WL 34 and Counting

You booked four tickets on the Rajdhani for the Diwali week. Three confirmed, one on WL 34. It's been nine days. WL 34 has moved to WL 22 and then stalled. The journey is in eleven days. You have a second booking on a slower express as a backup — that one is on WL 8, which might clear. You also have a tatkal booking that confirmed but cost ₹840 more per head. You are managing five PNRs across three trains for four passengers, and the question of which tickets to cancel — and when, to maximize the refund before the cancellation penalty kicks in — is a calculation that requires knowing all five PNRs simultaneously.

This database puts all five records on one screen.

PNR and Train Number: The Primary Keys

PNR# is the ten-digit Passenger Name Record from IRCTC — the identifier used for every status check, cancellation, and passenger manifest query. Train No is the five-digit train number (12301 for the Howrah Rajdhani, 12951 for the Mumbai Rajdhani, and so on). Train Name adds the human-readable label for quick identification. DOJ (Date of Journey) is the departure date.

Berth is the free-text field for the coach and berth assignment: "B3 / 24, 26 / Side Upper, Side Lower" or "CNF / S4 / 12, 14" or, when it's still a waitlist, "WL 34." The field updates when the PNR status changes — a WL 34 that clears becomes "RAC 7" before it becomes a confirmed berth, and each stage is worth recording because RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation) means a half-berth, which changes the journey plan.

No of Passengers is critical for family bookings — a PNR can carry up to six passengers, each with their own confirmation status within the same booking. One PNR with four passengers can have two confirmed and two on RAC simultaneously.

Amt and Refund: The Financial Ledger

Amt in INR records the total fare paid at booking. Refund tracks what came back when a ticket was cancelled. Indian Railways' cancellation refund schedule is time-dependent: full refund more than 48 hours before departure, partial refund at 12-48 hours, 25% at under 12 hours, nothing after departure. Tracking the Refund field against the cancellation timing is how you verify that the IRCTC refund credit matches what you were owed.

For the person managing five PNRs across multiple trains with variable cancellation timing, the Amt/Refund pair across all records shows the total exposure — how much fare has been paid, how much has been recovered, and what the net travel spend is after the final booking strategy resolves.

DOB (Date of Birth) is the passenger identity field required by IRCTC for booking verification and used for senior citizen concession eligibility. For family bookings with elderly passengers, DOB in the record saves the lookup when the TTE asks for identity verification during the journey.

Track Status: One URL Per PNR

Track Status is a URL field with the hint "Indian rail website." In practice, this stores the IRCTC PNR status query link for that specific booking — so a single tap from the record opens the current confirmation status directly, without having to navigate to the IRCTC site and enter the PNR number manually.

When you have five PNRs active during peak booking season, the Track Status URL for each one is the difference between a 45-second status check per booking and a 10-second tap. For a WL booking in the final 48 hours before departure when status can change every few hours, that matters.

Mode of Payment records how the booking was paid — IRCTC wallet, UPI, net banking, debit card. For refund tracking, knowing the payment mode determines where the refund lands and how long it takes to credit.