standby ticket purchase function operated stably, and the success rate of standby cashing reached more than 75%. Passengers can increase the success rate of waiting by submitting standby orders with multiple "date, train, and seat" combinations to extend the waiting time. In addition, if you cannot buy a direct ticket, passengers can meet their travel needs through intermediate transfer and segmented rides. Railway 12306 will intelligently recommend the transfer plan with surplus tickets according to passengers' travel needs and remaining tickets for passengers to choose.
Q2: Is there a situation where the ticket is pressed and then released?
Recently, a number of netizens posted on social platforms that when buying tickets on the 12306 platform, there were sufficient tickets for the whole process, but there were no tickets for the interval, and it was doubtful that the platform had allowed passengers to "buy long and short".
On the evening of September 21, 12306 customer service said that a corresponding number of tickets were sold for each trip, and the needs of passengers from the departure station to the terminal would be met first. If there are still remaining tickets, the railway department will dynamically adjust the remaining tickets according to the passenger flow and put the remaining tickets at the stops along the route.
Is there a situation where the votes are pressed and then released in batches? On the afternoon of September 22, the official customer service staff of 12306 explained to reporters that the "remaining tickets" refer to those tickets that have not been sold out among the tickets that have all been released. "Tickets are released for each section, and some sections may not be sold out a few days before departure, and we will adjust to other sections according to actual demand."
The customer service staff said that the tickets were released at a unified time, and there was no situation of successive tickets. For practical reasons, there may be cases where the vacated tickets are temporarily added and the vacated tickets are resold, but there is no fixed time to release the tickets.
Three questions: Can the acceleration package really successfully grab the ticket?
The reporter noticed that a third-party ticketing platform divided the speed of ticket grabbing into 6 levels, the higher the speed, the higher the fee charged, and the higher the success rate of the estimated ticket grabbing. If you want to get the high-speed ticket grab benefit, users can spend money to purchase the acceleration package or invite friends to click to help get the acceleration package. 1 yuan can buy 1 acceleration package, if you want to reach the "speed of light" to grab tickets, you need to spend 50 yuan, or invite multiple friends to grab 50 acceleration packs.
The reporter found that on another third-party ticketing platform, members are divided into different grades such as ordinary, silver, gold, platinum, black diamond, etc., and different levels enjoy different rights and interests. From the perspective of the right to speed up ticket grabbing, ordinary members do not enjoy the right to speed up ticket grabbing, while the speed of ticket rush from silver to black diamond members is increased by 1.1 times, 1.2 times, 1.5 times, and 2 times.
Different levels of members have different ticket rush speeds (issued by CCG)
In addition to the acceleration package and member ticket grabbing, when the reporter submits a ticket grabbing order on a certain software, there will be a prompt of "add 35 yuan all-round ticket grabbing" and "add 24 yuan special person to grab tickets". Even, pay 9 yuan more, you can get 3 people to grab tickets.
On September 23, the reporter initiated a ticket grabbing order on a third-party ticketing website. Regarding whether the acceleration package can be successfully rushed for tickets, the platform's intelligent customer service said that the acceleration package is an exclusive server provided by the platform, which improves the network speed according to the acceleration level purchased by the user, and speeds up the speed and frequency of monitoring the remaining tickets, thereby improving the success rate of ticket grabbing. However, the success rate of ticket grabbing is affected by factors such as specific routes and remaining tickets, and there is no guarantee that the ticket rush will be successful. "The more acceleration packages, the higher the success rate."
Whether it is purchasing membership, acceleration packages, or paying for tickets grabbed, can these services that users spend money to buy really successfully grab tickets? On September 22, the official customer service staff of 12306 told reporters that whether the acceleration package of the third-party platform or the 12306 alternate is used, it must pass through the 12306 railway background. The acceleration package is useless, and if the background recognizes that the speed-up software has repeatedly invaded the website, it may also cause lag on the order.
On September 20, the relevant person in charge of China Railway Group said that any user does not have the right of priority to purchase tickets, and any price acceleration package purchased on a third-party platform cannot achieve priority ticket purchase.
Q4: Is the ticket-grabbing software suspected of infringing on the rights and interests of users?
Shan Xinghua, director of the 12306 Technology Department of the China Academy of Railway Sciences, once told the media that because the use of ticket-grabbing software will slow down the speed of other manual query users, resulting in system delays, in order to protect the rights and interests of users, 12306 network has blocked a number of channels for ticket-grabbing software.
Hu Gang, deputy secretary-general of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Internet Society of China, said that no third-party ticketing platform dares to guarantee that it can completely succeed in grabbing tickets. The relevant software operators only generally say that the more money the user pays, the higher the probability of the corresponding ticket grabbing service, but what is the actual probability of grabbing tickets, and does the actual operator know? If the proprietor does not clearly inform consumers, it is suspected of infringing on consumers' right to know and choice.
In Hu Gang's view, the so-called "ticket grabbing software" is the use of technical means to continuously refresh information and improve the speed of ticket grabbing. In a short period of time, the huge and high-frequency network access impact will cause congestion or even paralysis of the 12306 website, affecting the normal ticketing service and the rights and interests of many consumers. From this point of view, the legitimacy and legality of the ticket-grabbing service itself are debatable.
Hu Gang believes that at present, the phenomenon of network "plugging" in the ticketing field needs to be dealt with urgently. Whether it is a ticket, or a ticket for attractions or concerts, some illegal ticket-grabbing services are some operators using technical means to cut the queue in the network to achieve the purpose of profit. From the perspective of social benefits, the business model is unfair and unreasonable, and it is necessary to redefine and clarify the behavior from the legal level, and strengthen governance and norms. Consumers should also consciously purchase tickets through official channels to maintain normal booking order.
Reporter: Guo Jiali