Capital One offers fixed value redemptions for most of their rewards. This means that unless you transfer your miles to a travel partner, you’ll typically receive one cent per mile. Capital One has made redeeming miles seamless and effortless, with all your options available directly on the Capital One website or through the Capital One app.
Redeem For Future Travel
Capital One has an intuitive travel portal that makes it simple to redeem your miles. Just search the Capital One travel portal for your city, dates and the number of people in your party. Then on your checkout page you’ll see an offer to either charge your card or redeem your miles at one cent each to cover some or all of the cost. So 25,000 miles would completely offset a $250 hotel stay.
Redeem for Recent Travel Purchases
If you’re not sure if you want to pay cash or miles at the time of booking, Capital One will let you use miles to offset past purchases from your credit card. Once logged into your account, simply choose the option called “Cover Travel Expenses” and you’ll be presented with a list of purchases that you’ve recently made on your card that are eligible for this redemption option.
This is a fantastic way to use your miles later even if you didn’t feel comfortable committing to using them beforehand. Whether you book with miles before travel or use them afterward, they’ll redeem at the same rate. There’s no downside to waiting for the charge to post first.
Even if you don’t have the miles needed to cover the stay today, it’s likely that you can book the room with your card with no financial risk. That’s because when you book with a hotel directly they often won’t charge your card until your arrival. Until then, you’ll have extra time to build up your rewards balance.
Transfer to Travel Partners
Capital One has over 15 different transfer partners to choose from. Moving points from Capital One over to these partners is quick and easy, and allows you the chance to find even more value from your points. Here’s the full list and their transfer ratios.
When logged into your account, head to the “Transfer Rewards” box and click. This will take you to the list of all the transfer partners Capital One has on offer.
Find your program of choice and click on Transfer Miles. A pop up window will appear where you can enter your account membership number. This is the membership number for your airline or hotel program, not your Capital One account.
Note, that your name on your Capital One account has to be the same as your airline/hotel account, otherwise the transfer could be delayed or denied.
The last step is deciding how many miles you want to send over. You’ll need to send them in 100 mile chunks with a minimum of 1,000 miles. Most transfers take about 24 hours but some can be faster.
Redeem for Cash Back or Gift Cards
Note that redeeming for cash back and gift cards is not a great option, but it’s important to know that it exists. When redeeming for cash back, you’ll receive 0.5 cents per mile redeemed, a 50% loss compared to the option for eliminating travel purchases.
Using miles for gift cards offers a varying redemption value. Some gift cards can be purchased at a rate of 1 cent per point, while others offer a lower redemption value.
Before redeeming your miles for less than 1 cent a piece, consider if you have the ability to wipe out a travel purchase or another way to get more value from your miles.
Redeem for Tickets, Experiences and Events
Through the Capital One Entertainment platform, you can redeem your miles for tickets to shows and sporting events. There are also several cardholder exclusive offers made throughout the year such as pre-sale or discounted tickets and VIP packages.
These events do have a tendency to sell out fast. So if you see something that catches your eye, don’t wait too long.
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