Indian Railways Reservation: How To Change Journey Date, Upgrade To Higher Class And More

Indian Railways passengers can change journey date of confirmed/RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation)/waitlisted tickets, according to Indian Railways' website- indianrailways.gov.in. The date of journey on these tickets can be preponed or postponed in the same/higher class or for the same destination on payment of prescribed charges, said Indian Railways. Additionally, railways also allows passengers to extend their journey, change boarding station of their journey and upgrade their tickets to a higher class. While some of these facilities are applicable only for offline tickets, others are available for both offline and online tickets.

Here are 5 things to know about Indian Railways' facilities:

1. Preponing and postponing the date of a journey of a ticket booked at a station counter can be availed only once, irrespective of whether the accommodation available is confirmed or RAC or waitlisted, according to Indian Railways' website.

2. Customers willing to prepone or postpone the date of journey should surrender their ticket during working hours of reservation office at least forty eight hours before the scheduled departure of the train in which the ticket is originally booked. However, this facility is only available for offline tickets. 

3. For extension of journey, passengers are required to approach the ticket checking staff either before reaching destination or after completion of booked journey. 

4. Passengers can change the boarding station of the journey by submitting a written request to the station manager of the original boarding station or by contacting any computerised reservation centre, at least 24 hours before the departure of the train. However, no refund is permissible for the unused portion of the journey. This facility is available for both offline and online tickets.

5. The reserved ticket for a lower class can also be upgraded to a higher class for the same train and date, subject to availability of accommodation. The upgrading of accommodation can be done only once on collection of fresh reservation charges and the fare difference. This can also be done during the journey by approaching the Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE), according to Indian Railways.