Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. “All information about the American Express® Green Card and Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Credit Card have been collected independently by Amber on Points. American Express® Green Card and Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Credit Cards are no longer available through Amber on Points.”

When people think about earning points and miles, they usually focus on flights and hotels. But one of the most overlooked ways to earn rewards is on activities and excursions — especially through Viator when you stack it with the Rakuten shopping portal.

In Lisbon, we booked a Tuk Tuk tour. In Barcelona, we booked a perfume making class. We’ve done airport transfers and a kayaking adventure in San Diego. Instead of booking a cruise ship excursion for $$$ prices, we booked a zip lining adventure in Roatan. So many great uses!

If you’re already booking tours, transportation, or experiences on vacation, this is one of the easiest ways to earn cash back or points you can use for future travel — sometimes at very high rates.

In the last year, I think we’ve earned 30,000 American Express Membership Rewards® points on Viator activities that we booked through Rakuten!

👉 Use this referral link to earn even more – $50 cash back or 5,000 points!

Let’s break it all down.

Why Viator Is So Popular for Travel Activities

Viator is one of the most widely used platforms for booking travel experiences around the world. Travelers love it because:

• It offers activities in thousands of destinations
• Most bookings include free cancellation
• You can reserve everything from airport transfers to adventure tours
• Reviews are centralized and easy to compare
• My favorite – it allows me to see what popular things are to do in a city without a ton of research and companies have reviews so they seem “vetted” in some sort of a way

What Is Rakuten (and Why It’s So Powerful)?

Rakuten is an online shopping portal that rewards you for clicking through their links before making purchases at partner retailers — including Viator.

The magic of Rakuten is that it doesn’t just offer cash back.

You can choose to earn:

• Cash Back
• American Express Membership Rewards
• Bilt Rewards points 👉 SIGN UP HERE!

This means your Viator purchase can help you fund flights, hotel stays, or statement credits (if you choose cash back!)

Click here to learn all about earning Amex points with Rakuten. I’ll be honest – it’s going to require an American Express Membership Rewards earning card. I recommend the American Express® Gold Card (which you can later downgrade to a $0 fee card, and keep earning). And if you’re interested in earning Bilt points, check out this article.

And Rakuten is known for running very high portal bonuses, especially during:

• Black Friday/Cyber Monday
• Birthday Week (Mid May)
• Holiday weekends (think President’s Day, Labor Day, 4th Of July, you get the idea)

It’s not uncommon to see 10X-20X rewards during these promotional periods!

👉Pro Tip: I keep a running list of things to purchase (and vacation activities!) for my family and try to lump my shopping together when I know these promotional periods are likely to run!

How to Book Viator Activities Through Rakuten (Step-by-Step)

This part is key. Order matters.

Step 1: Check Rakuten First

Before booking anything on Viator, search for Viator in Rakuten and check the current payout rate. Again, it may be worth it to wait for a higher payout! Portal bonuses change frequently. If already, this feels like a lot for you, you can add the Rakuten plug in. Then, when you’re on a website, you’ll get a notification to opt in to Rakuten cash back. You can do this on your phone as well. Then no mental power is wasted. ✅

Step 2: Click Through Rakuten to Viator

Once you’re logged into Rakuten, click through their Viator link as shown above.

This step is essential.
If you go directly to Viator without clicking through Rakuten, you won’t earn rewards (unless you have installed the plugin and opt in that way).

👉Pro Tip: Clear cookies or shop from a “clean” browser that doesn’t have any other shopping portals installed on it. I once installed the AAdvantage Shopping portal on my Chrome browser only to find out that I would almost always be redirected to that one since it was installed!

Step 3: Book and Pay in Full

Best practice is to:

• Book your activity
• Pay in full at the time of booking

Partial payments or pay-later options can sometimes cause tracking issues. Ask me how I know.

Step 4: Complete the Activity

Here’s the part that surprises people:

Rakuten typically does not award points or cash back until after your activity is completed — not when you book.

This is normal. But if your activity is several months from now, I’d get in the habit of doing two things:

• Take a screenshot of the portal earn rate at the time of booking and save your confirmation email.
• Set a reminder on your phone to verify you received your rewards a week or two after you complete the activity.

This minimizes confusion on if you’re being paid out the correct amount. If you’re not paid out correctly, Rakuten has a missing cash back process that you can use. And for what it’s worth, I’ve always had great success using their missing cash back form.

Free Cancellation = A Huge Hidden Advantage

One of the best parts of using Viator with Rakuten is that most Viator activities offer free cancellation.

Why does this matter? Think of this:

• You booked an activity at 5x
• Rakuten later increases the payout to 10x or 20x

You can often cancel and rebook through Rakuten to earn more rewards — as long as you’re still within the cancellation window.

This is an underrated strategy to turbocharge your earning rate!

What Can You Book on Viator?

So what exactly should you be booking on Viator? Some of the best Viator bookings to stack with Rakuten include:

Transportation

• Airport transfers
• Hotel-to-hotel transportation
• Private drivers in international destinations

Food & Culture

• Food tours
• Cooking classes
• Food tasting tours
• Cultural walking tours

Water & Adventure

• Snorkeling trips
• Boat tours
• Kayaking
• ATV or zipline experiences

Sightseeing

• City tours
• Guided historical experiences
• Museum tickets
• Skip-the-line attractions

If you’re spending money on experiences anyway, you might as well earn rewards while doing it.

Why This Strategy Works So Well

This approach is powerful because it doesn’t require a new credit card and you’re earning rewards on spending you already planned. Plus these rewards can be redeemed flexibly as cash, Amex points or Bilt Points.

What To Watch Out For:

Viator is awesome. So is Rakuten. But there are a few things to keep in mind.

Sometimes companies will have tours on Viator at a higher price than booking direct with their own business. If you can easily find the tour operator name, it may be worth it to check if booking direct would be more beneficial.

Additionally, some local companies miss out on revenue from tourists when customers book through Viator. If shopping local is important, do a bit of research on which companies partner with Viator in your destination. Often you can find some on there!

Conclusion

Booking Viator activities through Rakuten is one of the simplest ways to earn meaningful rewards on travel experiences — especially during high portal bonus periods.

If you’re already booking excursions, transportation, or tours, this is a no-brainer strategy to layer into your points and miles plan.

And if you’re not checking portals before booking travel extras yet… this is your sign to start.

👉 Use this referral link to earn even more – $50 cash back or 5,000 points!

Cheering you on! – Team Amber