In general, I recommend earning transferable points currencies with your credit cards whenever possible, to give you the most flexibility if you’re looking for travel rewards. Capital One has one of the major transferable points currencies, and two cards are particularly lucrative — the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Capital One Venture X Business.
In this post I wanted to take a more in-depth look at Capital One’s mileage currency, including how to earn and redeem Capital One miles.
Link: Learn more about the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card or Capital One Venture X Business
Basics of the Capital One mileage program
Several Capital One cards earn miles through the Venture line of cards, which give you great flexibility for travel redemptions. Capital One miles can be redeemed to offset the cost of a travel purchase or transferred to Capital One’s airline and hotel partners, which provide outsized value if you know what you’re doing.
The efficient flexibility provided by Capital One’s credit cards is pretty unbeatable, especially with the industry-leading return on everyday spending they offer.
How to earn Capital One miles
Let’s start by covering everything you need to know about earning Capital One miles — which cards earn Capital One miles.
What credit cards earn Capital One miles?
Here are the six cards that directly earn Capital One miles, along with the mileage earning rates, and the annual fees:
- The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (learn more) earns 2x miles per dollar spent; the card has a $395 annual fee, but offers all kinds of perks that help offset that, including a $300 annual travel credit and 10,000 anniversary bonus miles
- The Capital One Venture X Business (learn more) earns 2x miles per dollar spent; the card has a $395 annual fee, but offers all kinds of perks that help offset that, including a $300 annual travel credit and 10,000 anniversary bonus miles
- The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (learn more) earns 2x miles per dollar spent; the card has a $95 annual fee
- The Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card (learn more) earns 1.25x miles per dollar spent; the card has no annual fee
- The Capital One Venture Business (learn more) earns 2x miles per dollar spent; the card has a $95 annual fee, waived the first year
There’s another interesting angle for earning Capital One miles. Rewards earned on select Capital One cash back cards can be converted into Capital One miles (at the rate of one cent per mile) in conjunction with one of the above cards. For example, it could make sense to pick up the following cards to earn Capital One miles:
- The Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card (learn more) earns 3% cash back on dining, grocery stores (excluding superstores like Walmart and Target), entertainment, and popular streaming services; the card has no annual fee
- The Capital One Spark Cash Plus (learn more) earns 2% cash back on all purchases; the card has a $150 annual fee
If you ask me, the Capital One Venture X and Capital One Savor are a pretty unbeatable card duo, as you can earn 3x miles on dining, groceries stores, and more, while you can earn a minimum of 2x miles on all purchases. When it comes to business cards, the Capital One Venture X Business is tough to beat. All of these cards also have no foreign transaction fees.
How fast do Capital One miles post?
One thing that makes Capital One miles unique is how quickly these rewards post. With other programs, rewards can take a couple of billing cycles to post to your account. In the case of Capital One:
- Miles post to your account at the same time as your purchase
- This even applies to welcome bonuses on cards
In an age where people love instant gratification, that sure is a nice feature, as you can redeem your rewards toward travel almost instantly.
How to redeem Capital One miles
Capital One miles are incredibly flexible, and can be redeemed either toward the cost of a travel purchase (for a statement credit or through Capital One Travel or Capital One Business Travel), or they can be transferred to partner airline and hotel loyalty programs. Let’s discuss that in a bit more detail.
Redeem Capital One miles with statement credits
The most straightforward way to redeem your Capital One miles is directly toward the cost of a travel purchase. Each Venture mile can be redeemed for one cent toward the cost of a travel purchase.
You can choose to use miles to “wipe out” the cost of a travel purchase within 90 days of when you made the purchase on your Venture Card. Remember that the Venture cards offer 2x miles per dollar spent, meaning that the cards offer a minimum of a 2% return on spending (toward travel).
This allows you to make a travel-related purchase with your favorite travel provider (whether that’s an airline, hotel, online travel agency, Uber, Airbnb, or other travel company), and then receive a statement credit from Capital One for that purchase at the rate of one cent per mile.
This redemption option is so popular because there are no hoops to jump through — you don’t have to worry about airline or hotel blackout dates when redeeming points, and you don’t even have to book through a specific portal. You purchase with your card as usual, and then you can redeem for statement credits. It doesn’t get easier than that.
You can also redeem miles at the same rate through Capital One Travel or Capital One Business Travel, though most will probably prefer the flexibility of just being able to book direct with their preferred travel provider.
Convert Capital One miles into airline miles & hotel points
Miles earned with Venture cards can be converted into airline miles or hotel points in more than 20 participating programs. A vast majority of these partners allow 1:1 transfers. Since some Capital One cards earn 2x miles per dollar spent, the cards essentially offer two airline miles per dollar spent, which is a phenomenal return on everyday spending.
What airlines & hotels can you transfer Capital One miles to?
Below is the full list of Capital One transfer partners, which includes both airline programs and hotel programs, as well as transfer times.
| Capital One Transfer Partner | Transfer Ratio | Transfer Time |
|---|---|---|
| Accor Live Limitless (ALL) | 1000 : 500 | ~ 24 to 48 hours |
| Aeromexico Club Premier | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
| Air France-KLM Flying Blue | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
| British Airways Executive Club | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 1000 : 1000 | ~ 3 to 5 days |
| Choice Privileges | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
| Emirates Skywards | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
| Etihad Guest | 1000 : 1000 | ~ 12 to 24 hours |
| EVA Air Infinity MileageLands | 1000 : 750 | ~ 24 to 48 hours |
| Finnair Plus | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
| Japan Airlines Mileage Bank | 1000 : 750 | Instant |
| JetBlue TrueBlue | 1000 : 600 | Instant |
| Preferred Hotels & Resorts | 1000:2000 | Instant |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 1000 : 1000 | ~ 24 to 48 hours |
| Qatar Avios | 1000:1000 | Instant |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1000 : 1000 | ~ 24 to 48 hours |
| TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
| Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | 1000 : 1000 | ~ 24 to 48 hours |
| Virgin Red | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
| Wyndham Rewards | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
How do you transfer Capital One miles to airline & hotel partners?
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.
How long do Capital One mileage transfers take?
Below is a chart with how long it typically takes to transfer Capital One miles to airline and hotel partners:
As you can see, transfers to over half of Capital One’s partners are instant, while transfers to the remaining programs typically take anywhere from several hours to a couple of days.
If you have any data points on how long Capital One mileage transfers have taken you, please share them below, so that I can keep the chart as accurate as possible!
Look out for Capital One mileage transfer bonuses
While Capital One miles transfer to most airline partners at a 1:1 ratio, we sometimes see transfer bonuses, whereby they transfer at a better rate for a limited time. This can stretch your Capital One miles even further. This is always worthwhile if you have an immediate use in mind for points, and in some cases, a speculative points transfer could also make sense.
How to combine Capital One miles between accounts
Miles earned on a Venture cards are worth the same, can be redeemed in the same way toward travel, whether transferring the miles to a partner program or redeeming through Capital One Business Travel.
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 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 Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card or Capital One Spark Cash Plus, those rewards can be converted into miles using the same functionality. While these are cash back cards, each cent cash back can be converted into one Capital One mile.
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 Capital One 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
What’s the best use of Capital One miles?
Hopefully the above gives you a general sense of redemption options with Capital One miles. I now wanted to get into a bit more detail to help people decide which Capital One mileage redemption option makes the most sense for them. Are you better off redeeming Capital One miles toward the cost of a travel purchase, or converting Capital One miles into points with partner programs?
Statement credits vs. mileage transfers
If you’ve been a longtime Capital One customer, odds are that you’re used to redeeming your miles for statement credits toward travel purchases. After all, that’s Capital One’s oldest redemption feature, and what initially set the card issuer apart on the travel front (“no blackout dates!”).
Ultimately, this is a good option — it’s an easy redemption with no learning curve, it gives you lots of flexibility, and given that many Capital One cards earn 2x miles per dollar spent, you’re still earning a good return on your spending.
The benefit of converting Capital One miles into airline miles is that often the cost of a ticket when paying cash isn’t correlated to the cost of a ticket when redeeming points. While the statement credit redemption option gives you a consistent one cent of value per mile, with airline and hotel points you could be getting anywhere from a fraction of a cent of value per mile, to 10+ cents of value per mile.
The greatest value to be had with converting Capital One miles into a partner currency is if you want to redeem your rewards for international first and business class airline tickets. Many people think that these kinds of flights are out of reach, but with airline miles they are more attainable than you might expect!
Let me give a few examples based on my recent travels.
Capital One miles transfer at a 1:1 ratio to Air France-KLM Flying Blue, and I’ve redeemed 50,000 Flying Blue miles for a one-way Air France business class ticket from New York to Paris. If paying cash, that ticket would have cost thousands of dollars. The opportunity cost of 50,000 Capital One miles would be a $500 travel purchase with statement credits.
Capital One miles transfer at a 1:1 ratio to Emirates Skywards, and I’ve redeemed 102,000 Emirates Skywards miles for a one-way Emirates first-class ticket from New York to Milan. If paying cash, that ticket would have cost $5,500+. The opportunity cost of 102,000 Capital One miles would be a $1,020 travel purchase with statement credits.
Capital One miles transfer at a 1:1 ratio to Air Canada Aeroplan, and I’ve redeemed 100,000 Aeroplan points for a one-way Lufthansa first class ticket from Miami to Frankfurt. If paying cash, that ticket would have cost $8,000+. The opportunity cost of 100,000 Capital One miles would be a $1,000 purchase with statement credits.
However, I recognize not everyone wants to redeem their rewards that way, so let me simplify this a bit further:
- If you want to redeem your Capital One miles for anything other than flights, your best option is probably redeeming them at one cent each toward a purchase
- If you want to redeem your Capital One miles toward airfare, you’ll get more value for international first and business class tickets when transferring miles to an airline partner
- If you want to redeem your Venture miles toward economy airfare (especially if it’s reasonably priced), your best option might be redeeming them at one cent each toward a purchase
Those are very general guidelines, and the best solution very much depends on the specific circumstances. Personally I exclusively redeem my Capital One miles by transferring them to airline partners, and then I book international first & business class tickets, but I recognize not everyone is looking for those kinds of redemptions.
Mileage transfers give you access to more airlines than you think
The beauty of these frequent flyer partnerships is that, in the end, you can redeem miles on many more airlines than just Capital One’s direct partners. Capital One miles can be transferred to over a dozen airline programs. That’s great in and of itself, but the reality is that you have access to way more airlines than that.
Why? Because airline loyalty programs, in many cases, have multiple airline partners as well. Just because you transfer miles to an airline loyalty program doesn’t mean you actually have to fly with that airline:
- Capital One miles can be transferred to Air Canada Aeroplan, and you can redeem Aeroplan points for travel on any of the over two dozen Star Alliance airlines (including United Airlines), plus airlines like Air Mauritius, Air Serbia, Azul, Gulf Air, and many more
- Capital One miles can be transferred to Air France-KLM Flying Blue, and you can redeem Flying Blue miles for travel on any of the nearly two dozen SkyTeam airlines (including Delta Air Lines)
- Capital One miles can be transferred to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, and you can redeem Asia Miles for travel on any of the over dozen oneworld airlines (including American Airlines)
Websites like point.me can help you visualize all the ways that you can redeem transferable points currencies for award flights.
As you can see, Capital One miles give you access to all of the “big three” alliances, and then there are many more airline partners on top of that. The amount of flexibility you’re getting with your miles here is huge, so look beyond the airline transfer partners as such.
Why you shouldn’t always transfer Capital One miles
While the ability to convert Venture miles into airline and hotel points is exciting, there are still going to be plenty of circumstances under which you get a better deal using the statement credit redemption method. I’d say this is especially true if you primarily travel domestically, and are happy flying economy and staying at reasonably priced hotels.
For example, in the United States, we have ultra-low-cost carriers that have really lowered the cost of airfare in many markets. Generally, these airlines don’t have robust loyalty programs, and there’s no way to transfer miles to those programs efficiently.
If you have Capital One miles and are looking to travel to Orlando for spring break on Frontier Airlines or Spirit Airlines, the statement credit feature might be the best option — you can buy your ticket as you usually would, and then have the cost reimbursed.
Furthermore, those who are into earning elite status with airlines and hotels might appreciate the value of redeeming for statement credits. Why? Because you can book travel as you usually would (whether flights or hotels), and that would be considered paid travel. With both airlines and hotels, this means you could take advantage of elite perks and earn points.
Tips before converting Capital One miles into airline miles
The statement credit feature makes using Venture miles so straightforward, and that simplicity has been a large part of the appeal of the rewards program for years. If you’re a cardmember who is used to that, the number of hoops you have to jump through to redeem airline miles might come as a surprise.
If you are going to convert Capital One miles into airline or hotel points, I’d generally recommend going through the following process:
- Study the loyalty program transfer options that Capital One is offering
- Look at their respective award charts to understand how many miles are required
- Find out what partners these loyalty programs have beyond their “home” carrier, so you know which airlines you can redeem on
- Try to search availability for yourself to get a sense of how many award seats there are; sometimes this can be done directly on the loyalty program’s website, while in other instances you have to call
- Once you’ve verified there’s availability and have verified the price (both in terms of miles and cash), transfer your Capital One miles to the loyalty program
- Airline award availability is capacity controlled and subject to change, so you’ll want to book as quickly after finding the award availability as possible
- If your plan is to book a hotel room, check to make sure the property you are looking at has availability on the dates you need
- Don’t transfer points to a partner until you’re ready to book and know exactly what you want to redeem for
How much are Capital One miles worth?
Readers have had questions about my valuation of Capital One miles, so in this post, I wanted to share what I value Capital One miles at, and what my logic is for that valuation.
I value Capital One miles at 1.7 cents each
Let me cut to the chase — I value Capital One miles at 1.7 cents each. For that matter, that’s what I value all major transferable points currencies at, including Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou.
I’m not suggesting that you should value Capital One miles at 1.7 cents each. While I’d like to think I’m an expert at this stuff, the reality is that the value of mileage currencies is subjective, and based on how you redeem your rewards.
I don’t think it would be unreasonable to value Capital One miles at 1.0 cents each, and for that matter I don’t think it would be unreasonable to value Capital One miles at 2.0 cents each. So let me expand a bit more on how I come up with my valuation.
Why do I value Capital One miles at more than one cent each?
“If you can only redeem Capital One miles for one cent each towards a travel purchase, why do you value Capital One miles at 1.7 cents each?” That’s a fair question.
If you redeem your Capital One miles for one cent each towards a travel purchase (which there’s nothing wrong with), then you should value the miles at around one cent each.
The reason I value transferable points currencies (like Capital One miles) so much more is because of the opportunities to get outsized value by transferring them to an airline partner. This allows you to get huge value for first & business-class travel.
It’s important to acknowledge that this isn’t for everyone. If you have a family of six and your goal is to travel to Disney for spring break, obviously these international premium cabin redemption opportunities are of limited use. Similarly, there’s a bit of a learning curve to redeeming miles well, so if you don’t want to put in the effort, this also might not be for you.
When I share my valuations of miles, it’s not because I think everyone else should value them the way I do. Rather the intent is to share the thought process I go through when valuing miles, with hopes of others being able to crunch numbers and come up with a valuation based on their own travel patterns.
Capital One cards are amazing for everyday spending
I consider Capital One credit cards to be unbeatable for everyday credit card spending, based on my valuation of miles, and the rate at which miles rack up. Specifically:
- On the personal side, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review) and Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review) offer a minimum of 2x miles per dollar spent
- On the business side, the Capital One Venture X Business (review) and Capital One Venture Business (review) offer a minimum of 2x miles per dollar spent
Based on my valuation of 1.7 cents per mile, these cards all offer a 3.4% return on everyday spending, which is incredible.
Capital One miles FAQs
Bottom line
Capital One has created a great points program. The transfer function was first introduced in late 2018, and has been considerably improved since then. Not only has Capital One assembled a nice collection of partners, but we’ve seen transfer ratios improve, and we’ve also seen some transfer bonuses. Add in the Capital One Venture X Card and Capital One Venture X Business, and the program gets even more exciting.
The beauty of Capital One’s travel ecosystem is that cards offer an excellent return on everyday spending, and Capital One miles are also incredibly flexible. In addition to being able to redeem them for one cent each toward the cost of virtually any travel purchase by redeeming miles for statement credits, you can also transfer them at a 1:1 ratio to over a dozen airline frequent flyer programs, which is where you’ll really get outsized value.
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.
If you’ve earned Capital One miles, what has your experience been with them?
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