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There’s a new Amex Offer out this week that’s good for $40 back when you spend $200 or more at Viator. This seems to be targeted and enrollment is required, but I found it widely available on the cards in my household. An offer like this could make for a great stack with a good shopping portal rate.
The Deal
- A new Amex Offer is out that’s good for $40 back when you spend $200 or more in one or more purchases at Viator [targeted, enrollment required]
Key Terms
- Expires 6/1/24
Quick Thoughts
The terms state that you can spend $200 over one or more purchases at Viator, so this should work for making several separate bookings if you’re not intending to make a single larger booking.
While I’ve bemoaned the drawbacks of Viator before, I’ve also acknowledged that sometimes the ability to stack deals makes it too attractive to ignore. Shopping portal rates for Viator frequently hover around 10-12% back and I’ve had targeted rates of 20-30% back from Capital One Shopping numerous times. Stacking an offer like this with a portal payout of 10-30% can make for a really nice savings. In that same post where I talked about the drawbacks of Viator, I noted that it helped me save substantially on the F1 track driving experience in Abu Dhabi — and with an offer like this, something like that could become more affordable.
Earlier this week, I wrote about my stay at Santa Claus Holiday Village in December and I noted that many of the activities both on-site and off can be booked through third party booking platforms. If you were planning a trip like that where you may want to book a Northern Lights tour and other things like that, I could see this offer being particularly attractive.
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Unfortunately I am not targeted for this offer.
A brick for me on 3 cards.
None of my cards (5) have the offer. I used the offer last time I was targeted in January. And I think many of AMEX offers like these are “once in a lifetime or some period” offers. The same thing happens with NCL or RCL offers. I’ve used the offers before and since then, I’ve never been targeted again.
bummer. 0/12 on any of my cards and P2’s cards. I’ve used viator and tripadvisor (parent company of viator) a lot. yes, they’re just a middleman/3rd party but I only book with them if their price is cheaper/the same as booking directly with the company itself (which surprisingly, it is a lot of the time– especially after using discount codes(all over the internet), which can get you another 10-15% off) and then I can also use my CC and book on the chase in biz preferred (codes as travel, so 3x). combine that with a portal (often capital one shopping gives targeted 20-30% back after you “search around a bit”).
Note about using the capital one shopping portal: C1 will do everything in their power to try and NOT give you the cashback citing a myriad of excuses why your purchase didn’t qualify, so be prepared with multiple screenshots. And they’ll make you wait until 90 days after the trip/event is complete. I just cashed in on about $800 of cashback from C1 from excursions/nile river cruises I booked through viator/tripadvisor back in Nov for an Egypt trip. I checked each excursion with multiple different vendors and viator/tripadivsor was the same/cheaper plus the cash back from C1 made it even better (had to fight with them though–about 5-6 email exchanges until they had no more excuses b/c everyhing they cited as a reason why my purchase did not qualify, I was ready for). If you do your homework/research, it can save you money. If you just blindly book anything with viator/tripadvisor, you may not save $, because yes, there are many things on there that are overpriced and more expensive than booking directly with the vendor, but I can attest that isn’t always true.
Good reminder to search for those coupon codes!
Regarding your claim that “C1 will do everything in their power to try and NOT give you the cashback” — we get claims like this every now and then, and I have no doubt that sometimes things go wrong. On the flip side, I have literally earned and redeemed thousands of dollars (and not just one or two thousand dollars) in cash back from Capital One Shopping and only ever had 2 orders fail to track properly on their own (one that was for about $400, and they fixed it and credited me — the other was a situation where I clicked through from an older email offer for 27% back at Saks and I didn’t actually get the 27% back (which would have been like $10), but I knew I was gambling and I wasn’t too concerned about the seven bucks since my much bigger orders had all worked out fine).
I’m certainly not doubting that you’ve had trouble, I’m just saying that I don’t think it’s any sort of Capital One Shopping conspiracy to like try to deny you the cash back.
Haha–yes, I think I’ve just had bad luck with C1. I rarely ever have problems with Rakuten and when I do, a quick email to them fixes it immediately. TopCashBack will also sometimes not track, but generally they also will credit the purchase with one email.
C1 on the other hand, mostly tracks (not sure why sometimes it doesn’t, I’m pretty good about making sure I don’t click elsewhere, don’t have other extensions etc). When you do have to contact their customer service, it’s like pulling teeth. I’m glad you’ve not had any problems. I really had to fight them tooth & nail for ALL my Egypt viator/tripadvisor purchases (all of which tracked, btw) but they tried to deny them all, with some random Cacamamie excuses). My persistance did win, and they relented.
Most of the time, I’ll just go w/Rakuten, even if they payout is lower than C1, b/c I know I’ll rarely have a problem. however in this past case (my Egypt trip), the payouts were just way too good with C1, that I took the risk (in my case) and took copious screenshots as evidence.
Regarding the viator/tripadvisor coupon codes, beware of using those–C1 said using coupon codes “negates any ability to get rewards” on their portal! I fired back saying it was the C1 browser extension that autopopulated the coupon/discount codes. had to escalate that to a supervisor, but again, they did pay out.
Funny enough, I used a coupon code when I booked our helicopter tour of Iguazu Falls (during our Party of 5 trip) through Viator after clicking through from C1 Shopping. It tracked and paid out without issue.
That’s the exact kind of craziness that C1 has been giving me. simple stuff that should not be an issue, they make up all kinds of silly excuses not to pay out, but I’m glad you’ve not had any problems! I guess both Greg and I somehow have wronged C1 in previous lives…
I’ve paid zero attention to Viator, assuming (probably correctly) that it was basically a worthless middleman and I’d do better booking any travel purchases directly with the merchants. If I can get a 20% AMEX discount — that perhaps I can stack with another discount — would it be worth my time now trying to game it?
I linked to a post about the drawbacks where I explained that stacking stuff like this has worked out better than booking directly in a bunch of situations. And in the past, I’ve had targeted Capital One Shopping offers of 30% back — that is almost always better than the price booking directly even without a card-linked offer (though I’ve not gotten targeted with 30% back in a while and I’m also sure there are exceptions where you could do better booking directly).
So far, my family doesn’t seem targeted. A bit surprised, because I would think the algo would show we’re frequent travellers who’ve never used their services.
Thirty percent would certainly start getting interesting. Like I get more interested in Airbnb (especially overseas) when I can buy their gift cards on Amazon for 30% off with the various credit card “use a point” promos. I guess we’ll see if anyone can find a way to stack this 20% off with another discount.