How To Transfer, Combine, & Share Capital One Miles

Link: Apply now for the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

Capital One’s mileage currency has becoming increasingly competitive in recent years, especially with the introduction of the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, which is Capital One’s incredible ultra-premium credit card (which I highly recommend applying for).

In this post, I wanted to go over the basics of moving Capital One miles around, including how you transfer them to airline & hotel partners, how you combine them between accounts, and how you share them with others.

How to transfer Capital One miles to airline & hotel partners

Capital One miles can be transferred to 18 travel partners, including 15 airline loyalty programs and three hotel loyalty programs. Personally, my favorite use of Capital One miles is transferring them to airline partners, given the huge value that can be had for first & business-class redemptions.

The process of transferring miles is easy. Just log into your Capital One account, which will bring you to your account dashboard. When you’re at your account dashboard, you just need to get to the “Rewards” page, which can be accessed by clicking the “Rewards Miles” button, displayed underneath your mileage balance.

On the rewards page, you’ll see the section for “Convert Rewards,” so you’ll want to click that.

That will list all of Capital One’s transfer partners, so select the program you want to transfer your Capital One miles to.

When you see the program you want to transfer miles to, click the “Transfer Miles” button. You’ll see that the cardholder’s name is already pre-populated, which is because you can only transfer miles to an account registered to the primary cardmember. You’ll then want to enter the membership number with the partner loyalty program.

On the next page, you’ll be asked to select how many Capital One miles you want to transfer to a partner program.

Once you transfer miles and they post in the partner account, you’ll receive an email confirmation stating that the transaction was completed.

Sure enough, when I checked my Emirates Skywards account, the miles had already posted.

See our guide to how long Capital One mileage transfers take — as you can see, most transfers are instant, but some take a few hours or even a couple of days. Also, check out our guide on the best ways to redeem Capital One miles.

How to combine Capital One miles between accounts

Some Capital One credit cards are marketed as offering Spark miles, while others are marketed as offering Venture miles. The reality is that these miles are the same, it’s just a matter of branding — Spark miles are associated with business credit cards, while Venture miles are associated with personal credit cards.

These miles are worth the same, can be redeemed in the same way toward travel, whether transferring the miles to a partner program or redeeming through the Capital One Travel portal.

The process of combining Capital One miles between your card accounts is easy. When you’re at your account dashboard, you just need to get to the “Rewards” page, which can be accessed by clicking the “Rewards Miles” button.

On the next page you’ll want to go to the “Move Rewards” section, which allows you to transfer miles between accounts.

Assuming you have multiple cards, you should then see the other cards listed that you can transfer points to.

You’ll then be asked how many miles you want to transfer. You can transfer some or all of the miles in your account.

The miles will then appear in the account you transfer them to instantly.

You can keep moving miles back and forth as much as you want, and this doesn’t in any way impact the expiration of your miles. Assuming you have multiple Capital One cards earning Spark or Venture miles, make sure you transfer out your miles before closing your account. For example, this could be useful if you’re closing the Venture Card and opening a Venture X Card.

One other cool angle is that if you have the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card (review) or Capital One Spark Cash Plus (review), those rewards can be converted into Venture or Spark miles using the same functionality. While these are cash back cards, each cent cash back can be converted into one Capital One mile.

This is potentially a fantastic opportunity, as both cards have a great rewards structure:

• The SavorOne Cash Rewards Card offers 3% cashback on dining, grocery stores, entertainment, and popular streaming services, and also has a valuable Uber partnership
• The Spark Cash Plus offers 2% cashback on all purchases, with no pre-set spending limit

These are potentially some great credit card duos for maximizing your rewards.

How to share Capital One miles with others

One of the awesome things about Capital One miles is that you can share them with other Capital One cardmembers at no cost:

• You can share an unlimited number of Capital One miles with Venture or Spark cardmembers
• There’s no requirement for the person you’re sharing miles with to live at the same address, be a family member, etc.
• When you transfer miles to others, there are no additional expiration policies, or other major restrictions
• This option applies to credit cards that earn Venture or Spark miles

The easiest way to transfer Capital One miles to someone else’s account is by calling up Capital One. The best I can tell, this transfer option isn’t currently available online.

I can’t understate how valuable this is, as Amex, Chase, and Citi, all don’t offer this much flexibility when it comes to transferring your rewards to other cardmembers. Why is this so useful?

• This can be valuable if you want to transfer your miles to someone else’s loyalty account, since you could transfer your Capital One miles to their Capital one account, and then they could transfer to a loyalty account in their own name
• This can be useful if you don’t quite have enough miles in your account for a reward, but by transferring to someone else’s account you’ll have enough miles
• This can be useful if you’re thinking of closing down your Capital One card, so you can transfer the miles to someone else before doing so

Bottom line

Capital One’s mileage currency is getting even more mainstream, with the popularity of the Venture X Card. I know a lot of people aren’t yet familiar with the ins and outs of Capital One miles, so hopefully the above is a useful rundown of what you need to know about transferring, combining, and sharing Capital One miles.

The process of transferring miles to airline and hotel partners is easy, as it is with most transferable points currencies. The same is true when combining points between Capital One accounts. What really sets Capital One miles apart, though, is the ability to transfer an unlimited number of miles at no cost to anyone else with a Capital One card.

To Capital One cardmembers, what has your experience been with transferring, combining, and sharing miles?