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💰 Get an easy $40 (or 4,000 points) from Rakuten
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So I have a deal for you. You spend $40 on just about anything you want, and then I give you $80 back. And you get to keep the thing you bought.
That sounds pretty sweet, right?
Well, that exact deal is actually on the table right now. Except I'm not the one giving you $80. As much as I would love to give you all $80, it would bankrupt me. Then I'd have to sell everything I own like my instant pot or my cat just to make ends meet.
Thankfully, I don't have to go bankrupt or sell my cat on craigslist for you to get free money.
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In case you need a refresher, Rakuten is a shopping portal that offers cashback for making purchases with hundreds of different retailers, including many travel sites.
I consider Rakuten to be an essential part of my travel hacking toolkit, because it gives me free money for the vast majority of travel purchases I make, in addition to my other random everyday purchases.
But there's a twist...
Rakuten also offers you the option to earn American Express Membership Rewards points instead of cashback. So for this signup offer, you could also choose to earn 4,000 points instead of $40. Since these points are worth about 2 cents each, that means you could get about $80 of value for your $40 purchase. So basically, they're paying you to shop. It's a dream come true for you shopaholics out there.
BUT WAIT, there's yet another twist (try to follow along).
Every retailer on Rakuten has its own cashback rate. Some stores have 1% cashback (or 1 MR point per dollar), while some have much, much higher rates.
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Until the end of the week, Rakuten is offering 10% cashback (or 10 MR points per dollar) at a number of travel websites including Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Travelocity, and many more.
Given this ridiculously high cashback rate, the variety of travel sites you can book with, AND the free $40 or 4,000 points, there has never been a better time to sign up for Rakuten, book some travel, and cash in. Here, I'll make it even easier for you 👇
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One more quick tip for you: if you install the Rakuten browser extension, you'll get a little popup every time you visit a site that partners with Rakuten. This means that you will barely have to do any work to make sure you're getting rewards and cashback as often as possible.
Oh, and by the way - this applies to anyone in the U.S. AND Canada (yay Canada).
Isn't it great when U.S. companies offer their service to Canadians as well? (maybe you can guess what I'm hinting at here 😏)
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✈️ Save 20% on Southwest flights (today only)
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Southwest is offering an incredible sale with an urgent deadline.
Until the end of the day today, October 20th, you can get a 20% discount on Southwest flights booked using points.
Here are the details:
- Travel must be booked by today using promo code SAVE20NOW
- Travel can take place through December 15th
- Offer is valid for both domestic and international travel
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This is a pretty sweet deal for anyone with upcoming travel plans. One thing to keep in mind is that there are some blackout dates around the time of Thanksgiving, and the offer is only good until December 15th. So sadly, you won't be able to use this to book any cheap holiday travel.
From a very quick search, I was able to find some insane deals for as little as around 1,800 points one-way.
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If you have any existing bookings with Southwest that fit into the dates of this promo, I'd recommend doing a quick search to see if you can cancel and rebook your trip for fewer points.
Make sure you book your flights by the end of the day today in order to take advantage of this offer.
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🐍 Snakes on a plane... literally
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When you hear the phrase "snakes on a plane" you probably think of the iconic 2006 movie starring Samuel L. Jackson.
Well, for better or worse, I'm about to change what you associate with that phrase.
Earlier this week a real live snake was found on board a Southwest flight from Tampa to Newark. Thankfully, the snake was only discovered as the plane was approaching the gate after landing. It was also a garter snake and wasn't venomous, which is pretty cool I guess.
Now if you're thinking this is the first time a snake has been found on board a plane, you'd be sorely, sorely mistaken my friend.
There have been a number of incidents in the past involving snakes on planes.
In February of this year, a snake was spotted on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Tawau on budget airline AirAsia.
The plane ended up diverting to a nearby airport after it was discovered that the snake didn't pay for its carry-on baggage. Just kidding, they definitely got rid of the snake.
I guess that's what you get for flying a budget airline where even the luxury of having no snakes in your seat will cost you extra:
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Anyway, my point is this: Sometimes, snakes are on planes.
Oh, were you expecting me to end the newsletter with some reassuring statistic about how rare this is and tell you not to worry? Sorry, not this time.
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That's gonna do it for today, folks. Those were a couple of pretty amazing deals, huh? 20% off of flights and tons of free cash is not a bad day at all.
Are you a fan of shopping portals like Rakuten? Do you have an unhealthy fear of snakes? Let me know by replying to this email or reaching out on social media.
Have a great day,
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