JR Pass purchase at official

Hi,

We are planning a JR pass for 7 days later this year. For the trips we are taking it will be worthwhile based on the costs v non-JR (Tokyo-Kyoto-Takayama-Tokyo, +/- day trips). We will be buying the Green car pass.

I'm trying to decide if it's worth the extra premium to purchase it direct from https://japanrailpass.net/en/.

On their website it says you can 'pick up the JR pass at a ticket office on arrival'.
Is this just the same JR Office that I'd go to if I purchased the JR Exchange order?

Reason for question: We arrive at Narita airport. Is it correct that there may be fair wait at the JR office there to change the Exchange order for the JR pass? If the JR pass order from the offical website means we can bypass the queue and save time it may be worthwhile for the extra premium of the price over the Exchange order? (And also the ability to receiver seats online in advance)

OR... if the collection of the JR pass with Exchange pass at Narita is not too much of wait I suppose it's better to save the money with the Exchange order? Presumably the JR Office staff can also help with reserving seats for all of our train journeys? (Our first train is to Kyoto immediately after arrival early morning into Narita)

Thanks



2. The other advantage is the ability to reserve seats online.

Yeah for the first time I recently bought a 7 day pass from the official website. The only reason I did so was so that I could do seat reservations, because there's a couple of trains I am planning to take to and from Winter festivals that are quite possibly going to be busy.

I have always bought from JTB or Kintetsu/HIS and before I was registered for both the English langauge JR East Reservations and Japanese langauge Ekinet websites and was able to do seat reservations (Ekinet allowed me to do nobinobi seat on Sunrise Izumo, and seat reservation on Tokaido Shinkansen) but JR have changed the rules since they started up their direct sales site. They have decide to try and "blackmail" customers into paying their higher price by blocking off seat reservations if you purchased the pass indirectly with one of the eligible Travel Agencies.

Last time in late November last year I still went with an agent and paid the cheaper price, but my friend and I did have to stand in between carriages on one train that got full booked out and reservation only with no unreserved seats (lucky we had Green passes).

I should make it clear that seat selections can still be done at JR East Reservations for JR East Regional passes booked on their website. I am not sure whether that includes regional passes booked indirectly.

Btw one good recent update for booking Japanese trains is that you can now book in English the Sunrise Izumo and Seto night trains on the JR West Odekake reservations website, including if you've bought or will buy a JR Pass, you can choose the option not to pay the base ticket which is covered by the pass.

Thanks for that info..
I�fm still after the answer to my main query about picking up the pre-booked JR pass

Both options need to be picked up at an office or service counter.

I am also planning to buy the JR West regional pass available 30 days before my trip as I am travelling cherry blossom season. How do I make reservations for trains prior to arriving in Japan and collecting the Pass? I went into the JR West reservations site but it required payment with credit card after choosing train/seat. How can I book train/ seat with JR West pass online? Thanks for your help.