Train tickets for holidays are hard to find! They are "sold out" when they go on sale! It is even more difficult to buy tickets even if they are "long and short"! Train tickets have never been authorized to be sold on any third-party platform, so what happened to the train tickets that could be purchased by a third party before?
The system of purchasing train tickets has always been controversial, especially during some major holidays. Many people complain that they are "sold out" when they go on sale, who are these tickets sold to?
Recently, Ms. Jiang, a citizen of Wuhan, encountered the embarrassment of "buying long and short" tickets on the 12306 platform, which caused heated discussions among the majority of netizens. The traveler wanted to buy a short-distance high-speed rail ticket from Wuhan to Tianjin, but found that the short-haul section ticket was sold out, and there were still tickets left to buy an extra stop to Tangshan. This makes one wonder: don't short-haul passengers deserve the right to buy short-haul train tickets?
12306 official response
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The 12306 customer service gave an official response: In order to give priority to meeting the needs of long-distance passengers, short-haul passengers may encounter some difficulties when purchasing tickets. The customer service also "intimately" suggested that passengers can choose to be on standby or "buy a long and short" way to travel, but it should be noted that the ticket price for the unused section is non-refundable!
It sounds like a "stand and wait, or buy more" supermarket promotion strategy, except that this time it's just a train ticket.
Netizens are hotly discussed
This is completely without considering the feelings of college students and some people with relatively low incomes! Trains may be the most affordable means of transportation for them.
If you sell tickets that are not sold out 1 to 2 days before the departure, who will bear the loss of the itinerary prepared in advance, if you miss out on the tickets if you don't grab the tickets?
Some netizens ridiculed: "What is this to buy a ticket, it's just a heartbeat! I panic when I can't buy a ticket, and I feel sorry for the extra ticket money when I buy it." Some netizens pointed out sharply: "Is this a disguised attempt to force passengers to 'buy long and short', so as to maximize the benefits of rail transportation?"
The National Railway claims that it has never authorized any third-party platform to sell train tickets
Is 12306 really not authorized to sell train tickets to third parties, and what about the train ticket purchase system of third-party platforms such as Ctrip Travel and Ctrip Travel?
Many people buy train tickets on these platforms as compliant, they can issue tickets normally, they can enter the train station with their ID cards normally, etc., and now they suddenly say that they have never authorized any third-party platform to sell train tickets, so how to explain these various situations?
Do other third-party ticketing software systems have a certain amount of tickets allocated, and can they control the number of tickets issued at will, creating the illusion that the tickets are "sold out", so that consumers who buy tickets have to spend extra money to buy "gas packs" and "standby packs", etc., in order to get more benefits?
As an ordinary consumer, I think this practice of 12306 is indeed debatable.
Short-haul passengers are also an important customer group of rail transport, and their travel needs should also be respected and satisfied, and should be treated equally.
If it is difficult for short-haul passengers to purchase tickets because of the priority of long-haul passengers, is this "priority" a little too biased?
Even if short-haul travelers choose to "buy long and short", it does not mean that they should bear additional financial losses. The fares for the unused sections are non-refundable, which undoubtedly increases the travel cost of passengers, and is a big burden for short-distance passengers.
If a large number of passengers choose to "buy long and short" because they can't buy short-haul tickets, then the seats in the carriages that should have been taken by short-haul passengers will be wasted, is this a disguised revenue belonging to 12306?
Do you think 12306's strategy of "buying long and short" is reasonable, and what do you think about the statement that it has never been authorized to sell train tickets on a third-party platform?
Information sources: Changjiang Cloud News, Sure and other network platforms