FAQ: Capital One Miles

Amazing Redemptions with Capital One Venture Miles

Your Capital One miles are worth a lot more than you probably think.
For years, I only used the “Cover Travel Purchases” option when using my Capital One miles.
And there is nothing wrong with that!
BUT…. I’m here to show you how often times you can get way more value by transferring them….

To find the different options on how you could use your Capital One Venture miles, you’ll need to login to your account.
On that main page, you’ll find an image (like shown above). Once you click “View Rewards” that will open up a page that shows you the different options on how to use your miles.

If I were to click the box that says “Book a trip”, Capital One will let me know that with my 41,905 miles, I can book $419.05 of travel within their travel portal (see image below)….

But instead of clicking that box, I almost always click the box that says “Convert rewards”
Because, I know that if I TRANSFER my miles to Capital One’s transfer partners, I could probably get a way better redemption….

Why “Convert Rewards” is my Choice 99% of the Time

There are many different options on that page for how to use your miles. My favorite way is to select “Convert rewards”. This allows you to transfer. your miles to one of Capital One’s many transfer partners.

• Aeromexico – Club Premier
• Air Canada – Aeroplan®
• ALL – Accor Live Limitless
• Air France-KLM – Flying Blue
• Cathay
• Avianca LifeMiles
• British Airways Executive Club
• Choice Privileges® (US accounts)
• Emirates Skywards
• Etihad Airways – Etihad Guest
• Eva Air
• Finnair
• JetBlue
• Qantas
• Qatar
• Singapore Airlines – KrisFlyer
• TAP Miles&Go
• Turkish Airlines – Miles & Smiles
• Virgin Red
• Wyndham Rewards

Outsized Redemptions

In this example, you can transfer your Capital One Miles to Turkish Airlines to fly Istanbul to Chicago in business class (one way)…

Instead of paying $3534 for that flight!

Or book flights to Hawaii…
Phoenix to Maui (1 way) flying on American Airlines, but booked on British Airways.
16K Avios 1 way + $5.60. So for this flight, you’d need to transfer 17K Capital One miles to British Airways (must transfer in increments of 1K0

Here you can see, the SAME American Airlines flight is offered on British Airways for 16,000 Avios + $5.60.
Booking THIS flight on American Airlines costs 22,500 miles + $5.60

**Award flights vary. These are 3 examples I found when writing this post.

Tips for Finding Partner Award flights

If you find a flight on American, see if you can find the same award flight on British Airways or Qatar. 

If you find a flight on United, see if you can find the same award flight on Air Canada, Avianca LifeMiles, or Turkish Airlines.

If you find a flight on Delta, see if you can find the same flight on Virgin Atlantic. Or possibly Air France.

Before You Transfer Miles

Always find the exact flight you want to take BEFORE you transfer your miles.
If you are looking for ideas for good redemptions to economy in Europe, I’ve got you covered.
Looking for business class ideas? Here you go.

Step 1: You need to have an account with the transfer program you want to transfer to. In this example, we’ll be transferring to Flying Blue for a KLM flight. You’ll need to have a Flying Blue account before you can transfer. When setting up your account, make sure your name on the Flying Blue account and Capital One account match exactly.

Step 2: Find the program you want to transfer your miles to and hit “transfer miles” on the top right…

Step 3: A pop up box will appear asking you to enter your Flying Blue account number/info.

Step 4: From there you’ll enter the amount of miles you want transferred (rounded to nearest 1,000) and complete the transaction.

Step 5: You’ll go to your Flying Blue account to make sure the miles have transferred. It is usually instant but at times there can be delays. If you don’t see your miles right away try logging out and back in.

Step 6: Once you see your miles in your Flying Blue account, go to the KLM or Air France site and complete your booking.

Earning Capital One Venture Miles

It’s important to know a few things before you apply for Capital One cards

• You can only hold 2 Capital One cards at a time (seems to only apply to personal, non co-branded cards)
• The recommended time to wait between applying for card 1 and 2 is 6 months.
• Sign up for Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card – b/c then you only need to wait 6 months to be eligible for welcome offer on Capital One® Venture X Rewards Credit Card. If you sign up in reverse order, you’ll need to wait 48 months between welcome offers to be eligible.
• When you are applying for the Capital One Venture cards, before hitting the submit button on the application, it will tell you if you have a good chance of being approved or not, I love this feature

Capital One Venture Miles Earning Strategy

This is my personal strategy for earning Capital One Venture Miles.
I personally find them incredibly valuable (when transferring to transfer partners)

Card #1: Capital One® Venture X Rewards Credit Card
This is by far one of my top recommended cards. The sign up bonus is significant. The lounge access in generous. This card gives you primary car rental insurance. And the annual fee is basically wipes out by the generous benefits.
Looking ahead: I will always keep this card and continue to hold it even after the 1st year.

Card #2: Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card
This card has the same outstanding sign up bonus as the Venture X. For me, I would get this card solely for the generous sign up bonus and then downgrade to a $0 annual fee card.
Looking ahead: At the one year mark, I would downgrade this card to the $0 annual fee VentureOne Rewards card.

Going Forward: I would continue to use the Capital One® Venture X Rewards Credit Card for “everything else” purchases. What I mean by that is any purchase where I don’t have a card that gets me more than 2x per $1.