Kayak Cashback at Rakuten

Kayak on Rakuten: what to expect

Rakuten publishes a current cashback rate of 3% on qualifying Kayak orders. This is not the highest published rate for Kayak on the open market. BeFrugal is currently paying 3.98% on the same retailer, which is 0.98 percentage points higher per dollar of qualifying spend.

Rakuten (formerly Ebates) is the largest US cashback portal, with over 17 million members and partnerships with more than 3,500 stores. Members earn cashback by clicking through Rakuten before completing a purchase at a partner retailer. Rakuten's flagship feature is the quarterly Big Fat Check, which is mailed (or PayPal-deposited) once accumulated cashback exceeds the $5 minimum payout threshold. The browser extension automatically activates the highest available cashback rate at checkout, and the mobile app supports in-store cashback at select grocery and big-box partners.

Related reading on DealTrackr: the four-layer stacking method, Rakuten payout calendar, and how to file a missing-cashback claim.

Side-by-side: every portal's Kayak rate

Stacking the Rakuten rate with a Kayak code

Step one: open this page and copy the highest-value Kayak promo code from the deals section. Test the code in an incognito or private browsing window first if you are unsure whether it is single-use per account. Step two: log in to BeFrugal (the current highest-paying cashback portal for Kayak at 3.98%) and click the Kayak merchant tile to open a tracked session in a new browser tab. Do not use a different browser tab or refresh the Kayak site after the portal click - both actions can break tracking attribution. Step three: add your items to the cart, paste the promo code at checkout, and confirm that the discount line and the portal tracking pixel are both visible before placing the order (the portal extension typically displays a confirmation toast in the corner of the screen). Step four: pay with a cashback credit card that earns category bonus rewards on Kayak - cards in the major travel and grocery rewards categories typically pay 2-5% on Kayak-class spend on top of the portal cashback. Wait three to ten business days for cashback to post as 'pending' in your portal account, and seventy-five days from the order date for it to clear to a payable balance. The total discount on a correctly stacked Kayak order at the average current published code value plus 3.98% portal plus a 2% card is typically in the twenty-percent range, with peak holiday stacks regularly clearing thirty percent. If portal tracking fails to register within ten business days of the order, file a missing-cashback claim with BeFrugal using the order confirmation email and the timestamp of the portal click - in our experience claims filed within thirty days of the original order are paid in roughly four out of five attempts.

For the full list of currently verified Kayak codes, visit the Kayak deals page. For the longer-form Kayak stacking walk-through with a worked dollar-figure example, see the stacking guide.