JR East Passes

I am more interested in using both JR East Tohoku Pass and JR East Niigata, Nagano Pass for 10 days instead of JR Pass. I want to know if JR East allow me to exchange them in Japan, if I were to buy them outside Japan. It will be great if I can use two passes for 10 days instead of JR Pass.

Any advice?

That�fs usually how it works. Exchange the voucher for the pass in country.

Thank you for your reply. Well, I guess i should have worded my initial post properly.

In any case, I asked the vendor and confirmed that I cannot use two JR East Passes in the span of 14 days. The restriction for JR East Pass (Niigata, Nagano or Tohoku) is that you can use '2nd' one after 14 days of the first one.

I hope this is clear for anyone who may be in the same situation as me.

Typically, you can use different passes concurrently. But you mention you have the passes - if you already have activated them, getting a refund is normally impossible. As for getting a refund, you need to do that at the place you bought them, same as an airline. If you buy an airplane ticket from an agency but then don't want it, the airline is not going to refund it. You need to go back to the agency.

OK I think one point you were making is clearer now. JR East has to exchange the voucher for the actual pass, which I think is what you were asking.
Nevertheless I've purchased multiple passes from JR West for example, and had no problem - let's say I get the JR Sanyo Sanin Northern Kyushu Pass for use between Kumamoto and Kansai. But in the middle I want to take a side trip to Tottori using the JR Sanin Okayama Area Pass - that is not an issue at all. But especially for JR West, if you get a pass in Japan they limit it to one pass per type per visit.

Ken,

I have been Japan three times. Before i put up my question, I did a extensive research on suitable combination of regional JR passes.

I agree with your comments but I must point out that there is unique arrangement and feature of this particular JR East Pass (Niigata, Nagano or Tohoku). JR West passes, you mentioned, do not have similar features and as a result, anyone can stack all passes in consecutive 14 days uses. This cannot be said the same for JR East Pass (Niigata, Nagano or Tohoku).

1. JR East Pass (Niigata, Nagano) and JR East Pass (Tohoku) are made of one pass. You have to choose one of two options on one pass - that is either Niigata, Nagano option or Tohoku option.
2. That pass allows you to use any 5 days - it need not to be consecutive uses - within 14 days.
3. JR East silently impose the restriction that you cannot stack both within 14 days but is allowed to use both within 28 days (14 days + 14 days). This was mentioned in a singular statement in a revamped JR East website. A careful reading will spot this statement. I asked because I was hoping to bypass this feature with any kind of act.

Finally, I really like to use both options because JR East Tohoku is cheaper than JR East-South Hokkaido or JR Tohoku-South Hokkaido Pass.

Thank you.