What should I do if there is a mistake in the railway ticket: goodbye, vacation, or two minutes to fix it?

The classic picture is an apron, a train that is about to leave along the way, a conductor and a confused passenger with luggage. A ticket has been bought, but, alas, it is with an error, and only the conductor knows what to do now! Below is useful information for those who often travel by train or at least plan to do so in the coming years. So, errors in the railway ticket – why they happen, what to do when detected and how to avoid them! About everything in more detail!

What is considered an error

Let's start with what is considered a mistake in the ticket and why it is important. A railway ticket is sold on an identity card (passport, birth certificate), personal data is also entered in it - surname, first name, patronymic, gender, citizenship, date of birth, passport series and number. Why is this done? For security reasons, in order to take into account the categories of passengers, to avoid fraud, etc. Boarding the train is based on a ticket and an identity card with data reconciliation. And here it turns out that there is an error in the ticket. An error is considered to be omitting or inserting a letter, rearranging letters, incorrect numbers, missing numbers, incorrect gender, writing numbers instead of letters and vice versa. If a person has mixed up the windows for writing the name and surname in places. Plus, if an international train and a ticket are bought using a foreign passport, there may be discrepancies in the spelling of the first and last names in Latin.

Errors in the ticket: why are they not immediately visible

Mistakes often happen not with the aim of confusing or deceiving someone, but accidental and unintentional. For example, I pressed the wrong key on the keyboard, held my finger a little, and the letter doubled, the T9 autocorrector corrected the word. When buying tickets online, a person thinks more about how his trip will go, whether he decided to choose the right train, how successful this flight is and whether it was possible to find a cheaper option. Then pay attention to the payment, so as not to confuse the card data. Then a printout of the ticket, and that's it. Many passengers do not even pick up their passport, hoping for their memory. They automatically run through the ticket with their eyes, everything seems to be correct, while they don't even really read it and practically don't see errors. This is psychology, the effect of a well-known thing, like, for example, a reflection in a mirror, when the brain commands everything is fine, I've seen it thousands of times and now everything is ok. There is another point – passport number. When buying online, the passport number must be entered in a special window (as well as other data), but when printing the ticket, the number is not completely visible, only the initial digits. The passenger is fully confident that he has the correct data in his ticket, but the conductor sees the entire passport number through the application and, accordingly, notes whether there are errors. Thus, the correct filling in of data when buying a ticket, rechecking after making – two moments when you can still have time to check and correct errors. That is why in those two or three minutes of buying a ticket, you should be extremely collected and attentive, do not rely on memory and double-check everything. Alternatively, with frequent trips and regular ticket purchases on the Internet, it is best to open a personal account and fill in personal data. Then they will be substituted automatically, this will avoid ridiculous mistakes.

If there is an error in the ticket…

And yet, no one is immune from mistakes, and they are quite common in railway tickets. What should I do in this case? If a passenger finds an error at home and there is plenty of time to fix it, he can contact the service (application) where the ticket was purchased and ask for changes. Most often, the service will be free or with a minimum percentage. If a passenger finds an error on the way to the train station or the conductor on the platform pointed it out (the most common case), they will have to change their ticket.

Railways look at the "degree of guilt", how many mistakes were made and of what type:

• one mistake – is the rearrangement of adjacent letters or numbers, a typo, omission of a letter or number, such an error is not considered rude and the ticket is reissued without additional charges;

• two or more, they are in the name and patronymic – these are gross mistakes, ticket renewal for a fee.

By the way, sometimes the conductors do not pay attention if one mistake is made in the name or passport number in the ticket, and let passengers into the car. You can change a ticket with an additional payment at the conductor or at the ticket office, but in any case, you need to do it in advance – no one will delay the train for the sake of one passenger. The options "to pay extra without a receipt" or to negotiate are not recommended, because the responsibility for an error in the ticket lies not only with the passenger, but also with the conductor. If the passenger refuses to change the ticket and pay extra for changes in personal data, he will not be allowed to travel.

Error in the railway ticket that goes abroad

There is a situation when even a minor mistake in the ticket (a typo or letters are reversed) cannot be corrected. It's about trains that go abroad. According to the rules of Russian Railways, a passenger will not be put on an international train if there is at least one mistake in the ticket. At the same time, it is impossible to exchange a ticket with a conductor or a cashier, even with an additional payment. Such a ticket can only be handed over and bought a new one, if time allows before the train departs. Railways of other states treat ticket errors differently - in some cases, the travel document remains valid, in others it is not. Therefore, before traveling, it is better to clarify which countries the train passes through and what requirements are imposed on the ticket. Previously, tickets were bought at the box office, even experienced cashiers had the risk of making mistakes. What can we say about ordinary people when the head is busy with the hassle of the upcoming trip! And yet it is worth being careful and not hoping for Russian, maybe two minutes of buying a ticket to be extremely collected!