I had a business trip to Hyogo Prefecture this weekend, and since it was a good opportunity, I decided to stop by the family home in Nagoya. So I went to buy tickets.
A senior colleague told me that routes over 601 km qualify for a round-trip discount — so I decided to try it out.
As I’ve written out in detail below, I managed to buy tickets quite cheaply. And round-trip tickets can even be purchased at ticket machines.
Route: Tokyo → Nagoya → Nishi-Akashi → Tokyo. To get the best price on this, I used two JR rules and Express Reservation:
- 途中下車 (mid-journey stop): applies for distances over 101 km
http://www.jr-odekake.net/guide/info_2a.html#3 - Round-trip discount: applies for distances over 601 km
http://www.jr-odekake.net/guide/info_2a.html#4 - Express reservation (EX):
http://expy.jp/
Without any discounts, paying in cash:
Total: ¥35,050
- Tokyo → Nagoya: ¥10,980 (base fare ¥6,090, reserved seat ¥4,890)
- Nagoya → Nishi-Akashi: ¥8,570 (base fare ¥4,310, reserved seat ¥4,260)
- Nishi-Akashi → Tokyo: ¥15,500 (base fare ¥9,350, reserved seat ¥6,150)
Using Express Reservation for e-tickets, purchasing the round-trip discount fare, and using the mid-journey stop at Nagoya:
Total: ¥28,520
- Tokyo ↔ Nishi-Akashi round-trip discount fare:
Standard ¥9,350 × 0.9 (10% off) = ¥8,415 → round up to ¥8,420
¥8,420 × 2 (outbound and return) = ¥16,840 - Tokyo → Nagoya express ticket: ¥3,940
- Nagoya → Nishi-Akashi express ticket: ¥2,870
- Nishi-Akashi → Tokyo express ticket: ¥4,870
I’d never known about mid-journey stops before, so I hadn’t been using the round-trip discount. The 10% off base fare and not having to pay the initial boarding fee again makes a significant difference.
And mid-journey stops are automatically recognized at the ticket gates — the ticket comes back out, and at Nagoya Station there’s no need to notify a staff member. Those ticket machines are more capable than they look.
Learning to buy tickets correctly can save quite a bit. I want to build up proper knowledge about this going forward.
And with mid-journey stops, you can break the journey as many times as you want (as long as you keep moving forward). Stopping off in Kyoto along the way becomes easy.