Nearly 18 months after foraying into flight ticket booking followed by bus tickets in November last year, Amazon has further strengthened its presence in the travel space. Jeff Bezos Amazon’s India businesses has now partnered with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) for customers to book reserved train tickets on Amazon. Amazon is offering 10 per cent cashback of up to Rs 100 on first booking while Prime members would get 12 per cent cashback up to Rs 120/. For the introductory period, the company has waived off service and payment gateway transaction charges.
Moreover, seat and quota availability across all train classes can be checked on the Amazon app even as customers would have multiple self-serve options including live PNR status check, downloads and cancellations of tickets booked on Amazon. For payments via Amazon Pay Balance, customers would get instant refund in case of cancellations or booking failures.
“With the facility to book reserved train tickets on our platform, we are enabling travel across any mode preferred by customers…Customers love the convenience we offer of shopping and paying – all in one single app,” said Vikas Bansal, Director, Amazon Pay in a statement.
In a superapp strategy to host different kinds of apps within the Amazon app, the company intends to become a one-stop shop for anything customers need given the vast number of users it has on its marketplace even as it allows Amazon to test new services without heavily investing into them and building them from scratch. While extending its bouquet of travel services to hotel booking seems obvious for Amazon, however, it won’t be the first time for the company to venture into it. The parent company had back in late 2014 dabbled with hotel booking service called Amazon Destinations but was shut within months in 2015 without any reason stated by Amazon.
