As you all know, JR East pass will have a price hike next month. (Note this is the pass for foreign passport resident, not the one for tourists-only.)
https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/pdf/press_20230802_regional_pass.pdf
You can buy them now with the current price until Sept 30th, but it will only let you reserve the travel within one month in the future, meaning you could only get until Oct 30th the latest.
BUT, if you buy them from Rakuten Travel Experiences, you get an e-voucher that is valid for 3 months, which you have to exchange with the pass at JR centre. Then the start date must be within 1 month from your pass exchange date.
So you effectively get 4-months grace period buying through this way! Good for people who plan for travel in the end of the year. (Sadly Tokyo Wide Pass is not being sold by rakuten, but Tohoku pass and other pass are)
https://experiences.travel.rakuten.com/experiences/24151
JR East Pass is one of the best thing for foreign resident here. So sad to see the price hike, oh well I had a lot of fun trip with it. Happy traveling!
6 comments
Still cheap, round trip to Aomori and the pass is paid
Tokyo wide pass increase hurts.
Thank you so much for this. A couple days ago I actually tried buying and saving it for December, which didn’t work. Did not know about the Rakuten method.
Thank you for the heads up and the Rakuten hack. You are a hero!
Thanks for this.
Do you know if the pass will also be eligible for Nozomi and Mizuho? As in buy now and redeem in October, technically new passes kick in so it should be allowed right?