In December 2018 Capital One introduced a transferrable points currency, and today they’ve launched their first-ever transfer bonus with it.
Through 11:59PM EST on Sunday, March 24, 2019, Capital One is offering a 100% bonus when you transfer Capital One miles to Emirates Skywards. This means that Capital One miles will transfer to Emirates at a 1:1 ratio, rather than the typical 2:1 ratio.
Redeem miles for Emirates’ new 777-300ER first class
The significance of this transfer bonus
I’m a big fan of collecting transferrable points through credit card spend, since it gets you a lot of flexibility with your points, especially for premium cabin redemptions. While Capital One’s credit cards have long been popular, they haven’t offered transferrable points until a few months ago.
This is Capital One’s first-ever transfer bonus since introducing transferrable points. What makes me especially excited here is that Capital One has confirmed that they’ll be offering limited-time transfer bonuses as part of the program going forward. That’s excellent news.
Capital One’s transfer partners
For context, here are the Capital One transfer partners and ratios:
| Airlines | Hotels |
|---|---|
| Aeromexico Club Premier | Accor Live Limitless (ALL) |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Wyndham Rewards |
| Air France/KLM Flying Blue | |
| Alitalia MilleMiglia | |
| Avianca LifeMiles | |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | |
| Emirates Skywards | |
| Etihad Guest | |
| EVA Air Infinity MileageLands | |
| Finnair Plus | |
| Hainan Fortune Wings Club | |
| JetBlue TrueBlue | |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | |
| Qatar Airways Privilege Club | |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer |
You might notice that these aren’t 1:1, and that’s simply because Capital One cards have a different earnings structure than most cards. For example, both the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card and Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business earn unlimited 2x miles per dollar spent.
So with Capital One’s transfer partners, most points transfer at a 2:1.5 ratio, meaning that you’re essentially earning up to 1.5 points per dollar spent.
What makes this especially interesting is that Emirates is a partner that usually has a 2:1 ratio. This suggests to me that Capital One is typically paying more per mile to Emirates, which is a bit surprising, both because their miles aren’t that valuable, and also because partners like Amex also allow 1:1 transfers to Emirates.
Anyway, with this transfer bonus you’re converting one Capital One mile into one Emirates mile, so you’re earning up to two Emirates miles per dollar spent on your credit card. That’s potentially awesome, especially for non-bonused spend.
Redeem miles for Emirates’ A380 first class
The value of transferring miles to Emirates Skywards
While I love flying Emirates, the Skywards program as such isn’t among my favorites. They have high redemption rates, and they also impose surcharges on many flights.
In general the best use of Emirates miles is for upgrades, which can represent a good deal. So if I were to take advantage of this promotion, I’d try to do so with that in mind.
Redeem miles to upgrade to Emirates’ A380 business class
Bottom line
I was happy to see when Capital One introduced a transferrable points currency, and I’m even happier to see that they intend to offer transfer bonuses.
To me this is something I really appreciate about Amex Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou, while Chase Ultimate Rewards is the only one of the four currencies not offering these bonuses.
Personally I wouldn’t transfer miles to Emirates Skywards without a specific use in mind, though I look forward to seeing what future bonuses are like.
could you elaborate on using miles for upgrade on Emirates? Do you use them to upgrade a paid ticket? or an award ticket? How many miles? How is the availability of upgrades?