Rakuten is offering increased rates of 12x or more at a wide range of retailers for Black Friday. That includes Hyatt hotel reservations, Dell, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lululemon, and more.
The Deal
- Earn 12x or more at Rakuten for sites including:
- Hyatt (listed as World of Hyatt)
- Saks Fifth Avenue
- Dell
- Lululemon
- Homes & Villas by Marriott
- Best Western
- Viator
- Direct link to offer.
Key Terms
- Expiry date unknown (possibly November 28, 2025).
Quick Thoughts
12X is a solid return, particularly for Hyatt bookings. Up until a couple of days ago, no shopping portals had Hyatt’s website available for earning rewards. That changed when Capital One Shopping added them and now they’re on Rakuten too. Some – including myself – have been targeted for 15% cashback from Capital One Shopping. However, that cashback can only be redeemed for select retailer gift cards. As a result, I’d much rather earn 12x with Rakuten seeing as that can be earned as either Amex Membership Rewards or Bilt points.
Something important to be aware of with Hyatt bookings is that portal rewards are only valid on hotel bookings in the US, Canada, and Mexico with Rakuten. Capital One Shopping has a slightly different list of North America and the Caribbean.
As for other retailers, it’s useful having Dell, Lululemon, and Saks Fifth Avenue available at 12x if you have credits on the American Express Platinum Card® or The Business American Express Platinum Card® to redeem before the year’s end.
There are also lots of other travel sites available at 12x. That includes Homes & Villas by Marriott, Best Western, Viator, and lots more. Be sure to check the terms of the sites, especially if they say ‘up to’ 12x. ‘Up to’ wording means there are different earning levels depending on what booking activity you’re performing.
For example, Hotels.com is 12x, but only for hotels in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego; all other hotel bookings are 6x. Similarly, Vrbo is 12x right now, but only for bookings in Scottsdale, Kissimmee, and Gatlinburg; all other bookings are 6x.
It’s not clear when these rates will end, but they may well drop at some point on Black Friday (i.e. November 28). Rakuten is a little unusual because they seem to update earning rates at something like 6pm ET, so I wouldn’t wait until late in the evening on Friday in case they change before then.
Something else to bear in mind is that Cyber Monday is coming up which could mean even higher rates on Rakuten and/or other shopping portals. There’s no knowing if that’ll definitely be the case though, so it’s not unreasonable if you’re of the belief that 12x in the hand is worth 15x in the bush.
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i’m actually seeing 15% on these merchants