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,...
more... 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.