Australia's Qantas Frequent Flyer might not be many travelers' go-to airline mileage program. But anyone with Capital One miles from cards like the *capital one venture card* or the souped-up *venture x* should give it a hard look right now, whether you want to get to Australia … or book some short flights here in the U.S. … or even book a business or first class flight on Emirates.
Capital One kicked off May with a brand-new transfer bonus, giving cardholders a 20% boost when transferring miles to Qantas. This boost ends May 31, so you've got through the rest of the month to put it to use.
Not sure where to start? Read our complete guide to Capital One transfer partners!
Transferring your miles to one of nearly 20 Capital One transfer partners is often the best way to redeem them for more value – especially with a big bonus like this. Think of it as a way to get some free miles: Transfer 50,000 Capital One miles to Qantas, and you'll wind up with 60,000 Qantas points.
Compared to other banks like American Express or Chase, we see far fewer transfer bonuses from Capital One – which makes this one all the more worthwhile. Still, it's rarely a good idea to transfer points speculatively without a specific plan. You'll want to have a redemption mapped out before sending your Capital One miles to Qantas – especially since the airline is set to raise award rates come Aug. 5.
Lucky for you, there are plenty of solid options.
Book Flights to Australia for Less
Of course, Qantas can get you to the Land Down Under. This 20% transfer bonus means you'll need fewer miles to pull it off.
Qantas uses a distance-based award chart for redeeming miles: The longer the flight, the more points you'll need to book. That means flights from the West Coast down to Australia will be cheapest.
For example, flights from Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), or Vancouver (YVR) over to cities like Sydney (SYD), Melbourne (MEL), or Brisbane (BNE) all clock in at under 8,000 miles each way. That means an economy seat will cost you a hair under 42,000 Qantas points each way – just 35,000 Capital One miles with this 20% transfer bonus!
But maybe you want a lie-flat seat for the ultra-long-haul flight to Australia or back home. No matter how many miles it costs, booking business class seats to Australia is typically tough: Finding the award availability to book an award seat is a serious challenge…
… until lately: Business class award space down to Australia is heating up. We've sent Thrifty Traveler PremiumQantas business class members a slew of award alerts to book for as low as 108,400 points each way. Factor in this 20% transfer bonus, and it could be yours with 90,400 Capital One miles.
One thing that stands out about Capital One miles is that the bank allows you to fine-tune your transfers in increments of 100 – most other banks require you to send points to transfer partners by the 1,000s. That means you can really dial in exactly how many miles you want to transfer rather than wind up with hundreds of points orphaned in a Qantas account.
Even business class redemptions on the incredibly long journey from New York City (JFK) all the way to Auckland (AKL) in New Zealand opened up. At 126,500 Qantas points each way, you could transfer 105,500 Capital One miles and book this nearly 18-hour flight.
Forking over 100,000 miles or more might not seem like the bargain of the century, but it's the only way you can book these Qantas lie-flat seats these days – Qantas has gotten incredibly stingy with releasing premium cabin award space to partner carriers like American or Alaska. This transfer bonus makes it an even better deal.
Book Short American Airlines Flights … Or Biz Class to Europe
Hopping around the good ol' U.S. of A. could cost you even fewer miles with this transfer bonus, too.
No, Qantas doesn't fly domestically here … but American Airlines does. And Qantas charges reasonable rates to book partner award flights on American – so long as it's relatively short.
American Airlines-operated flights that clock in under 600 miles each way will cost you just 8,000 Qantas points. So you could transfer just 6,700 Capital One miles over to Qantas and book a flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Chicago-O'Hare (ORD).
Not sure how long your flight is? Plug it in at GCmap.com!
There are thousands – literally, thousands – of American Airlines flights under 600 miles. The possibilities for booking domestic flights for 6,700 Capital One miles each way are practically endless.
Heading across the pond? Qantas also charges reasonable rates for the shortest transatlantic routes under 3,600: Think the East Coast to London-Heathrow (LHR), Dublin, 0r maybe even Madrid (MAD). At 57,000 Qantas points each way in business class, it's not bad … and even better with that 20% transfer bonus: Just 47,500 Capital One miles!
If you've had your sights set on pulling off a trip to Europe this year (in style), your timing is impeccable. We recently sent Thrifty Traveler Premium members an alert with some wide-open American Airlines business class availability to London-Heathrow (LHR) this August! You could book many of those dates through Qantas for just 51,000 Capital One miles.
Emirates Biz or First Class to Europe!
Emirates' fifth-freedom routes from New York City (JFK) to Milan (MXP) and Newark (EWR) to Athens (ATH) offer some of the coolest ways to get to Europe. This transfer bonus makes Qantas a sneakily good way to book them – especially if you're looking for a one-way in business class.
The route to Milan is shorter, so that's the cheapest of of the pair: Just 75,000 Qantas points in business class and 107,700 points for Emirates First Class. With that 20% transfer bonus, it comes out to 62,500 Capital One miles for Emirates business class or 89,750 miles for a ride up in first class.
That's substantially cheaper than what Emirates charges using its own Emirates Skywards miles. Just beware that Emirates doesn't release a ton of award availability to partner airline programs like Qantas, so actually booking at these rates can be hit-or-miss.
But if you want to book Emirates First Class for the fewest amount of points as possible, check out the airline's even quirkier fifth-freedom route from Miami (MIA) to Bogota (BOG). At just 64,500 Qantas points, you could transfer just 53,800 Capital One miles and book it.
Sadly, Emirates doesn't fly one of its signature Airbus A380s on that route to South America, so you won't get the full Emirates experience with a shower onboard.
Bottom Line
Capital One is out with a new 20% bonus when sending miles over to Qantas Frequent Flyer.
Qantas's mileage program doesn't get nearly enough attention, but this bonus should change that. Give it a look and make use of this bonus before it ends May 31.
