Rakuten's Big Deal Reveal, Black Friday in July Edition, ran July 14 to 18, 2026: one deal a day, from Under Armour 20% on the 14th to Skechers 25% on the final day. This roundup recaps the full calendar plus the 36 elevated stores, Travel Week promos (through July 20), a $275 card-application bounty, and the points transfer deadlines that overlapped. Event ended July 18; recapped July 19, 2026.
Our tracker watches cash back rates at 220 stores on Rakuten. On a normal day, a handful are elevated. During the week of July 14, 2026, 36 of them jumped at once, several at five to ten times their usual rate. Nobody calls it this officially, but that pattern has a name: Black Friday in July. Mid-month is when retailers counter-program each other's summer sales, and the portals ride along.
Every number below was pulled from our tracker and checked July 14, 2026. One note before the list: this event ran July 14 to 18, and the daily deals below were one-day offers by design, each live for a single day. The other elevated rates have since dropped. This is the after-the-fact recap, so if a store page shows its normal rate now, that window has closed.
Rakuten's own announcement called it the Big Deal Reveal: Black Friday in July Edition, which ran July 14 to 18 with one big deal per day, each live for one day only:
| Date | Store | Cash back |
|---|---|---|
| July 14 | Under Armour | 20% (ended) |
| July 15 | StubHub | 12% (ended) (the Sapphire Reserve credit stack: $200 in tickets for $26, or ~$16 with the Paze offers) |
| July 16 | Lands' End | 18% (ended) |
| July 17 | Bluemercury | 20% (ended) |
| July 18 | Skechers | 25% (ended) |
Skechers 25% on July 18 was the biggest single rate of the whole week and the final deal. Alongside the daily reveals, the travel category ran its own Travel Week promos, covered below.
Usually 3%. It ran one day only on July 18, the final deal of the week. A $100 pair of sneakers handed you $25 back, more than eight times a normal day. The portal rate paid on the price you actually paid, so anything already marked down counted at the sale price.
Every earlier deal, from Under Armour on July 14 through Bluemercury on July 17, had already ended by then. Skechers 25% was the biggest single rate of the whole event and the last Big Deal Reveal.
| Store | Event rate | Usually |
|---|---|---|
| Expedia | Up to 10% | 3% |
| SIXT rent the car | 10% | 4% |
| Booking.com | Up to 8% | 4% |
| Priceline | Up to 8% | 4% |
| Viator | 8% | 2% |
| Hotels.com | Up to 6% | 1% |
| Vrbo | Up to 6% | 1% |
| IHG Hotels & Resorts | 6% | 3% |
| Agoda | Up to 6% | 3% |
| Hertz | 5% | 2.5% |
Rakuten branded this cluster itself: the travel category page ran a "Travel Week" event (July 14 to 20), with store sales layered on top of the elevated rates. SIXT ran up to 15% off while paying 10% back, Booking.com had 15% or more off select stays plus the up to 8%, and IHG's mid-month sale was up to 15% off selected hotels with 6% back. Sale price first, cash back on top. That is the real double dip. Travel Week ran through July 20, one day past the daily reveals.
Two more items sat on the event page that beat most of the rate bumps:
Hotels.com and Vrbo at six times their normal rate were the quiet standouts. One honest caveat on this whole table: booking hotels through an online travel agency usually means no elite night credits and no status recognition. If you have status with a chain, price that in before chasing a portal rate.
During the event week, the rest of the board looked like this. Groupon 12% (usually 2%). Dermstore 10% (3%). The entire eyewear cluster moved together: Ray-Ban, Oakley, Sunglass Hut, and LensCrafters all at up to 8%, from 4%. iHerb 8% (2%). Macy's 4% (2%). Staples 4% (2%). And the oddball prize: Magazines.com at 40%, if you are the one person still buying magazine subscriptions, congratulations.
Three transfer bonuses in our tracker overlapped the event window:
The standing rule for all three: transfers are one way. Have the award in mind first.
No. That is the whole trick of a sale week. 20% back on something you were not going to buy is still 80% out the door. The right way to read this list: check it against what was already on your list, collect the elevated rate on those, and close the tab. The same logic applies to airline sales. See our breakdown of a recent Southwest fare sale for when the discount actually beats booking with points.
Retailers do not publish their reasons, and we only report what we can verify: 36 simultaneous elevations across one portal on one July day, when a normal day shows a handful. Whatever is driving it upstream, the pattern shows up every mid-July, and it rarely lasts the week. Airlines run their own version of the same pattern. See our coverage of Southwest's "Week of WOW" sale with code FLYWOW for a recent example.
Board-wide rates verified July 14, 2026 via our 220-store rakuten.com rate tracker; each daily deal was re-checked the morning it ran (Skechers at 25% confirmed the morning of July 18). This event ran July 14 to 18 and has ended; the daily rates have since reverted (final sweep July 19, 2026). Transfer bonuses come from our transfer-partner tracker. Transfer bonus details for Amex and Citi programs display inside each issuer's transfer portal.