Reservation against Cancellation
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A Reservation against cancellation is a type of ticket that can be purchased on India railway network. Although it ensures certainty of travel it does not guarantee a berth. The berth will be allocated to the person who reserves the ticket under Reservation Against Cancellation, if the passenger who reserved the ticket initially do not turn up before the train departure or performs a last minute cancellation. [1]
A quick explanation of RAC and Waiting List
*WL # = Waiting List Number
*RAC = Reservation Against Cancellation[2]
An RAC ticket ensures certainty of travel on the train (a WL ticket doesn't) and in your chosen class, but there’s a chance you could end up with just a seat. (very unlikely if you book early)
A berth is split into 2 seats for 2 RAC ticket holders, if there are any last minute cancellations, or any unsold quota allocations, or if any confirmed ticket holders are given a free upgrade, an RAC ticket holder is given the empty berth, the other RAC ticket holder can then convert the 2 seats into a berth.
RAC tickets are only issued for Sleeper Class
| Air Conditioned | Non Air Conditioned |
|---|---|
| 2-tier (4 seats per carriage), | First Class (4 seats per carriage), |
| 3-tier (6 seats per carriage), | Sleeper Class (up to 12 seats per carriage). |
Every Ticket has two numbers
If a passenger reserves a ticket online or through reservation office, by choosing the train, Class, Date of Journey and there is no berth available to accommodate, passenger will be added to waiting list. All RAC/WL tickets have two ’numbers’, the first is the position where WL is reserved, the second is current waiting list position. For instance a passenger gets WL 10/WL 4 where we have WL 10 implies booking position and WL 4 implies current Waiting List position of Passenger,If in case there are three more cancellations passengers position will be reflected as WL 10/WL 1 and later it will me moved to RAC.[3]
RAC is Reservation Against Cancellation. All RAC passengers are accommodated in the lower side berth with sitting arrangement (no sleeping). RAC passengers are given priority if there is any cancellation by confirmed ticket passenger. The above ticket would move through the waitlist as follows: -
(cancellation of one ticket in each step) WL 10/WL 4
WL 10/WL 3
WL 10/WL 2
WL 10/WL 1
WL 10/RAC 4
WL 10/RAC 3
WL 10/RAC 2
WL 10/RAC 1
WL 10/CNF
So having a RAC 100 is actually better than a WL 1. [4]
References
