Internal Flights in Japan

[Snowy]

If anyone's visiting Japan and flying about inside the country. There's a great program called VISIT JAPAN, that turns $400USD seats one way per person, into about $60USD seats.

https://www.jal.co.jp/yokosojapan/
http://www.oneworld.com/flights/single-continent-fares/visit-japan

Am in the tail end of booking RRP $3000 flights for $500 in total. LOVE IT!

[Snowy]

(ANA have a similar program for the Star Alliance members FYI. I'm OneWorld aligned, so hence the JAL post)

[Snowy]

This works out to be time efficient (converting a 13 train ride into a 1.5hr flight), and is cheaper than a JR rail pass if travelling to many far away destinations and then travelling back a few days later.

JR is great for lots of day trips from a home base, but doesn't work out ahead if going from 1 side of the country to another.

http://www.hyperdia.com/en/ is a great planning too for trains to work out costs and timings vs the flights.

[louisbosco]

well one thing for sure. the unlimited option of the jr pass saved me when i left my wireless router in the hotel. it allowed me to get off at kyoto and head back to osaka to pick it up before continuing my journey to tokyo. i like the option of the unlimited rides the jr pass have, flights may be time efficient, but the hassle of airport security everytime i fly....   

[Snowy]

We get a combo of both,

JR is great for lots of day trips from a home base, but doesn't work out ahead if going from 1 side of the country to another.

Going from Tokyo to Sapporo on JR takes +10 hours instead of 1.5hr plane. To extend the JR pass another week costs around $180AUD/pp at the moment. Local train rides without the coverage on Suica only cost around $1/trip. We'll be activating our JR Passes in Hiroshima, and then bouncing around to Kyoto, Osaka, and back to Tokyo, perfect for those distance with speed, time etc.

Long distance, the link in this post works out well ahead of JR, in time and likely cost..

[Chiba J.]

And at the complete other end of the spectrum, there's the Juhachi Kippu. I once did a 24 hour train ride to Sapporo for about 20 bucks.