Most of the times getting a confirmed ticket is very difficult in Indian Railways. The normal as well as the Tatkal e-tickets both are very hard to book during peak season times. Seeing the situation and very high traffic on IRCTC, it has came up with a very brilliant idea. The idea is to convert the waitlisted tickets into air tickets if the passengers agrees to pay few bucks more.

Until now IRCTC has collaborated with GoAir and SpiceJet. These are low cost air ticket providers and hence agreed with IRCTC to provide customers with such service. This tie up will benefit both the customers as well as to the service providers. Customers can travel with ease and businesses can do more business. The airlines are trying their best to provide competitive rates to their customers.

We entered into this tie-up a month ago and all tickets passed on by SpiceJet and GoAir during the month have been sold to wait-listed travellers,” said Sandip Dutta, Public Relations Officers at IRCTC.
Ajay Singh, Chairman & Promoter at SpiceJet said, “Passengers on the waiting list with no confirmation can upgrade to an airline seat if they are ready to pay a little extra. The ticket prices will depend on the season and the routes on which we fly to. So, if it’s a weak travel season, we will charge less for the upgrade.

How to Upgrade from Railway to Air Tickets

In order to be eligible for this upgrade you must meet some criteria. The following are the criteria you must meet for the conversion from railway to flight:

1. The ticket must be booked 3 days before the departure of train. That means no Tatkal or other tickets within 3 days are eligible. 
2. The flight ticket will be available only for the day of the scheduled train journey or a day before. No exceptions are allowed.
3. The airlines are not obliged to reserve a fixed number of tickets to be made available for this railway to flight upgrade.
4. The incremental fares (over the price of train tickets) are not fixed and will vary depending upon the route and the season. 

It may seem like a dream come true for the frequent travellers who mainly travel in AC coaches cause now they can travel in flights with much discounted rates (may or may not be). However, this may not benefit to a large population as there are not airports everywhere where railway can go. So, passengers who travel to locations where there are no airports may not benefit from this awesome service.