IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation), which handles the catering, tourism and online ticketing operations of the Indian Railways, allows passengers to upgrade to the next higher clsss of travel. IRCTC offers the option of auto 'class upgradation' on online ticket booking. Under auto upgradation, Railways upgrades full fare paying 'waiting list passengers' to the next higher class against the available vacant accommodation. However, if any passenger exercises 'No' option for upgradation in the request form at the time of booking, his/her PNR (Passenger Name Record) is not considered for upgradation. Concession ticket/free passes holders including senior citizens traveling on concession are not upgraded, said IRCTC.
Five key things to know about IRCTC auto upgradation scheme:
1. Upgradation is automatically done by PRS (Passenger Reservation System) at the time of preparation of chart. The ticket examiners have no authority to upgrade any passenger under this scheme on the train.
2. Only waitlisted passengers are provided confirmed seats under this scheme. The remaining vacant berths are transferred for booking on the current counters as per the existing practice. Thus, if there is no waiting list on a train, no upgradation will take place.
3. If a passenger, who has been upgraded, cancels his/her ticket, cancellation charges of the original class are payable. Upgradation of passengers is done to one class above only e.g. from sleeper to 3AC, 3AC to 2AC and 2AC to 1AC, said IRCTC.
4. The original PNR of upgraded passengers remains unchanged and all information from PRS is provided when an enquiry is made with the original PNR.
5. All passengers in one PNR (maximum six) are upgraded together. None of them are upgraded in case of non-availability of enough berths for upgradation.
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