IRCTC: Using Senior Citizen quota to book train tickets
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This is just an informational post for those who book the train tickets for their senior citizen parents or relatives.
In a recent change, Indian Railways had increased the quota for Senior citizen with 2 tickets mandatory in every coach.
3 tier and 2 tier coaches are lesser in normal express trains. But there are so many sleeper coaches.
Hence, normally , the senior citizen quota sleeper tickets are always available irrespective of general waiting be in hundreds.
Now the trick:
IRCTC website for some reason is not user friendly to book such seats. There is no radio button for checking Senior citizen quota seats like in case of Ladies quota or Physically disabled quota seats.
Steps to follow:
1) Select the train and click “Book Now” like you book the tickets normally. (Ignore the waiting list)
2) Fill traveller information. Make sure you fill only senior citizens in the list. Not applicable for normal tickets.
3) In the last screen, the true availability for Senior Citizen seats would be shown and available for booking.
Best part is all the seats are lower and hence you are assured of getting that. It is so easy to implement this change on the website. I dont understand the reason for not updating the same. Infact, I am aware of this trick for 4 years now and sharing here as the issue is not resolved by railways yet.
Please share with your friends.
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@agent7 Good share! This seems useful to a lot of people. KG.
👍👍👍
@agent7 4 yrs 
@FeelMyL0Ve wrote:
@agent7 4 yrs
Yeah.. Isn’t it’s surprising?
In fact, I remember booking an AC 2 tier ticket bangalore to Delhi for my mom in July 2010 like this.
Nice share.KG to you.
I didn’t get it. If you can simplify it further.
Is it that though no available seats shows under general quota, still for senior citizens there could be seats available which shows at later stage. If website doesn’t let you select how do you avail that.
@A2Zdeals wrote:
I didn’t get it. If you can simplify it further.
Is it that though no available seats shows under general quota, still for senior citizens there could be seats available which shows at later stage. If website doesn’t let you select how do you avail that.
It is preselected for you incase the passenger list filled is only for senior citizens and if seats are available in quota.
Screenshots are added in the link : https://togetherwegrowindia.wordpress.com/2016/...
@agent7 wrote:+24kg good piece of info
@A2Zdeals wrote:
@agent7
I didn’t get it. If you can simplify it further.
Is it that though no available seats shows under general quota, still for senior citizens there could be seats available which shows at later stage. If website doesn’t let you select how do you avail that.
It is preselected for you incase the passenger list filled is only for senior citizens and if seats are available in quota.
Screenshots are added in the link : https://togetherwegrowindia.wordpress.com/2016/...
For every quota Railway provides seat but they dont show it directly 
Thannks dimers for the karmas and VU’s. Helped the information reaching out to a larger audience.
Want to add few more things on this based on my observation as a frequent train traveller..
If general quota is wait-listed then check availability for senior citizen quota in any app(they provide such search filters)… then plan accordingly.
- Senior Citizen quota is only applicable if the person is travelling alone…(in case of multiple senior citizen you’ve to book ticket for each one separately in order to avail this quota benefits.)
- In case of multiple bookings in same quota getting berths in same coach in not guaranteed.
- If you want multiple senior citizen tickets in same coach go to Ticket counter(Offline)… there its almost guaranteed to have berth in same coach.
- Lower berths are always guaranteed in this quota because Senior Citizen quota is “Lower Berth Quota”
I would suggest you to tweet to suresh prabhu about it.
@teragoel wrote:
I would suggest you to tweet to suresh prabhu about it.
You are right. I did that 3-4 times. No replies. No acknowledgement. Had some other loopholes shared in some other tweets couple of months back as well. Never acknowledged any of these issues.
In fact, please do not fall for the Twitter strategy of railways my dear friend. It is being done in a very systematic manner hiring the best of the graduates maintaining the Railway twitter handle. No doubt, the things are changing, but not so magnanimously as it is being dished out on twitter. All about marketing. Also, very clever that they are active only on Twitter. Strategic move. Never on Facebook or other social media. Have worked wonders for Suresh Prabhu’s image. Social media handling is one of the most lucrative jobs. Even in IIMA, there is a case study now to analyze how did Suresh used twitter to have a makeover of India Railways’ image.
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Will give it a try in future.