UPDATE – Through December 1, 2022 Rakuten is offering a $40 sign up bonus. All you need to do is spend $40 to get $40, so it’s free money. Here is my invite link to sign up and get this promo. If you sign up without my link the bonus is only $10. https://www.rakuten.com/r/HOLLYC2147?eeid=4497
Shopping portals are one of the main ways I earn points and miles. Rakuten is advertised as a cash back shopping portal, and it is. You also have the option to earn American Express Membership Rewards Points instead of cash back and this is where the party really gets started. If a store is advertised as 10% cash back that means 10x Membership Rewards Points (MR points). You must have an American Express credit card that earns Membership Rewards points in order to earn them through Rakuten. That means that none of their airline or hotel credit cards qualify. To change to earning MR points you go to the upper right by your name and click on the down arrow and go to your account settings. There you can change your earnings to Membership Rewards Points instead of cash back. The screenshot below shows this.
Rakuten pays out quarterly, so my 26,745 points have all been earned just this quarter. I’m hoping to hit 45,000 points this quarter. With 45,000 MR points you can book a roundtrip flight to many cities in Europe or a one way business class flight off season. A business class flight is often $3,000 – $8000 roundtrip so this is an incredible deal. As far as domestic travel within the United States goes, you can often book flights for 12,000 – 40,000 points roundtrip. You can fly Delta by either transferring MR points to Delta directly or to Virgin Atlantic or Flying Blue and often they require less miles than Delta does and you will be on a Delta plane. You can transfer MR points to British Airways to fly American Airlines and sometimes book for less miles than American would charge.
There are always taxes and fees involved in award flights which is why my site is called “mostly” free travel. It’s usually the fuel surcharges that make the taxes and fees higher and the key to keeping costs down is to choose flights from the airlines who don’t charge fuel surcharges. International tickets have higher taxes and fees. Domestic taxes and fees are usually $5.60 each way. Staying away from London Heathrow is a good idea as they always have high taxes and fees.
If you would like to sign up for Rakuten, here is my invite link below. Through November 17, 2022 will get a $40 bonus after you spend $40. Rakuten will also pay me $40 per referral. Once you get hooked, you can start referring your friends too. 🙂
https://www.rakuten.com/r/HOLLYC2147?eeid=4497
If you would like to learn more about how to easily earn more points and miles from everyday spending check out this blog post of mine. http://14-ways-to-easily-earn-more-points-and-miles-for-travel
Leave a Reply