IRCTC Tatkal Ticket Booking Trick for non daily trains

In my previous post about IRCTC tatkal booking, I showed a trick to book confirmed tatkal ticket. That trick is limited to book tickets on trains running daily. If you want to book a tatkal ticket on a train running only one or two days a week then you will have to do it differently.

First, if you haven’t read my previous post, read it now otherwise you will not understand this post. So our basic strategy is like this. In first part we start the booking process for the tatkal ticket whose fair is exactly same as of the ticket we want.
Now since we are booking ticket on the train running once or twice a week, we can’t start tatkal booking process for the same train on previous day. In short, we can’t start part 1 process from our previous post. Sound Complex? It’s not. Let me take an example.
Let’s assume that I want to book ticket between AHMEDABAD JN (ADI) and NAGPUR (NGP) for 14^th July, 2011. It’s Thursday. I want ticket on PRERANA EXPRESS (11453) which runs only on Thursday. I’ll have to start booking process on 12^th July before 8:00AM.

Since the train doesn’t run on 12^th July or 13^th July, I can’t start part 1 process from our previous post. Without performing part 1 process, I can’t get “Make Payment” button. So what to do now? Simple. Search for two stations and train for which fare is same as of ticket on PRERANA EXPRESS between ADI to NGP. Also make sure that the new train runs on 12^th July or 13^th July because those are two days on which you can start tatkal booking process.

Find New Stations & Train
Now the question comes, how to find that type of train and stations? Use Google. There is a web site indiarailinfo.com which keeps track of all trains and fare between all stations. So we will have to put just one query and we will come up with our train and stations.
Let’s continue our example. Fare between ADI to NGP on PRERANA EXPRESS for General quota for 3A is Rs. 891. So to find new stations and train, you will have to just put following query in Google.
site:indiarailinfo.com Rs. 891 3A

Quick search relieves that train DELHI SR EXPRESS /19263 has same fare (Rs. 891) between Jamnagar(JAM) and Jaipur Junction(JP) and runs on Tuesday(12^th July). Sometimes you might have to search deeper to find exact stations and train. Just keep looking. You will surely find new stations and train.

So in part 1, we will start the process for booking tatkal ticket on 12^th July between JAM and JP on DELHI SR EXPRESS for 3A class. Once we reach to the payment gateway page, we click on “Plan My Travel” link and start the part 2 process.
Part 2 process is same as I have shown in previous post.
So now you know how to book confirmed tatkal ticket. There is still one more technique which increases the chances of getting confirmed tatkal ticket. Let’s review this technique too.
Multiple Firefox Profiles

Do you know that you can start multiple firefox profiles at the same time? You can initiate IRCTC booking process at the same time in all profiles. Sometimes it happens that IRCTC server becomes too slow and it takes too long to get response. You either get “Service Unavailable” error or no response at all.

If you have started booking process in three different profiles then you will increase the change of getting response. In one profile, you might get service unavailable error but you won’t get the same error in all profiles at the same time. So how to run multiple firefox profiles at the same time?

Open firefox’s properties from the firefox shortcut on desktop. Add -P -no-remote to the target location as shown in following image

Click on OK and open the firefox. That will open firefox profile manager.

You will have only “default” profile. Here you can create as many profiles as you like. I have 4 different profiles created just for IRCTC booking. You can run all profiles at the same time. If you are planning to use multiple profiles then you will have to install extensions separately on each profile.

Payment Gateway Selection

Payment gateway selection is also important in speeding up the booking process. Netbanking payment gateways are faster than giving credit card/debit card details.

In my experience, I have seen that HDFC netbanking gateways is the fastest one. You can even increase the payment gateway login speed by saving the username and password. You just have to click on login button and done.

Small-small things can increase your booking speed. I have given all tricks I was using to book confirmed tatkal ticket. Use these techniques and get ticket. Have safe & happy journey.