I've never seen such a thing before. Netizens grabbed the same train ticket on 12306 and Ctrip.

Real story of Spring Festival travel ticket grabbing: Netizens grabbed the same train ticket on 12306 and Ctrip.

The Chinese New Year is just a few days away. Since the use of masks has come to an end, train tickets this year are in great demand. I wonder if everyone has managed to grab one?

Today I saw a netizen’s problem with ticket grabbing, which was very related to the program, so I wanted to share it with you all.

This netizen tried to buy tickets on 12306 and Ctrip at the same time, and ended up buying the same ticket on both platforms, with the same train and seat. The key is that he paid for two tickets. This is really good news and bad news. As shown in the picture below, Ctrip is on the left and 12306 is on the right.

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Cause

What is the cause of this problem?

Let’s first analyze the logic of buying train tickets on 12306 and Ctrip.

12306: 12306 is the official APP for selling train tickets. If you place an order successfully, it means that an order record is written into the database. If you can see the order, it means that you have successfully grabbed the ticket. In addition, the ordering process is guaranteed by transaction isolation, or the same train is processed one by one in a queue, and one ticket will not be sold to two people. After grabbing the ticket, just pay as soon as possible.

Ctrip: Ctrip itself does not sell train tickets, so it is at most an agent.

• This agent may be officially authorized, but since we can buy tickets online, train ticket sales outlets have been closed for a long time, so Ctrip is unlikely to be this kind;
• Previously, there was another way to place an order by calling the interface, but 12306 has clearly stated that it will not open the interface to third parties, so it is likely that each platform will go to 12306 to make the order after receiving the reservation;
• The last one is the currently more popular and reliable bypass ticket grabbing mode, which actually simulates the user's browser operation, but all is done by the program. This speed is definitely faster than manual operation, so the chance of grabbing a ticket is higher. Ctrip should also use this method.

How do you know if you have grabbed a ticket?

Based on this problem phenomenon reported by netizens, I guess Ctrip is most likely constantly refreshing the order page. If an order for the corresponding train is found, it will be considered that the order has been successfully placed, and then the user's payment will be deducted and the user will be notified that the ticket has been successfully grabbed.

This is a simple way, and it saves resources. It does not need to keep the connection or polling all the time, but it is easy to encounter the problem encountered by netizens. Is there a better way? Of course there is.

If you use the bypass tool to buy tickets, you may notice that after submitting the order, it will show in the log that it is queuing and waiting for the return result of 12306, either the order is successful or the reason for the order failure is given, which is consistent with our experience of buying tickets on 12306. I guess bypass should simulate the processing method of placing orders on the 12306 website.

This will prevent the problem encountered by Ctrip. Of course, this is just a reasonable guess, and the specific cause of the problem is difficult to determine. Maybe Ctrip also did a complete simulation, but there were some other problems, such as the machine happened to restart.

Will raising the price have any effect?

Many ticket grabbing platforms have launched features to speed up ticket grabbing. Is this really useful?

Let me first state the conclusion, which is somewhat useful.

If you pay more, the platform may allocate more computing resources to you. For example, if 10 ordinary users use the same IP to grab tickets, 12306 may think it is cheating, and the IP may be blocked during the peak period of ticket grabbing. If you pay more, 5 people may use the same IP, or even monopolize the IP, so the probability of being blocked is much lower. IP is only one aspect. CPU, memory, network and other resources can be divided into different levels for allocation.

However, it is hard to say whether this is cost-effective.

Because you can achieve the same effect by using a free bypass. However, sometimes because too many people in the company are trying to grab tickets, 12306 may block the company's IP for a period of time. Solving this problem is also very simple. You can use your home computer to grab tickets, or get a cheap cloud server. Exclusive resources are not easily blocked, so it is easier to grab tickets.

For example, my Alibaba Cloud preemptible instance costs only a few cents per hour, or a little over one dollar per day.

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With Ctrip's black box model, you have no idea how many resources it uses to grab tickets for you. Maybe you only request once every 10 seconds, and the number of machines and IPs that Ctrip can allocate is always limited. When the tickets are released, 12306 will see too many requests and it is likely to block it, thus missing the best time to grab tickets. If you grab the tickets later, it is purely coincidental. For ticket grabbing platforms, with a large user base, there will always be many users who grab tickets, thereby earning a large amount of agency fees, which can be said to be a sure win.

Of course, it is always good to have more channels to go home for the New Year, but I just hope everyone does not give in to expectations.

How to solve this problem

If you have successfully paid on 12306, and the payee shown on your bank statement or payment platform is 12306, then you have successfully purchased the ticket on 12306. No other person or platform will be able to buy the same ticket for the same train, nor will the payment be successful.

So at this time, you should go to the ticket grabbing platform, explain your situation, ask them to confirm whether the money has really been paid to 12306, and ask them to refund. The ticket grabbing platform will also have a complete payment log, so you can check whether it has been paid or not.

There are also very few netizens who have encountered the situation where 12306 deducted money multiple times. This is not difficult to deal with. Just call 12306, provide your payment order number and train number, and let 12306 investigate. Everything can be found out. Money transactions are strictly logged.

The above is the main content of this article.

Time flies, and it is time to go home again. Taking off the mask seems to indicate the change of the times, and we can breathe the air of our hometown freely again. The light strokes of the train ticket carry the eagerness and expectations of countless travelers. They are like returning swallows, chasing the warm spring light in the cold wind.

Looking back to the Spring Festival more than ten years ago, I was shivering in the cold wind outside the ticket office, and I could only get a standing ticket. The convenience of technology has made it easier for us to grab tickets, but it seems that we can never get out of the dilemma of not having tickets.

I hope that in this wave of Spring Festival travel, every traveler can successfully reach their desired destination. I hope that every technological advancement can bring more convenience and warmth to people, rather than trouble and confusion. I hope that we can all harvest peace, joy, and reunion in this warm and loving festival.