(EXPIRED) 21% back at Viator (but you might do much better)

TopCashBack has 21% back at Viator today, which can stack with some other current discounts — but that might not be the best you can do. I should note that I am not a Viator fan, but I am a fan of saving money, so I’ve still booked some things with Viator lately. The TopCashBack offer is pretty good, but you might do even better (and also stack with a couple of other offers).

The Deal

• TopCashBack is offering 21% back at Viator today
• Capital One Shopping has had an off-and-on offer for 30% back at Viator (I’ve had this offer several times this week)
• Note that there also also current stacking deals from Citi Merchant Offers and American Airlines SimplyMiles. See this post for more detail.
• Direct link to this deal

Key Terms

• Terms at TopCashBack indicate that cash back is not valid if you’ve used a discount code
• Note that when clicking through Capital One Shopping, it has automatically populated a coupon code that I’ve used and I’ve received notification that my orders have tracked. YMMV.

Quick Thoughts

As noted at the top, I have no big love for Viator. A few years ago, I learned that a vendor can cancel your tour at the last minute and increase the price and Viator won’t do anything to honor your booking (and many readers let me know that the tour operator probably did that because Viator instituted a no-notice fee increase on vendors….I don’t like that customers got caught in the crossfire). In many cases, you can probably book directly with a vendor for less — except when you look at some of the big stacking opportunities.

At 21% back, I think this is the highest public rate we’ve seen for cash back at Viator. If you have the current Citi Offer for $20 back on $150 or more and the SimplyMiles offer for 435 miles/loyalty points with a purchase of $150 or more, you can stack a notable deal that might just beat the best you’d do booking direct (for example, a $150 activity would cost you a net  $98.50 and you’d also get 435 American Airlines miles / Loyalty points if you’re able to stack everything.

However, before you click through TopCashBack, you should definitely log in and check Capital One Shopping. And when I say “check”, I mean “check carefully”. Don’t just pop a word in the search box. That won’t do it. Capital One has frequently been targeting me with 30% back at Viator, but they don’t make it easy to see.

For example, I took the screen shot below literally yesterday. When I go to Capital One Shopping and click “filters” to choose a merchant to which to filter and I picked “Viator”, this is exactly what I saw:

As you can see above, there was a “Limited Time Event” that was an “Exclusive rate for next 3 days” that was 5.5% back (the top button). The middle offer was to save 10% or 12% on orders $250+ at Viator with a button to get 5.5% back. And then that third button says “Get 30% back”. Guess what? Clicking that third button indeed offers 30% back. How do I know? I’ve used it several times this week (and yes, it has tracked).

But wait — it gets better. Not only does the 30% button lead to 30% back (I got a pop-up from the Capital One Shopping extension during the checkout process to “Activate” the 30% back after clicking through that link), but it also prefills the coupon code from the “Save 10% or save 12% offer”. That code was CAPITALONESPECIAL. I don’t know if it still works, but it took 12% off on a couple of bookings I made that were more than $250 and it took 10% off of a smaller booking. Yes, the 30% tracked with the coupon code used.

As I said, that 30% offer has been coming and going for me over the past couple of weeks — I’ll see 30% for a few days and then not see 30% (it’s gone for me today but I had it the couple of days before that) and then it has been coming back after a day or two. Since Viator offers free cancellation on most activities up to 24hrs in advance, you could book today through TopCashBack at 21% back and if you later get targeted for something better with Capital One, you could change it. The cancellation policy is also what made it reasonable for me to book a couple of activities a few nights ago while my wife was asleep — there was no need to wake her up and ask if she wanted to book X, Y, or Z, I could just book and we could talk about it in the morning since the activities were far out.

Note that in either case (TopCashBack or Capital One), I wouldn’t expect to actually receive the payout until sometime after the activity is completed (probably quite a while after as is typically the case for shopping portals). However, I have successfully received cash back for a Viator booking before.

Again, I’m not a Viator fanboy by any stretch, but you’re getting darn near half off at the $250 mark (12% off the activity drops it to $220, 30% back from Capital One Shopping is $66, and you could get $20 back if you had the Citi offer for a “net” total of $134 for a $250 activity + 435 American Airlines miles. Remember it is possible to stack that because you don’t even need to have a Capital One card to use Capital One Shopping — you can click through and pay with your Citi card (or whatever card you want to use). At that kind of discount, I’ve found booking some things through Viator to be a very good deal.

Just beware that the easy cancellation policy cuts both ways.

Overall, solid deals here for those looking to book tours and activities.

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