Capital One has just made some fantastic changes to its mileage transfer program, which follow other positive changes earlier this year. In light of that, I wanted to share my updated valuation of Capital One miles.
Continue reading: How Much Are Capital One Miles Worth Now?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Comes down to 3 things in my mind. (1) Depth/breadth of partners; (2) how often the partners are on promotion to make the miles even more valuable and (3) stability of the program
On that basis, my ranking in order of best are:
1 - Amex - breadth and promotions
2 - Chase - breadth + Hyatt and some promotions
3 - CapitalOne - breadth, upside/downside it will change again
4 - Citi - due to limited partners, though AA a boost (maybe only temp)
With this step up to 1:1 transfers and their first Capital One Lounge opening soon at DFW, maybe a new premium card is inevitable. Hmmm, maybe I hold off applying.
Your statement "They could be redeemed for one cent each towards the cost of a travel purchase." is no longer true. I used to love being able to offset the travel purchases at 1 mile per 1 cent, but Capital One apparently changed the redemption formula without telling anyone. I currently have 4 travel purchases on my Spark Miles Visa Business card. They must have a table for different expense ranges because the ratio of cents to miles isn't consistent. I haven't found any web pages where the table is published. Following are the amounts of my current travel purchases, the miles required to offset them, and the ratio of miles needed to offset 1 cent in purchases:
$375.55 - 60,000 miles - 1.598
$68.00 - 15,000 miles - 2.206
$160.95 - 35,000 miles - 2.175
$163.98 - 35,000 miles - 2.134
I would think the value is closer to 1 cent. You are earning at 2 for 1 but you are spending at 1 for 2, or sometimes more.