Last December Capital One introduced a transferrable points currency for their Venture and Spark products, which was an exciting development.
The Venture and Spark cards were previously useful for earning rewards that could be redeemed as cash towards a travel purchase, though the miles can now be transferred to airlines as well.
I’ve been impressed that Capital One has continued to improve the program since introducing it. We’ve seen them add more transfer partners, and have also seen them offer useful transfer bonuses.
As a reminder, Capital One currently has 15 transfer partners:
| Transfer Partner | Transfer Ratio |
|---|---|
| Aeromexico (Club Premier) | 2 : 1.5 | 1000 : 750 |
| Air Canada (Aeroplan) | 2 : 1.5 | 1000 : 750 |
| Air France KLM (Flying Blue) | 2 : 1.5 | 1000 : 750 |
| Alitalia (MilleMiglia Program) | 2 : 1.5 | 1000 : 750 |
| Avianca (LifeMiles) | 2 : 1.5 | 1000 : 750 |
| Cathay Pacific (Asia Miles) | 2 : 1.5 | 1000 : 750 |
| Emirates (Emirates Skywards) | 2 : 1 | 1000 : 500 |
| Etihad Airways (Etihad Guest) | 2 : 1.5 | 1000 : 750 |
| EVA Air (Infinity MileageLands) | 2 : 1.5 | 1000 : 750 |
| Finnair (Finnair Plus) | 2 : 1.5 | 1000 : 750 |
| Hainan Airlines (Fortune Wings Club) | 2 : 1.5 | 1000 : 750 |
| JetBlue (JetBlue TrueBlue) | 2 : 1 | 1000 : 500 |
| Qantas (Qantas Frequent Flyer) | 2 : 1.5 | 1000 : 750 |
| Qatar Airways (Privilege Club) | 2 : 1.5 | 1000 : 750 |
| Singapore Airlines (KrisFlyer) | 2 : 1 | 1000 : 500 |
New Capital One Transfer Bonus To Flying Blue
Capital One has just launched their sixth transfer bonus of the year. Between November 1 and 11:59PM ET on November 30, 2019, Capital One is offering a 20% bonus on points transfers to Air France-KLM Flying Blue.
Here’s how transferring Capital One miles to airline partners works.
Capital One miles normally transfer to Flying Blue at a 2,000:1,500 ratio. This is as good as Capital One transfer ratios get, and miles generally transfer instantly.
That means that with this promotion you can convert Capital One miles into Flying Blue miles at a 2,000:1,800 ratio, which is 1:1. That’s solid.
Should You Transfer Miles To Flying Blue?
Flying Blue nowadays has dynamic award pricing and roughly distance based award pricing. While I wouldn’t say it’s one of my favorite frequent flyer programs, it is one that I get quite a bit of use out of.
Over the past year or so I’ve transferred hundreds of thousands of Amex points to Flying Blue, in some cases without transfer bonuses. Flying Blue Promo Awards can be a great value, though there are lots of great uses beyond that.
One of the advantages of Flying Blue is that they make more Air France and KLM award seats available to members of their own program than to members of partner programs. So even when their pricing isn’t the best, there are situations where it could make sense to book through them.
Redeem miles for KLM’s 787 business class
Over the past year I’ve transferred hundreds of thousands of points to Flying Blue. To give a sense of some of the tickets I’ve booked:
- I redeemed 52,000 Flying Blue miles for a one-way Air France business class ticket from Miami to Paris (plus carrier imposed surcharges)
- I redeemed 72,000 Flying Blue miles for a one-way Air Europa business class ticket from London to Madrid to Miami (without carrier imposed surcharges)
- I redeemed 85,000 Flying Blue miles for a one-way Air France business class ticket from Miami to Paris to Male (plus carrier imposed surcharges)
- I redeemed 97,500 Flying Blue miles for a one-way Air France and Middle East Airlines business class ticket from Detroit to Paris to Beirut (plus carrier imposed surcharges)
Redeem miles for Air France’s 777 business class
The Best Capital One Credit Cards
If you’re looking for the best credit cards from Capital One, the good news is that they have some great options:
- The Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card is the best personal credit card:
- It offers a welcome bonus of 50,000 Venture miles
- It earns 2x Venture miles per dollar spent
- It has a reasonable $95 annual fee that’s waived for the first year
- The Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business is the best business credit card:
- It is currently offering a limited-time welcome bonus of up to 200,000 Spark miles — 50,000 bonus miles when you spend $5,000 in the first three months, and an additional 150,000 bonus miles when you spend $50,000 in the first six months of your account opening
- It earns 2x Spark miles per dollar spent
- It has a reasonable $95 annual fee that’s waived for the first year
Capital One Transfer Bonus Summary
This is Capital One’s sixth transfer bonus in the short time that they’ve had a transferrable points currency, which is really impressive.
Air France-KLM Flying Blue is transfer partners with Amex, Capital One, Chase, and Citi, so there are lots of ways to earn points with them. If you are going to transfer points to Air France-KLM, you might as well take advantage of a transfer bonus. Do note that through November 30 Amex also has a transfer bonus to Flying Blue, and it’s even better, as they’re offering 25%.
Do you plan on transferring Capital One miles to Flying Blue with a 20% bonus?
1) You mention 1:1 in the post, but that’s not true, it’s a bit worse
2) Thanks for the alert, I transferred over some miles. Will spend a bit more on Capital One over the next few weeks and transfer over again on 11/30.
Yesterday, as it happened, I contacted Capital One and asked to transfer all my available points to AeroMexico. I was told in no uncertain terms that Capital One “does not simply transfer points to airline miles.”
After a while I just gave up. I may have just had rotten luck (the village idiot on a bad day?) but it was all so assertively unpleasant that I have not yet tried again.
Your article gives me courage.
Thanks.