Super Bowl Cash Back Bonus - Earn $30 back on a $30 purchase, plus an additional 10% back - Using Rakuten to Earn Cash Back on Travel and Everyday Purchases

Rakuten is offering up some significant cash back bonuses for the Super Bowl well over their normal amounts on many sites. Some of the 10% cash back travel promo include, IHG, Hertz, Best Western, Samsonite, Sixt, Away, Hotels.com, Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia, and Groupon. All of these bonuses are at least 3x the standard cash back amounts.

Some other big retailers offering 10% cash back right now are Best Buy, DSW, Sephora, Ulta, Adidas, Gap, Bergdorf Goodman and many many more. Sales like this only happen a few times a year on Rakuten so take advantage ASAP.

Sign up for Rakuten via this link and receive $30 cash back on your first purchase of $30 or more via the portal. This offer is $20 more than the standard sign up bonus! This potentially means if you spend $40 at one of the 10% cash back stores, you can receive $34 cash back. This is a limited time deal,, so sign up ASAP to lock in the $30, as you have 90 days to spend $30 for the cash back.

Rakuten has been a favorite of ours for several years and we have earned over $1200 cash back, mostly on hotel bookings through Priceline. Instead of cash back you can also earn AMEX Membership Rewards if you are currently an AMEX card holder which is a great option to help build your rewards balance. There are retailers including clothing, electronics, auto parts, etc with 10% cash back right now as well, so if you were looking to make any online purchases, check to see if your retailer is on Rakutens site.

Using Rakuten to Earn Cash Back on Travel and Everyday Purchases

Sign up for Rakuten via this link and receive $30 cash back on your first purchase of $30 or more via the portal. This offer is $20 more than the standard sign up bonus. This is a limited time deal and is only valid until 9/30/22.

Rakuten has been a favorite of ours for several years and we have earned over $1200 cash back, mostly on hotel bookings through Priceline. Instead of cash back you can also earn AMEX Membership Rewards if you are currently an AMEX card holder which is a great option to help build your rewards balance. There are retailers including clothing, electronics, auto parts, etc with 10% cash back right now as well, so if you were looking to make any online purchases, check to see if your retailer is on Rakutens site.

Why you should ALWAYS book flights directly with airlines

If you take one piece of advise from this blog, please let it be this. ALWAYS book flights directly with airlines whenever possible. When looking for flights, I always search using Google Flights or for one way domestic flights I will sometimes search on Skiplagged, but when it comes to booking, I always book directly with the carrier I plan on flying.

If you book flights via a travel aggregator or 3rd party website, they ultimately become the party responsible for helping you with flight changes, cancellations, and rebooking. In the even you find yourself in a situation where you need to make a change or have any problems, I am sorry to say, I can almost guarantee you will not find a resolution to your problems. There are plenty of horror stories with people cancelling flights booked via a 3rd party and ultimately ending up with a trip credit that is essentially impossible to use. The worst part about this is, even if there is a simple issue such as a seat change or questions on fare rules, etc. the airline will be unable to help with anything and ultimately pass you back to the booking party. With the state of the airline industry in 2022, schedules constantly changing, fully booked flights, and a large amount of cancellations, there are just way too many things that can go wrong when not booking directly with an airline.

I can also say this from personal experience. When traveling to Europe in December, I found an incredible deal on a flight from Chicago to Copenhagen with a return flight from Athens over the holidays. Because SAS does not allow multi city bookings on its website and I was not getting the same price I was seeing over the phone, I was forced to book on Priceline. All was fine with the outbound flight to Copenhagen as well as the flight to Athens. Before leaving for the airport, both my wife and I took COVID tests for our return flight to the US. Well, as luck would have it, both were positive. After making arrangements with the hotel we were staying at to be able to quarantine, I immediately tried calling SAS and after sitting on hold for an hour was told there was nothing they could do to help me reschedule our return and was sent back to Priceline. After 5 back and forth calls and over 5 hours on hold, our flight had already departed and neither SAS or Priceline were able to help us other than to offer a refund of the remaining ticket balance which was around $200. The problem was, it was New Years Eve, there were very limited booking options from Greece back to the US, and one way flights were $3000+ per person. In the end I had to just accept the refund and find a way home. Luckily I was able to find a flight using AAdvantage miles from Paris. If I wouldn’t have had a large quantity of miles with AA, this simple issue would have wound up costing me over $6000. So please, heed my warning, and ALWAYS book directly with airlines.

FoundersCard - Our Favorite Non-Credit Card Travel Tool

One of our favorite non credit card travel tools in our wallet is our FoundersCard.

FoundersCard is a membership program designed for business owners and professionals that provides a wide range of discounts, status, and more on travel, business services, retail, and many other areas. With a price of $595 per year ($495 if you use our referral link FoundersCard) it certainly is not for everyone. If you are a small business owner or are a frequent traveler, you will almost certainly be able to find significant value from the card. A few of the most popular benefits are the card are Hilton Gold status which TPG values at $1255 and Caesars Diamond status which offers some incredible benefits like a $100 annual dinner credit at Caesars properties as well as the opportunity to book 3-5 free nights at the Atlantis in the Bahamas or 2 nights at Caesars Dubai. We recently used out Caesars Diamond status from our FoundersCard benefits to sign up for a status match to Carnival Cruise Lines and ended up receiving an offer a 12 day European cruise in a balcony room paying only taxes of $1,318. The current price to book would have been $4,216, netting almost $2900 in savings. There are plenty of other travel discounts on travel providers that can provide significant value as well.

Some of the small business benefits that can easily help the card pay for itself are $20K in fee free processing from Stripe, as well as discounts on Squarespace, up to 48% off UPS, etc.

If you sign up on our link, you can preview what is included in the membership without committing to a membership. Check it out today to see what you might be able to take advantage of!

FoundersCard if you use our link or referral code FCBRADLEY101, you can save $100 on your membership and get your first year for only $495.

This is not a paid advertisement, but fare game travel can receive referral points if you use our link to sign up for a FoundersCard membership. By using our referral link, it helps us to bring you more valuable content and reviews in the world of travel.

There has never been a better time to book a trip to Europe.

The travel industry was undoubtably upended during the pandemic. With a new surge in travel demand, especially domestically, rising fuel prices, and inflation, airfare has not been immune to massive price hikes. Flights that routinely would have been $250 round trip pre pandemic can now run $600-$900 or even more. Domestic deals are certainly more difficult to come by than they were in the past.

There is one sweet spot that still exists on fares right now and that is fares from the US to Europe. It is now routinely less expensive to fly from New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles to many destinations in Europe than it is to fly to many popular destinations in the US. With the Euro to Dollar exchange rate near historic lows, at par for the first time in 20 years, a European vacation becomes even more appealing and affordable.

Here are just a few examples of options for a 1 week trip to Europe

There are flights available in the next 6 months from New York City to Europe as low as $225 ROUND TRIP on full service airlines.

Flights available from Chicago to Europe in the next 6 months as low as $362.

An example of flights from LA to Europe in the next 6 months as low as $443 round trip.

With travel restrictions being lifted, no resting requirments on entry to the US, and the Euro near 20 year lows vs the dollar, you should consider making Europe your next travel destination in the next 6 months, because as history has shown in the past all of these factors will not be in alignment forever. Learn how to seach and book these flights here.