Fukuoka to Sapporo via JR Pass and/or Airplane

[Cor]

Hi! 

I am a tourist looking to visit Japan on January 31 to February 7. My ultimate destination is Sapporo but my entry and exit point is Fukuoka. I have done a bit of research but I still need to clarify a lot of things. I hope this forum will help me decide on which route to take. 

1) What is cheaper? 

A) 7-day JR pass (¥29,910) to be used from Fukuoka to Sapporo and vice versa 

B) 7-day JR pass (Fukuoka to Sapporo)  then airplane ¥9,800 (Sapporo to Fukuoka)

C) Regular train fare (No JR pass see question 3) FUK to SAP then airplane ¥9,800 (Sapporo to Fukuoka)

2) Is the JR Pass going to be accepted in the route specified in the attached picture? (Shinkansen Nozomi, Shinkansen Hayabusa, Ltd. Exp Hokuto)

3) Notice the ¥44,410 total fare in the attached picture? Is this the regular train fare? It's further broken down to FARE and SEAT FEE. Does this mean that if I don't reserve a seat, I only pay for the FARE which is at ¥23,000?

Thanks in advance!

[Michael Lambe]

Hi there,

The JR Pass is your cheapest option for that rail journey, but you cannot use the JR Pass on Nozomi and Mizuho shinkansen services, so you should work out a route that does not include those services. There are other shinkansen services you can use with the JR Pass for that journey, they just take a little longer.

If you don't have a JR Pass, there is always a seating fare, but it is cheaper if you have non-reserved seats. However, not all shinkansen services have non-reserved seats. On the Hayabusa service between Tokyo and Shin-Hakodate there is no non-reserved seating, so you have to pay for reserved seating for that part of your journey. However, if you have a JR Pass reserved seating is covered so it won't cost you any extra to reserve a seat on any of those trains.

If you exclude the Nozomi & Mizuho services then the journey between Hakata and Tokyo is going to cost you 21,810 yen without reserved seating and 22,130 yen with reserved seating. Traveling between Tokyo and Sapporo will then cost you 26,620 yen. So it would be at least 48.430 yen one way if you didn't have a rail pass.

I'm attaching a couple of screen shots that show first what trains you can use between Hakata and Tokyo, and then the fare between Tokyo and Sapporo.

Best wishes,

Michael

[Cor]

Thank you for your detailed answer, Michael. 

I have an additional question regarding plane ticket reservation on the SKYMARK website.

When typing in the boxes provided for passenger's Last Name and First Name for the ticket details and credit card details, the following error messages prompts respectively:

・Invalid characters in passenger (Adult1)’s First name. Your entry must be in single-byte alphanumeric characters.

・The Last Name of the credit card holder was entered incorrectly. (spaces, symbols and Full-width character is not allowed)Please enter in single byte alphabetical characters.

Let's say the complete name is: Ma. Theresa G. Tan

I am hesitating to omit 'Ma.' and 'G.' especially when the credit card holder name is being asked.

How should this be typed in correctly? I am not sure what single-byte alphabetical characters mean.