Q. Should I buy WL/RAC tickets???
Ans. I find it very difficult to think of a time when an RAC ticket isn’t worth having, I’ve had dozens of them, and have always got a confirmed berth, in fact I’ve only ended up in an RAC seat once in 20, 000kms on Indian trains, and that was when I bought a WL 143 (SL class) ticket 2 days before departure.
Waitlisted tickets are different though, and it’s almost impossible to answer, it really depends on when you buy the ticket, the class, the train,...
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the boarding station and the destination station, and it depends on the time of year as well.
Read the ’How can I check if my RAC/WL position is likely to improve?’ section above to get a rough idea if a waitlist number is likely to improve.
However, one major thing to remember with RAC and waitlisted tickets, couples and groups have a good chance of getting split up, this is because 1 person may cancel a ticket, and one of you will be given that seat/berth, then another person (maybe in another carriage) cancels, and the your partner (or another member of your group) will be given that seat/berth.