Well, it took some time, but Capital One miles are now actually miles, assuming you take advantage of their new option to transfer them to airline partners.
Beginning in December, the credit card issuer will let Capital One cardholders transfer their miles to more than a dozen third-party airlines, with more carriers to come in 2019.
It’s all made possible thanks to the loyalty technology offered up by Ascenda called TransferConnect.
Which Capital One Cards Are Eligible for Miles Transfers?
- Spark Miles
- Spark Miles Select
- Venture
- VentureOne
There are four Capital One credit cards that will enjoy this new redemption functionality, including Venture and VentureOne, and Spark Miles and Spark Miles Select.
That means both those with personal and business credit cards from Capital One will be able to take advantage of this redemption option.
Airlines You Can Transfer Capital One Miles To
- Aeromexico
- Air Canada
- Air France
- Alitalia
- Avianca
- Cathay Pacific
- Emirates
- Etihad
- EVA Air
- Finnair
- Hainan
- KLM
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Singapore Airlines
There are currently 15 airlines participating in the points transfer program from Capital One, all of which are foreign airlines.
While there will be no cost to transfer miles to these frequent flyer programs, the ratio isn’t 1:1.
In other words, your Capital One miles won’t be worth the same as a mile with these carriers.
Instead, every two miles will be worth 1.5 miles in these programs. So if you transfer 20,000, they’ll only be worth 15,000.
However, if you consider the fact that some Capital One credit cards like Venture earn 2X miles on every purchase, it’s actually more favorable than it looks.
In reality, you’d be getting a value of 1.5 miles in these frequent flyer programs for every dollar spent on Venture.
So if any of those airlines appeal to you, it’s possible to rack up some frequent flyer miles pretty quickly if you can muster a lot of credit card spending.
Tip: Capital One mile transfers to Emirates are at an even worse ratio of 2:1, so keep that in mind if you have plans to fly that airline.
Capital One Venture 75K Offer
To sweeten the deal even more, Capital One is currently offering a higher-than-normal 75,000-point sign up bonus on Venture.
It’s typically 50,000 points, so you’re getting an additional 25,000 points if you can spend $5,000 in the first three months.
Additionally, they’re waiving the annual fee the first year, after which it’ll set you back $95 annually.
Venture also comes with the $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre, and there are no foreign transaction fees assessed.
The Truth’s Take
The addition of this new redemption option makes Capital One Venture a serious contender for the first time ever relative to Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Amex travel reward cards.
The only thing that’s missing is the airport lounge access, though for just $95 per year, you wouldn’t find that with the other guys either.
If you’re able to snag the 75,000 bonus it could be a great avenue to a lot of miles without having to worry about being locked out at Amex or Chase thanks to rules like 5/24.
The downside is that Capital One is also pretty stingy about doling out new approvals, and if you’ve opened a ton of other credit cards lately they might tell you to take a hike.
One other negative with Capital One is that they run a tri-merge credit report, meaning you get assigned a hard inquiry at all three credit bureaus.
Other credit card issuers typically only run your credit report with one of the three credit reporting bureaus, such as Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion, not all of them at once.
Still, just hitting just the minimum $5,000 in spend would net you 10,000 Capital One miles plus the bonus 75,000 miles, which when transferred to these airlines, would result in 63,750 airline miles. Not bad at all.
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