Recently, some netizens complained online that they found it very puzzling to be charged a handling fee when changing tickets purchased on 12306.
Regarding why the change fee is charged, the 12306 customer service told the Changjiang Cloud News that this move is to crack down on scalpers hoarding tickets and ticket return loopholes. Before the change fee was collected, it was not possible to change the ticket within 48 hours before the original departure time of the ticket, only to choose to cancel or collect a 20% ticket return fee for ticket return processing. After the new rules were introduced, tickets can be changed within 48 hours before the original departure time of the ticket, and even tickets within the pre-sale period can be changed.
Simply put, within less than 48 hours before the departure, if you change to a ticket with a date earlier than the original ticket or change to another train on the same day before 24:00, no change fee will be charged.
TapTechNews found that in January of this year, China Railway 12306 issued a notice regarding the optimization of the railway ticket changing rules, announcing changes such as the ability to change tickets even after departure and no charge before the day of departure.
Within less than 48 hours before departure, passengers can change to a train within the pre-sale period after the departure date listed on the ticket, and a change fee will be charged.
If changed between 24 hours and less than 48 hours before departure, a 5% change fee will be charged based on the lower ticket price between the original ticket and the changed ticket.
If changed within less than 24 hours before departure, a 15% change fee will be charged based on the lower ticket price between the original ticket and the changed ticket.
Before midnight on the day, passengers can change to a train within the pre-sale period after the departure date listed on the ticket, and a change fee will be charged.
If changed after departure, a 40% change fee will be charged based on the lower ticket price between the original ticket and the changed ticket.
Currently, the official 12306 application has also announced the new rules for change fees, adopting a step-by-step charging rule:
1. If the change is made more than 48 hours before the departure of the ticket station or to a ticket with an earlier date than the original ticket within less than 48 hours before departure and to another train on the same day before midnight, no change fee will be charged.
2. If changed between 24 hours and less than 48 hours before departure to a train after the departure date listed on the ticket, a 5% change fee based on the lower ticket price before and after the change.
3. If changed within less than 24 hours before departure to a train after the departure date listed on the ticket, a 15% change fee based on the lower ticket price before and after the change will be calculated.
4. If changed after midnight to a train on the next day or later, a 40% change fee based on the lower ticket price before and after the change will be calculated.
5. The fractions in the above calculation are rounded to the nearest 5 cents, those less than 2.5 cents are rounded down, those equal to or higher than 2.5 cents but less than 7.5 cents are rounded to 5 cents, and those equal to or higher than 7.5 cents are rounded to 1 yuan.
In fact, there are also netizens who agree with the rule of charging a handling fee for changing train tickets. Some people believe that when no change fee was charged before, some people with ticket return needs who wanted to save handling fees would take advantage of changing the original ticket to a lower-priced ticket and then processing the ticket return. For example, when the time to departure is less than 24 hours and you want to refund a ticket priced at 500 yuan, according to the refund rules, you would have to pay a 20% refund fee based on the ticket price. However, if you change this 500 yuan ticket to a 50 yuan ticket, you can greatly reduce the handling fee required for the refund. This loophole was very common before, and it was not until the new change rules were introduced that the rule was established that the difference between the original ticket and the new ticket price must also be charged a refund fee.
Related reading:
Starting today, 12306 railway ticket change function upgraded: Can still change after departure, no charge before departure date