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- You can redeem Capital One miles at a fixed rate or transfer them to airline and hotel partners.
- Some partners are much better than others, and a few should be avoided because of poor value.
- Always compare how many miles you’d transfer with what you’d need to erase a paid travel purchase.
- Read Insider’s guide to the best rewards credit cards.
Historically, Capital One miles have been fixed-value rewards, with each mile worth 1 cent toward erasing travel purchases from your statement. A few years ago, Capital One introduced the option to transfer your miles to a variety of airline and hotel loyalty programs, and most recently improved the transfer ratio for almost all partners.
The ability to transfer your Capital One miles can potentially increase their value, depending on the partner and the specific award flight or hotel stay you book.
Read more: How to earn, redeem, and maximize Capital One miles
As with other transferable points programs, some Capital One partners are better than others. Before you transfer miles to a partner, always compare the number of Capital One miles you’ll need to transfer for an award to the cash cost of the ticket or room.
That’s because you can often spend fewer miles by redeeming them at a rate of 1 cent each to offset the purchase of paid travel – and it’s especially true nowadays when many routes and destinations are on sale.
While it’s certainly possible to get more than 1 cent per mile in value by transferring your miles and booking an award, that’s not always the case. You should also account for the fact that if you use Capital One miles at a fixed rate to pay for a flight or stay, you’ll also earn airline miles or hotel points from the ticket because it’s like you paid cash.
Occasionally Capital One offers transfer bonuses, so it’s worth keeping an eye out if there’s an award you want to book.
How to earn Capital One miles
You can earn Capital One miles from welcome bonuses and spending on several different Capital One credit cards, including:
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Capital One Venture Rewards card review | |
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Capital One VentureOne Rewards card review | ||
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Capital One Spark Miles for Business card review | ||
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Capital One miles do not expire as long as your card is open and in good standing. If you have more than one Capital One card that earns miles, you can combine your rewards, and it’s even possible to transfer miles to someone else (as long as they also have a Capital one miles-earning account).
The best airline transfer partners
Air Canada Aeroplan
Air Canada is a member of the Star Alliance, and in 2020 it revamped its Aeroplan award chart with several positive changes. One big improvement is that there are now no longer any carrier-based fuel surcharges.
Read more: How to earn, redeem, and maximize Air Canada Aeroplan points
That means you can book any Star Alliance airline (including United, Lufthansa, Turkish, Singapore Airlines, and Air Canada itself) and only pay the government taxes and fees. If you are booking a partner airline, there is a partner surcharge fee of 39 Canadian dollars that is assessed.
Air France-KLM Flying Blue
The Flying Blue program is one of the few programs that partners with all of the major transferable currencies (American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, and Capital One). This gives you flexibility, because if you don’t have enough points in a single program to transfer for an award flight, you can always top off your account from any of these programs.
Read more: How to earn, redeem, and maximize Chase Ultimate Rewards points
Flying Blue no longer publishes an award chart, but a one-way economy ticket from the US to Europe ranges from around 15,000 to 30,000 Flying Blue miles.
Flying Blue also includes fuel surcharges on most of their routes, which can add hundreds of dollars to the cost of a ticket, on top of the cost in miles. One good way to use your Flying Blue miles is through its monthly promo rewards, which can save 25 to 50% on the cost of an award ticket.
Avianca LifeMiles
Avianca is one of the largest airlines in South America and a member of the Star Alliance. That allows you to use LifeMiles to book on partners like SAS, United, and Ethiopian Airlines.
Avianca LifeMiles are easy to get as well. In addition to partnering with Capital One, Citi ThankYou, American Express Membership Rewards, and Marriott Bonvoy, Avianca regularly offers promotions for buying or transferring LifeMiles. You can often get a 150% bonus or more, which makes Avianca a good program to combine miles from different sources.
Avianca’s award chart divides the US into three separate regions based on geography. Flights within a region of the US only cost 7,500 LifeMiles, which can be a significant savings compared to booking award flights with other programs.
British Airways Executive Club
Even if you never set foot on a British Airways plane, the airline’s points – called Avios – can be very useful for booking flights on Oneworld alliance and other partner airlines, including American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
Read more: How to earn, redeem, and maximize British Airways Avios
Because British Airways has a distance-based award chart, you’ll find a number of sweet spots that can save you miles. Short-haul non-stop award flights can often cost fewer points compared to booking with other programs – for example, you can book domestic American Airlines flights under 651 miles in distance for only 7,500 Avios each way, or redeem 13,000 Avios for a one-way flight from the US West Coast to Hawaii on American or Alaska Airlines.
Keep in mind British Airways adds substantial fuel surcharges to most of its own flights (and many partner awards as well), which can erase much of the value you’ll get from redeeming Avios. Be sure to do the math before you book.
Singapore KrisFlyer
Singapore Airlines flies some routes with luxurious first-class Singapore Suites. Singapore usually opens up the most award space in Suites Class to those booking with KrisFlyer miles.
Another great usage of Singapore KrisFlyer miles is to fly from the mainland US to Hawaii. Using Singapore KrisFlyer miles, you can fly to Hawaii for as little as 11,500 miles, which is up to 34% cheaper than the 17,500 miles it costs using the miles of Singapore’s partner United Airlines.
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
Turkish Airlines’ frequent flyer program, Miles&Smiles, can be an excellent deal for booking flights on Turkish and on Star Alliance partners, like United Airlines, Austrian Airlines, SWISS, and Air Canada. In fact, Turkish offers one of the most lucrative award travel sweet spots around – just 7,500 miles one-way from the US mainland to Hawaii in United economy class, or 15,000 miles one-way in business class.
The carrier also offers relatively cheap pricing on flights between Europe and the US, Middle East, and Asia. Keep an eye out for award sales, because Turkish sometimes offers certain routes at a discount. If you need more Turkish Airlines miles, the program also partners with Citi ThankYou Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.
Good airline transfer partners
Etihad Guest
It is possible to find some very good deals using the Etihad Guest mileage program. Although Etihad Airways is not a member of any of the three largest airline alliances, they do have a number of partnerships with airlines around the world.
Two partnerships that may offer a good reason to transfer your Capital One miles are Czech Airways (Prague to Seoul in business class for 25,610 Etihad Guest miles) and Royal Air Maroc (New York-JFK to Casablanca for 22,000 miles in economy or 44,000 miles in business class).
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
Cathay Pacific belongs to the Oneworld airline alliance and has a distance-based award chart, so the number of Asia Miles required for an award ticket depends on the flown distance of the flight.
With the Asia Miles chart, it also costs fewer miles if you fly only Cathay Pacific than if you also fly with one of their Oneworld partners. For example, you can fly from Los Angeles to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific for only 30,000 Asia Miles in economy or 70,000 in business class.
JetBlue TrueBlue
Note: JetBlue will no longer be a Capital One transfer partner effective October 25, 2021
JetBlue offers a revenue-based frequent flyer program, which means that the cost of a ticket in TrueBlue miles is correlated to its cost in cash. The value of a TrueBlue point varies somewhat depending on the exact route and ticket, but on average, you can expect to get 1.4 cents per point.
With the 2:1.5 transfer ratio, you’ll probably end up needing the same amount of Capital One miles whether you transfer to TrueBlue and book an award ticket, or redeem your miles at a fixed rate for a paid flight. Just remember that if you book a cash ticket your flight will also earn TrueBlue miles.
Qantas Frequent Flyer
The Qantas award chart is distance-based, which means that you’re going to have your best deals on short flights with an expensive cash price. Flights less than 600 flown miles cost only 8,000 Qantas points in economy or 16,000 points in business class. This would cover a flight from Sydney to Melbourne, for example.
Read more: The best credit cards for American Airlines flyers
Because Qantas is a member of the Oneworld alliance, you can also use Qantas points to fly on short domestic flights on partner American Airlines.
Airline transfer partners that aren’t great value
Aeromexico Club Premier
The Aeromexico Club Premier program uses “kilometers” instead of miles. That means that the award chart is generally inflated by 1.6x when compared to other programs.
Capital One recently improved the transfer ratio from 2:1.5 to 1:1, but there’s still limited value here compared to other programs. American Express transfers to Aeromexico at a rate of 1:1.6, meaning that you’ll get more points than you do from a similar Capital One transfer.
Alitalia MilleMiglia
Alitalia has one of the shakiest financial situations of any world airline, which makes the Alitalia MilleMiglia program very unattractive. If you want to fly on Alitalia, you’re better off transferring to and using the miles of one of its SkyTeam partners.
Emirates Skywards
Emirates did recently reduce the astronomical fuel surcharges they charge on Skywards award tickets, but the award chart is still inflated compared to that of other airlines.
Emirates first-class cabins are among the best in the world, but it’s still a better idea to use miles from a different airline if you want to book it.
EVA Infinity MileageLands
One advantage of the EVA Infinity MileageLands award chart is that it does have an attractive stopover policy on award tickets. However, you’ll have to call in to book an award with a stopover.
Other than that, there’s not much of a reason to transfer your Capital One miles here. Plus, this is one of the only partners with a transfer ratio of less than 1:1.
Finnair Plus
The Finnair award chart charges 55,000 Finnair miles for a one-way economy ticket from North America to Europe. That’s twice what many other airlines charge, and is indicative of the poor value you’ll see with Finnair Plus miles. You’ll be better off transferring your Capital One miles to another partner.
TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go
For the average traveler, TAP Air Portugal is probably worth skipping – with a few exceptions.
The program does offer good pricing on its own award flights, particularly within Europe. You can also use TAP Miles&Go miles to book Star Alliance partner flights, and advanced award flyers may appreciate the airline’s generous stopover and routing rules.
Hotel transfer partners
With Capital One hotel transfer partners, even more so than with their airline partners, you’ll want to check on the cash price before transferring your Venture miles. You may find that you’re better off purchasing your stay with the hotel directly and using your Venture miles at a rate of 1 cent per mile than transferring your miles.
Accor Live Limitless
Rather than an award chart, Accor’s loyalty program offers a flat 40 euros off your bill for 2,000 Accor reward points. Remember that Capital One transfers to Accor at a rate of 2:1, so 4,000 Capital One miles would get you 40 euros off your bill.
You could also redeem the same number of Capital One miles for $40 off your bill at a rate of 1 cent per mile. Since 40 euros are currently worth more than $40, if you want to use Capital One miles to stay at an Accor hotel, transferring may be a better option.
Choice Hotels Choice Privileges
Choice Hotels might not be the first chain that comes to mind if you’re looking to book upscale properties, but that doesn’t mean the Choice Privileges program isn’t useful. With a wide variety of budget-friendly brands like Comfort Inn and Quality Inn, independent hotels under the Ascend Collection umbrella, and even all-inclusive resorts through its partnership with AMResorts, there are plenty of options for every style of traveler.
Choice Hotels award nights start at 6,000 points and (with a few exceptions, notably all-inclusive resorts) top out at 35,000 points. You can often find good deals using Choice points to book hotels in expensive European cities, or even off-the-beaten-path US locations where other chain hotels are few and far between. Choice Privileges is one of the most recent additions to Capital One’s partner lineup, and transfers should be live later in 2021.
Wyndham Rewards
Wyndham has three different award tiers, with hotels costing 7,500, 15,000, and 30,000 Wyndham Rewards points per night. Because of the 1:1 transfer ratio and the ability to use your Capital One miles to offset a paid stay at a rate of 1 cent per mile, those categories are equivalent to a cash price of $75, $150, or $300.
Read more: How to earn, redeem, and maximize Wyndham Rewards points
It is possible, but fairly unlikely, that you will find a Wyndham hotel stay for that high of a price.
How to transfer Capital One miles
Transferring your Capital One miles to airline and hotel transfer partners is a pretty straightforward process. Log on to your account, and navigate to your rewards account.
The option to transfer miles will open a pop-up window where you can enter your loyalty account information. You have to transfer a minimum of 1,000 Capital One miles, and then in 100-mile increments after that.
Many transfers are instant, though some partners may take a few days to transfer. Be careful to find available award seats or rooms before you make the transfer, because all airline and hotel transfers are one-way and irreversible.
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