My friend and I tapped our mobile suica cards in Osaka this morning, and started a 4 hour journey where we transferred lines once in Matsusaka to a local train bound for Owase. When we arrived at our destination, we could not use our mobile suica cards. We were able to pay for the journey from Matsusaka to Owase in cash, but were told we would have to return to Matsusaka to pay for our journey on the Kintetsu Line, which we do not have the time to do. Our mobile suica cards are still “open” from when we started our journey in Osaka. Does anyone have any advice for what we should do? Thank you very much.
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Congratulations, you have managed to do absolutely worst possible thing to do with a mobile Suica, though Matsusaka station layout really does not help in that regard.
IC cards are not covered on JR Central’s part of JR Kisei line from Matsusaka and Owase.
Your mobile Suicas are dead until either:
* a Kintentsu employee will fix it at a manned Kintetsu station;
* a JR East employee will have mercy on your poor souls and fix it at a JR station after you show appropriate amount of contrition.
That’s all assuming you have not actually tapped out at transfer gates at Matsusaka (if there are any there).
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Oh great. New fear unlocked
A similar thing happened to us with the physical cards. There’s some sort of issue if you somehow scan in with it but don’t scan out at your destination. We had to wait at a manned station for a staff member to ‘unlock’ it. Not knowing much Japanese, the staff member had no idea what we were asking in English but luckily a very kind person in the queue behind us was able to translate for us.
You just go to a manned station – explain what station you got on and on what date. Then what date you got off and where.
They will just believe you, charge your IC card and it’s fine.
I accidentally did not scan out at a station in Nagoya cause I was too close to the person in front of me.
When I went to use my card a week later, I got blocked, went to the gate. They asked had I gotten on at X station on such and such a date. I was like, Yes, and I got off here. They fixed it.
Another time, I got on at Nagoya Station, and got off at Juunikane (unmanned with no gate). I just told the people at Nagoya Station what happened when I went back and they fixed it.
It’s not a big deal
As others have said, there’s really not much to do other than to (A) return to Matsusaka and pay the fare or (B) beg someone at the JR station to help (although they probably won’t). I suppose you could also consider your mobile suica a complete loss, delete it, and restart with a new one (if there isn’t much money on it currently).
I’m assuming you took a Kintetsu Limited Express from Osaka to Matsusaka, tapped your suica at the gate in Osaka to cover the base fare, and either paid the limited express surcharge on the train or bought it ahead of time at the machine (surcharge only)? In the future (and for anyone else reading this), I normally recommend buying the full limited express ticket (base fare + limited express surcharge) before getting on the train. It avoids confusion like this. If you need to take a limited express train and are at all confused as to how ticketing or transferring along the way will work with a suica, just get a ticket to avoid worrying about it. In this case, if OP had had a full ticket, the Kintetsu fare would have been paid, and this would be easier to resolve.
Such happened in atami too (local line), atami-Nagoya is JR central, Tokyo-atami is JR east. So you can’t literally passing it.
Osaka is ICOCA dominant. We tried Suica but put some money into an ICOCA card. Further you head west Suica is usable again. WAS ABLE TO USE suica in in Hiroshima and even in Fukuoka.
Usually those stations (and I’m sure Matsusaka station does too) has signs telling you that the JR section is not in the IC area. However, they’re almost always in Japanese only so it’s understandable that you missed it.
Is there anything to prevent that? I just use a suica card in Tokyo region. Is there an app so you can plan everything?
A separated ticket is required when crossing IC card areas
It is not possible to travel outside IC card areas. Both, the origin and destination stations have to be located inside the IC card coverage area. Furthermore, it is not possible to use an IC card to travel between disjoined IC card areas. For example, you cannot use it to travel between Tokyo (Suica area) and Numazu (TOICA area), even if they are just nearby. You will possibly get jammed inside the gate.
Hey there! It sounds like you’re in a bit of a bind. Unfortunately, I don’t have any personal experience with mobile suica cards, but I would suggest reaching out to the company or transportation authority that manages them. They might be able to help you resolve the issue over the phone or provide alternative options for payment. Good luck!