How to submit an IRCTC refund request

Most refund questions at a counter are not refund questions. They are one of three different situations wearing the same word, and telling them apart before you act saves a great deal of explaining afterwards.

Which situation are you in?

The booking failed. No PNR was ever generated. Nothing was sold, so nothing is being refunded — the authorisation reverses on its own. Do not file anything. Covered separately.

The ticket exists and can still be cancelled. Use normal cancellation. Railway charges apply by class and timing, and the balance is refunded. The cancellation and OTP steps.

The ticket exists but cannot be cancelled normally. This is the TDR case, and it is what this guide covers.

Getting this wrong in either direction costs something. Filing a TDR for a failed booking complicates a process that was already resolving itself. Waiting for an automatic reversal on a TDR case means nothing happens at all.

When a TDR applies

Typical grounds include:

• The train was cancelled by the railway
• A coach was not attached
• A confirmed berth was not provided
• The train was excessively late and travel was not undertaken
• AC failed in an air-conditioned coach

The common thread: something the railway did or failed to do, rather than a change of mind by the passenger. A passenger who simply decided not to travel is a cancellation, not a TDR.

Filing it

1. Sign in to the agent interface with the ID that made the booking.
2. Find the booking by PNR and confirm the passenger details before proceeding.
3. Select the TDR option for that booking.
4. Choose the reason accurately. Not the closest available — the accurate one. A TDR filed under the wrong reason is assessed under the wrong rules.
5. Add any supporting detail the form allows. Specific beats vague when someone is assessing a claim.
6. Submit and record the reference. Give the customer the reference, not a verbal promise.

What to tell the customer — before you file

Say all three of these at the counter:

• It is a claim, not a refund. It will be assessed against railway rules.
• It is not guaranteed. Some claims are rejected, and that is a normal outcome rather than an error.
• It takes longer than a cancellation. Considerably.

An agent who says “you will get your money back” and then has to explain a rejection has created a problem that thirty seconds of accuracy would have avoided entirely.

After filing

Keep the reference against the PNR in your own records. When the customer returns to ask — and they will — you want to answer in ten seconds rather than search.

If the outcome seems wrong, call us with the PNR and the TDR reference. We cannot overturn a railway assessment, but we can often tell you what a decision actually means and whether it is worth pursuing.