Be aware of 12306 using credit to exchange railway ticket trap

Just to be clear that if you've finalized your schedule and you have no intention to change then it's fine. Otherwise you will find yourself in deep trouble.

The credit is accumulated by how often you use 12306 to purchase tickets. When you see the small orange traingle in the purchase button that tells you this ticket can also be acquired using your credit.

But if you want to cancel ticket it won't allow you to do so online. If you want to reassign it to a different ticket/trip, you can only do it at train station and can only reassign to an equivalent ticket-one that also provides the option to purchase with credit. 12306 does not offer other means to cancel the ticket even if you tell them you forfeit the credit. This creates a problem for me because now I'd like to reassign to an earlier ticket that conflicts time wise to the original ticket (12306 does not allow you to purchase two tickets that creates a time conflict, at least online)

If you go to the train station (exactly what I did), you will be told that train stations can remove the restrictions placed on the credit-purchased ticket so that I can reassign to an earlier schedule. However, not all train bureaus have the same authority, Wuchang station couldn't remove restrictions on such ticket that's sold by Guangzhou bureau. But Changsha station can, as the ticket I purchased using credit was backed by the train offered by Guangzhou train bureau. Still, you have to visit the train station on site.

And after all this, you have to keep in mind that 12306 online service shuts off between 23:00 and 6:00 the following day.

I think 12306 have improved compared to the past. But this is just asinine on so many levels. The credit purchased ticket pretty much takes away all your variable of choices, which is the Hallmark of being able to purchase tickets online via 12306.

Reason I think this is designed as a trap is they don't mention all the aboved details when they give you the option to purchase tickets using credits. I had to experience all that to come up with all this information. And it's pieced together one by one--you gotta ask multiple 12306 customer service from multiple train bureaus in order to get the information.

Still it's worth it because I finally got onto the train/schedule I wanted. I just let my original ticket in the dust. Luckily Changsha was my transfer station and it worked out somewhat there.

To clarify some nomenclature: Purchase using credit 积分购买 Reassign 改签 Cancel 退票 Guangzhou train bureau 广州铁路局（广铁）