Calculator Pricing in Green Car

I used the calculator to compare getting a 7 day JR pass in Green Car to buying individual tickets. However, the caluclator doesnt allow to upgrade the cost for Green Car.

Any ideas on this?

Thanks

I'd like to know the answer to this question myself. Meanwhile, along with some of the other route finders I have mainly been using JR West's timetable and route finder to quickly look up routings (and to see fares), because I like the way it works and because it covers nearly all of the trains I will be using on an upcoming trip. It will give you the price of an itinerary with green seats or regular seats. It actually does cover more than just JR West trains (for example, it does a good job for Kyushu and Shikoku), but isn't particularly great for JR East territory (although it still finds a lot of routes and fares). I used it to do my own calculations that determined that a 3-week nationwide green pass is without question the best option for me, for my next trip. I could have a fun trip with other transportation solutions, but the trip I have planned with the JR green pass is (for ME) the bee's knees... Of course, for some people, green-car travel is an extravagance that they can't seriously consider (or don't wish to), whether it is with a pass or with point-to-point tickets. At any rate, to this point I haven't found anything better than the JR West tool for finding green-car options and prices, recognizing that it isn't a perfect or total solution:
https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/timetable/

My sense is that if a pass calculator tells you that an ordinary pass will pay off for ordinary class travel, then probably a green pass will pay off for an itinerary where you are able to use green cars for most of the trains. But you have to be careful, because a lot of the limited express trains have no green cars, and some shinkansen trains have no green cars or only a very small number of green seats. You also need to remember that green cars always require reservations, which some people find onerous. (However, if you buy the pass from the official site, you can make, change, and cancel reservations online, which is not onerous.) Also, I booking seats for my upcoming trip using my three-week green pass (wheeee!) I found that some of the green cars had very few seats available even though I booked at the very earliest time I could (a month in advance, from 10 a.m. Japan time). It would be very annoying to pay for a green pass and then find a lot of the cars sold out when you went to book.

I haven't found anything simple that can tell you whether a green pass will pay off. But I will say that for some people the nationwide pass (green or ordinary) is still a good deal, and you definitely don't need to make long-distance trips constantly to get it to "pay off." (It was easier for me to get a three-week nationwide pass to pay off compared to point-to-point tickets, a one-week pass plus other solutions, or a two-nationwide pass (which was not a good solution at all). I was sorely tempted by some of the regional passes that let you ride the Nozomi and Mizuho trains, but in the end the plain old nationwide pass, which covers Tokyo to Osaka on the Tokaido shinkansen, was the best choice for me). I fully understand that for most people, none of the nationwide passes will save them money these days, and for many people any passes will be far more expensive than the alternatives.

I also use JR Cyber Station a lot. Its main function is to indicate seat availability on limited express and shinkansen trains, but what I use it for is mainly to identify limited express trains on short-distance urban runs (like Osaka Station to Shin-Osaka Station, Kyoto Station to Osaka Station, or Yokohama Station to Tokyo Station) and to identify trains that simply HAVE green cars, as well as to gauge the likelihood that I will be able to reserve a seat when the time comes. Once you understand the ins and outs of using it, and what it can and cannot do, it is a very valuable online resource.
https://www.jr.cyberstation.ne.jp/index_en.html

Thanks Kim.
The strategy continues!

Hyperdia
Navitime
Jourdan

There all offer options to select green pass to show ticket prices. Piece of paper and some maths. Problem solved.

My sense is that if a pass calculator tells you that an ordinary pass will pay off for ordinary class travel, then probably a green pass will pay off for an itinerary where you are able to use green cars for most of the trains.
I would agree with that - makes logical sense. You still need to travel long distances quickly to make the national pass provide savings, and you do suffer from slower trains, more transfers and fewer options in places.
Note the key point in the above is that you need to have green car seating for the majority of your trips/travels. Doing last minute changes travelling non-reserved, or where the green car is sold-out (Sakura to/from Hiroshima for instance with a tiny allocation of green seats, or Hayabusa trains north from Tokyo which also sell-out) could make the difference between saving a little and over-paying.
As for pricing, Navitime lists out the cost of the different seating options.

I don't know what I'm missing with Navitime. How do you find the pricing for green seats? I don't see it in any of the options, and when I get a search result it just shows the price for regular seating. Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong?

As for Jorudan, it seems to allow me to exclude Nozomi/Mizuho only if I have the paid version. As for Hyperdia, has it been miraculously resurrected or something? I wish....! I really miss it.

I just booked another ride on the Sakura (Kumamoto to Shin-Kobe), and this was for March 10 and there were only a few green seats left (three, I think it was. Sheesh.). I agree that if you were just barely breaking even on buying a green pass, you could very easily fall below the "break-even" point if you weren't very aggressive in booking early online as soon as allowed, and/or if you made later changes. And yes, there are other downsides of the JR pass. (On the other hand, there are also a number of benefits that are often overlooked or underutilized.) It has never been for "everyone," and it is even less so now.

Sometimes if JR tells you that a train is booked out (as the Hayabusa often is, all right; even the regular seats sometimes), you can get seats the entire way if you split the reservations into a couple of parts (so you might be able to get a seat from Sendai to Omiya and then a different seat from Omiya to Tokyo). I have done this once or twice in the past. But that type of monkey business is definitely not for the uninitiated. (And I think it is really only a viable strategy if you have a rail pass, not purchased tickets.) JR won't figure it out for you, they will just tell you that Sendai to Tokyo is sold out. (JR Cyberstation can be invaluable in this case, but only if you have some time to kill checking various options.)

@Kim, with Navitime, when you get the result and expand the route, you might see one line with the seat fee price (for example - non reserved), but a small grey down arrow next to it. When you click the arrow it expands the other seat pricing options.
Hyperdia returned without proper timetable information ages ago, but still includes prices.

Thanks, JCT! I don't know how I missed that, as I do often use Navitime. Maybe the times I looked at results in depth they were trains without green cars so I didn't see an arrow to click (or else I'm just blind and stupid, could be that, too...) I still kind of like the JR West route search, for the way it works and the options it offers. And no ads. But Navitime is my favorite alternative.

I knew that Hyperdia was online in its present form, but without the timetable information I find it to be essentially useless. I guess if all I wanted to do was look up fares it might be okay, but when I'm searching trains I always want to know the departure and arrival times.

A little off topic, but just people need to be a little careful using route planning sites as they do not always have exact departure and arrival times. Since JR started charging large sums for their timetables (the reason Hyperdia basically went off-line), I've noticed that the small changes JR makes each year are not always updated in the route searches. Usually it is only a few minutes, but if you are faced with a tight connection, that can make a difference, especially if travelling with luggage through a station you are not familiar with. I usually add time when connections get too tight (not always possible) and get a slightly different combination of trains (15 minutes is a lot nicer than 7 or 8 minutes). Knowing the/a second train is frequent can take a lot of stress out of those connections too.

My understanding is that Kotsu Shinbunsha rather than JR is selling the timetable information. And they have been asking for money for it for many years before Hyperdia stopped using the data. My understanding is that Hyperdia was previously exempt from paying the fee because of some reason (I suspect they were considered non-profit before), but that exception ended a few years ago.

Most of the reputable timetable websites will update their data promptly. However, often the complete timetable data is available for just 2-3 months in advance, so if you search for dates too far in the future (and the website allows you to do so), you may end up with some inaccurate results.

I'd add that there is some non-monetary value in the JR pass, when it comes to reducing the number of times you have to queue up to buy and reserve tickets, and the freedom to backtrack or take a quick extra journey without any extra cost.

Given the recent price hike, the pass isn't the no-brainer that it used to be, so this is what I would do:

Look at the green car prices for the main trips you are almost certain that you will do. If it comes within 5, maybe even 10k yen, then it will probably be a reasonable deal. If not, then enjoy the extra flexibility regarding what trains and classes you can use - always wanted to try Gran class, but the JR pass has prevented this from making any sense.

I've always been a bit puzzled by people stressing over not quite getting the 'value' from their JR pass. Poverty and debt are not in any way laughing matters, but if you are going to Japan from a far-away country, paying for the flights and accommodation, I would strongly suggest that it's most likely that you aren't bankrupt and should focus on having a fantastic time in a fantastic country. (Apologies if that opinion annoys anyone)

Be aware though that the green pass does mean that you have to reserve seats to get the benefit, so it is added cost for slightly more hassle, and even though I have always paid the extra, the standard seating is absolutely fine.