Japan Rail Pass Now Reviews

Since Hyperdia is no longer available in 2024 why is it included and so prominent on the Japan Rail Pass website?

Date of experience: 19 January 2024

Disappointed with misinformation in website. It clearly indicates one can phone number 1300635500 expecting to speak to someone. However, a long recording reverse the phone call to e-mail them. Another trick to keep data?
In doing so, one will be bombarded with advertising.
No thank you

Date of experience: 18 August 2023

We used Japan Rail Pass Now recently to pre-book rail in Japan. We had been struggling to find a supplier outside Japan, in English, who could do this but wanted to pre-book (and pre-pay) to streamline our travel experience on the ground.
The experience was straight forward, customer service was pretty quick and able to answer our questions to figure out what we needed. Tickets have just arrived!
A great start to our travel plans after a couple of tricky years. We’re so excited to travel again!

Date of experience: 01 October 2022

I bought the pass 3 weeks before travelling to Japan in May 23 and the orders arrived by Express Post 2 business days after my order. It worked perfectly in Japan. Please note, when you exchange the orders for the tickets in Japan I would recommend to do so in a not crowed station (I did it at Tokyo Station) as the line can be quite long.

Date of experience: 03 May 2023

Japan Rail Pass provides reliable and cost effective transportation for visitors to Japan. Using the pass for a few trips usually saves the cost of the pass itself and if you tour around like we did for two weeks, the savings are significant! JR trains are legendary for their frequency, punctuality and cleanliness but be prepared to cram in during busy times. Feeling overwhelmed? (e.g. in Tokyo station during peak hours) - ask the friendly JR staff. Riding on the Shinkansen service is an experience in itself. Tokyo to Hiroshima in about half a day. JR Pass is a wonderful means of accessing this amazing country.

Date of experience: 04 June 2019

Incredible value, easy to use, takes the hassle out of buying single tickets all the time. A tip to save time, plan your trip, (you'll need to be organised with dates and a rough idea of your rail departure times) and when you go to the JR Office to exchange the 'order' for the 'actual' JR rail pass, get all your tickets then. If you decide later to add more train trips, or change the ones that you already have, it's easy to go to a JR office and make alterations.

Date of experience: 15 July 2019

It’s a good experience, very simple process, value for money slightly cheaper compared with many other sources. Most importantly Japan Rail Pass Now’s customer service is of a high quality- 24/7 support they even message to remind you of Important tips up to just before you leave for Japan, which is very good for first time travel. I definitely recommend it. Happy travel

Date of experience: 21 June 2019

Getting the pass is really tricky, I spent the better part of half a day going from one place to the next because the locations I was sent to had signs directing me to another location. I felt the 7 day pass was expensive, I just came shy of break even even with four of Shinkansen trips and numerous reroutes after taking the wrong line. Unless you are taking long Shinkansen trips I’d probably get an internal pass. Remember quite a few destinations won’t take this pass and small town buses don’t either, so I’d only go for this if touring the major cities.

Date of experience: 09 March 2020

I had to cancel my pass due to the coronavirus outbreak and Japan Rail Pass Now not only processed the refund quickly and drama-free, but also waived the usual cancellation fee. Couldn’t be more happy with the experience. Can’t wait til I can finally take my trip and will definitely be buying my pass through JRPN again!

Date of experience: 04 May 2020

I received this within two days of ordering the Japan Rail Pass in Australia. Customer service was also fantastic! The ony thing was the pass was a little more expensive than some other websites but delivery was free. However because I purchased four passes it ended up being a bit more.

Date of experience: 08 July 2019

Dont buy from these people. Prices are ~$100-150 higher than reputable agencies in Australia. They make out they are the "Official" JR Rail agents - they may be accredited but you can get what you need much cheaper elsewhere from JTB Travel.

Date of experience: 19 December 2021

Staff at Japan rail offices were very helpful in arranging reservations.
We were concerned about baggage storage on the trains but this proved not to be an issue. There is space behind the last seats in each carriage on the major trains and if for some reason this is not available, there is plenty of room in the leg space as the seating space is very generous. There is lots of overhead storage room for luggage but his is not suitable for heavier bags, especially if you are short and need to lift heavy bags up to that space.
The pass was well accepted everywhere we went and we never had any queries about our use of the pass.

Date of experience: 04 December 2019

Excellent, would recommend to others.
The kindness and respect shown to us by the lovely Japanese people will never be forgotten.
Everybody and I mean ALL staff and ALL commuters were exceptional and went far and beyond helping us no matter what train station or platform we were on.
I wish more nations were like you !

Date of experience: 08 November 2019

I used my JR pass extensively - local trains and Shikensen (bullet trains). I highly recommend getting one, even if you have all your itinerary booked, because we squeezed a day trip to Kobe, because it was only 12 minutes by Shikensen from Osaka (where we were staying), even tho we didn't stay overnight. It gives you flexibility on the go, which is convenient.

Date of experience: 02 January 2020

Best thing we did was to purchase the Japan Rail pass before our holiday to Japan.

Travel on the Shinkansen Bullet Train and Narita Express was made very easy using the rail pass.

The only negative comment I can make is that the Japan Rail Pass cannot be used on ALL the Subway Trains in Tokyo so we had to run around looking where to buy the right subway tickets.

Date of experience: 02 July 2019

The trains are nice after you get on and the pass is a good deal economically. However customer service is not good and are very rude. We paid for 14 days and trains were canceled for 2 of those days. We received no reimbursement and they wouldn’t allow us to use the pass on the next train available for the airport when they finally resumed service because it had expired the day before when all the trains where canceled anyway.

Date of experience: 13 October 2019

Quite a big initial expense but can be good value for money if you want to cover a lot of Japan. Doesn't really allow you to get off the beaten path without paying for use of private railways. Easy and convenient to use. We were able to secure a reserved seat on every JR train we requested. Trains comfortable clean and fast.

Date of experience: 10 July 2019

The JR pass was super easy to use in a country where train travel can be tricky to navigate. In most cases we just showed out pass & walked straight through. On the odd occasion when out pass didn’t cover that station we just paid a little extra at the gate on the way out. My only area of improvement would be a trip planner which shows a trip option that just uses the JR.

Date of experience: 29 July 2019

I am very disappointed. When I purchased this railpass we were still able to travel. It was not a decision that I made freely to have to cancel my travel plans. So instead of charging us for cancellation, you should have looked at the government, as they took that decision out of our hands. I know other places gave 100% refund due to the situations - I myself would never deal through you again.

Date of experience: 14 May 2020

We just ordered Japan rail passes for our trip in January.
The tickets came super fast and the process was really easy. They have so much detailed information on their website it was really helpful when trying to plan out our trip.
I also love that it gives me the flexibility to change it if we make any last minute plans.
Highly recommend!!

Date of experience: 13 October 2022