CPH-Flyer

If you are all on the same booking, I would not worry too much JAL usually have seats blocked to manage these things.

The class J upgrade depends a lot on route, time of day, and whether you want to find seats for everyone. And how many that everyone is.

SpenceAlmighty

2 Adults and 2 Kids, edited my post as well - do you know if the OLCI works for seat selection?

JALPak

SpenceAlmighty

Boo - oh well just more motivation to get to the airport early - maximise my chances of getting that J class upgrade!

JALPak

Tokyoite

for lack of better wording, explorer pass tickets are at the lowest level of the ranking for JAL services. No OLCI, no seat selection, no changes, no standby to earlier flight, no online upgrades, all other fares get priority for class J and F upgrades etc.
You only get saphire and emerald benefits if you are actually an elite member.
So, expect nothing but the explorer pass flight you booked, and you will be fine!

dungeonlurker

JALPak

JALPak

Woodbinerich

Is the website not working at the moment?

I'm getting the following returned for any search I do.Thanks

Please confirm the following.

• Error: We apologize for the inconvenience. Please go to JAL HOME and try again.

flyinglan

One of the eligibility requirement for international ticket is that the itinerary must be on a single PNR. This is clearly stated in the Taiwan JAL website. Although it is not the case for at least the US website, has anyone run into issue for using multiple one way ticket to meet the JEP purchase requirement?

Antipode

I'm looking into using this for the first time for travel around Obon and don't want to risk waiting until ~60 days out to be able to book domestic award segments with Avios since availability is already slim, and the new JR Rail Pass rules make it so it can't be used anymore as a backup.

Am I right that you can still use the Explorer Pass even if you are in Japan as a Japanese national as long as you satisfy the round-trip ticket requirement from outside of Japan and have a foreign passport to prove residency there? You don't have to have entered Japan using the other passport, from what I can read from the T&Cs. At booking, should you enter the foreign passport info even if you will be in Japan with a Japanese passport, or should the Japanese passport info be entered and then show foreign identification at check-in?

DeathSlam

Both the JR Rail Pass and the JL Explorer pass are intended to facilitate tourism in Japan by non-Japanese nationals.
The rules for the rail pass allow non-resident Japanese nationals without dual nationality after ten years abroad with appropriate certification.
If you have dual nationality and book all travel under your foreign citizenship I'm not quite sure how they would class you as anything other than a foreign citizen, so both would presumably be available to you.
If you still keep Japanese citizenship then it is possibly against the spirit of the rules even if it is achievable.

Antipode

This is not exactly correct - the intention is to facilitate tourism in Japan by non-Japanese residents. The new JR Rail Pass rules do make it hard to do that even if you are not a resident of Japan because the documentation requirements are actually pretty tough (e.g. if you move around, even if you're never living in Japan during that 10 year period, that creates difficulties), but if the intention is to make it only available for non-Japanese nationals, they would not have those rules to begin with and just outright prevent Japanese passport holders from using it.

The rules for the Japan Explorer Pass clearly have the same intentions. Eligibility rule #1 is:
The question is what is acceptable as proof of residency outside of Japan. Does a foreign passport suffice, as it used to for the JR Rail Pass prior to the recent rule changes? I've e-mailed JAL but haven't received a response yet... and if there's a clear answer anywhere else, I'd like to book what I can (some of the flights I was looking at are already unavailable now).

rustykettel

I would think so. Look at Rule 4
Foreign passport seems to be sufficient. The second clause would seem to be broadly worded to include Japanese passport holders who are long term overseas residents and may only still hold a Japanese passport (or assuming that a Japanese national can only hold a single passport period). Do you have a driver's license or other government issued ID with your non-Japanese residence address on it? I would think that would be sufficient to show along with the foreign passport if needed.

If it were me, I'd buy the domestic ticket with my foreign passport information, show that at domestic check in with the international ticket, and leave the Japanese passport out of the domestic check-in unless asked for it or proof of legal entry (because your foreign passport doesn't have it).