Is there a handling fee for changing a train ticket? 12306 Response

　　Source: Kale Pictures Jia Qiong/photo

　　"In the past, there was never a handling fee for rebooking, unless the changed fare had to be made up for the part above the original price. It's a bit annoying to change trains that are not higher than the original ticket price now!"

　　Recently, some netizens reported on social platforms that after buying a train ticket on the 12306 platform, they actually had to charge a handling fee when changing the ticket, which made them feel very puzzled.

　　In the past, the public had the impression that a handling fee would only be charged for refunds within one week to 24 hours before departure, so why is there a charge for even changes now?

　　12306 New Regulations: Tiered billing is adopted

　　According to the 12306APP, the platform has clear regulations on the rules for the collection of change fees, and adopts a tiered fee rule:

　　1. No change fee will be charged for changes made more than 48 hours before the departure time of the station on the ticket, or for changes to trains on or before the date of travel on the ticket less than 48 hours before the departure date, or for other trains of the same day before 24 o'clock on the same day.

　　2. If you change a train after the date of travel more than 24 hours but less than 48 hours before departure, you will be charged 5% of the face value of the low-fare ticket before and after the change.

　　3. If you change a train less than 24 hours before departure to a train after the date of travel on the ticket, you will be charged 15% of the face value of the low-fare ticket before and after the change.

　　4. Before 24 o'clock on the same day, when changing the train on the next day or later, 40% of the face value of the low-fare ticket before and after the change.

　　5. The mantissa calculated above is calculated in units of 5 jiao, and the mantissa is less than 2.5 jiao, and the mantissa is rounded off, and the mantissa is more than 2.5 jiao (inclusive) and less than 7.5 jiao, and the mantissa is 1 yuan.

　　Why is there a change fee?

　　12306 manual customer service said that before the change fee is charged, it cannot be changed within 48 hours before the departure of the original ticket, and can only choose to invalidate or charge 20% of the refund fee for refund. After the introduction of the new regulations, you can change the ticket within 48 hours of the original ticket driving time, and even change the ticket during the pre-sale period. "In layman's terms, if you are less than 48 hours before departure, you will not be charged a change fee if you change the train on or before the date of departure on the ticket, or if you change to another train on the same day before 24 o'clock on the same day."

　　It is reported that the regulations have been revised and implemented in mid-January this year, "mainly for the sake of passengers." In the past, it was common for passengers to miss the train, resulting in a waste of tickets. Now you can change your ticket directly to a ticket that is on the same day. 12306 human customer service said.

　　Compared with the previous change rules, the changed rules mainly expand the scope of ticket changes before and after driving, which is indeed more humane for passengers. However, it also marked the end of the previous "free change" rule.

　　For example, if you change more than 24 hours but less than 48 hours before departure, you will be charged a change fee of 5% of the lower face value of the original ticket and the changed ticket; If the change is made less than 24 hours before departure, the change fee will be charged at 15% of the lower face value of the original ticket and the changed ticket; Until 24 o'clock on the day of departure, 40% of the lower fare before and after the change will be charged.

　　Regarding the regulations on charging handling fees for train ticket changes, some netizens agree with them. Some people believe that when there was no change fee in the past, some people who wanted to refund their tickets but wanted to save on the handling fee would opportunistically change the original ticket to a ticket with a lower fare, and then process the refund.

　　For example, if you want to refund a ticket with a ticket price of 500 yuan when you leave the train less than 24 hours, you will have to charge a refund fee of 20% of the ticket price according to the refund rules, so that the refund fee is as high as 100 yuan. If you change this 500 yuan ticket to a 50 yuan ticket, then you can greatly reduce the handling fee required for refund. This loophole was very common in the past, and after the introduction of the new rules on rebooking, there was a provision that a refund fee would be charged for the difference between the original ticket and the new ticket.

　　NPC deputies called for an appropriate reduction in the rate of rebooking

　　After the implementation of the new regulations, in addition to the question of "whether it should be collected", another point of great debate on the Internet is whether the rate of tiered fees is reasonable, and whether there is a possibility of further discussion on the formulation of the standards of "5%", "15%" and "40%". Regarding the issue of the change rate of train tickets, some representatives have made suggestions earlier.

　　On March 4, Zheng Yueming, a representative of the National People's Congress, said during the national "two sessions" that due to a variety of unpredictable factors, it is inevitable for passengers to temporarily change or even cancel their trips, and it is recommended to increase the number of free changes to train tickets from 1 to 2, and reduce the refund fee time to within 24 hours before departure and more than 24 hours, and reduce the refund rate to 5% within 24 hours, and free refund fees for more than 24 hours.

　　Zheng Yueming said that railway transport departments and airlines charge a certain fee for refunding and changing tickets and air tickets, so as to ensure the operational order and economic benefits of transport enterprises, and at the same time reduce malicious changes or refunds to a certain extent, so as to facilitate the allocation of transport resources. In recent years, the railway transport department and airlines have made some adjustments to the refund and change rules, but consumers still report that the refund and change rules are unreasonable and the rates are high.

　　Zheng Yueming believes that with the diversification of ticket booking methods, online ticket booking has become the mainstream, and the waitlist and other ticket purchase methods have been further improved, and passengers can check the availability of tickets in real time through their mobile phones, buy tickets anytime and anywhere, and can also waitlist to buy tickets. Generally speaking, the normal refund and change procedures can be operated through mobile phones, which will not affect the resale of tickets, nor will it affect the subsequent purchase of tickets, and will not have much impact on the transportation plans of railways and airlines.

　　Regarding the change, Zheng Yueming also suggested:

　　First of all, it is recommended that the competent authorities organize railway transport enterprises, airlines, industry experts, etc. to conduct research and demonstration, promote the revision of the rules for the refund and change of train tickets and air tickets, and reduce the refund and change rates. During non-holiday periods, refunds and changes that do not affect the secondary sale of tickets will be exempted or significantly reduced.

　　Secondly, it is recommended that the relevant departments urge airlines to introduce optimization rules as soon as possible, further relax various restrictions, further reduce the rate of air ticket refund and change, and provide free refund and change more than 7 days before flight departure.

　　Source: WeChat public account "Caizhi Headlines" is synthesized from: Daily Economic News, China Business News, The Paper, Finance Associated Press, etc

　　Editor-in-charge: Yuan Kai

　　Proofreading: Fenghua

　　Review: Gong Zimo