IRCTC had announced earlier that it would be looking to sell Air tickets on their site and that offering is now live. IRCTC.co.in has started selling flight tickets for all routes and all domestic carriers. Though some routes were available even earlier but only as a part of special holiday packages.
Given the size of traffic that IRCTC receives this makes a great business sense. Instead of taking airlines as a competitor, which it is not even close to in terms of volume, IRCTC is looking to position itself as the ultimate travel portal.
IRCTC is already the official ticketing partner for Common Wealth Games to be held in October this year and now it has also been selected as the catering partner for the teams. So lots of interesting stuff happening at their end.
Do check out the report on the improved successful transaction rates for the railway booking on IRCTC.
BTW, as an introductory offer a 10% cash back can be availed for flight bookings on IRCTC. Rush Now!
[Naman is a startup enthusiast and has worked with couple of Indian startups as Product Manager. He writes at The Inspire Blog]
Well this means a lot of threat to private OTAs, indirectly GDSes, Travel Booking websites because Railways has huge muscle power and monopoly to suck the blood out of other young-lings.
Let’s see what OTA’s and other impacted businesses have to say about this.
Cheers,
Arvind
interesting move,..
Great strategic move by irctc! This surely will impact the sales, atleast on LCC’s of OTA’s. If they are able to squeeze in a certain pricing proposition from the airlines, they will end up being a major major threat to all the travel sites.
Would be nice to know the opinion of someone from leading OTAs. Did they see this coming ? Wht would be their take on it ?
This is a bold move on IRCTC part. However, I have always felt that their servers are slow while booking tickets. That’s why I head to Cleartrip to book all my tickets. The risk of a failed transaction is high with IRCTC.
Agreed and they really need to do something on this front. Recently, it took me 30 minutes to book a ticket in Tatkal at 8:00 am.
the servers are too slow……i am not able to see the results.
Given the private players like Cleartrip have such a good portal, where someone can book so easily, irctc can’t catch in the technology and service. They can only beat private players with the discounts that they can pass on the customers.
I know that everybody is proud of IRCTC and the scale of its operations but I will believe that IRCTC would have done a good job when anytime of the day I book a ticket and the bank transaction goes through without a problem and I don’t need to wait three or four days to get a refund of my failed transaction. It will not only be a challenge but a matter of pride if IRCTC can make this work this way in spite of the transaction levels they handle. The day we move beyond making excuses and make it work like it is supposed to, we would have truly arrived!
Somebody captured it well about Cleartrip and why they use it! No why would I use IRCTC if ClearTrip would work better for me?
Well I am a huge fan of IRCTC and there’s a reason for that.
IRCTC train ticketing site does 300K transactions everyday, Cleartrip does only 700 daily. IRCTC takes flat 3 days to refund Cleartrip takes much longer. IRCTC is more trustworthy than cleartrips any day. Yes there is room for improvements, but I see lot happening on IRCTC front.
Beat it!!!
Air ticket, IRCTC is offering 10% cash back on full fare, can cleartrip offer that ?
I havent received my cash back even 6days after the booking
Does IRCTC really provide the cash back ?
I am not sure but the failed transaction often happens on their air site and cash back is still pending for me after a wait of 6 days…..though on the site it is written u get it next day itself
I am extremely satisfied with IRCTC train ticket booking system but I have a bitter experience with IRCTC-air. I had booked a ticket vide PNR NO. B6WN8L from Delhi to Bagdogra on 12/5/2010 for GOAIR flight. Later, I cancelled this ticket on 14/5/2010.
1. since then I am still waiting for refund. Despite my several reminder to the customer service cell, I have not received any positive response so far. because address of top official of IRCTC-air has not been mentioned anywhere in website for contact or clarification, I am unable to do much in this regard. customer service cell have lack of knowledge on the relevent products.
2. IRCTC-air toll free no.1800 3000 9900 is very irractic. when you want to connect customer service cell, the lines will be disconnected automatically during conversation.
3. IRCTC-air claims 10% cash back and cash back amount will be refunded next day. it is absolutely wrong. first, booking through IRCTC is 10-12% more expensive than booking through directly airlines’ website. This excess amount, is refunded by IRCTC as a cash back offer. I had booked the abovesaid ticket on Rs 5949.12 through IRCTC and on the same flight/same day the actual price on GOAIR flight was Rs 5427.00 only. Can you calculate how much amount, I got as a cash back offer. second, cash back amount will be refunded in your account after 7-8 working days and if you have cancelled your ticket, then there is not a fixed date. I am still waiting for refund more than 40 days.
IRCTC-AIR official look into the matter ?