Cover Travel Purchases, Portal, or Transfer: How Should You Redeem Capital One Miles?

Capital One has been on a tear the past few years after unveiling the popular *venture x*, building out its network of Capital One Lounges, and adding additional ways to use Capital One miles.

That means if you've got the Venture X – or even the regular *capital one venture card* – in your wallet, the miles you're earning are far more valuable than they once were. That's due in large part to the addition of excellent Capital One transfer partners and a revamped Capital One Travel Portal.

But then you throw in the longtime favorite option of easily using Capital One miles to cover nearly any travel purchase and there are three different ways to put your miles to use. Deciding which avenue is best to make the most of your miles can be difficult.

Let's walk through the three options for using your miles and decide which option makes the most sense for you.
 

Covering Travel Purchases

Let's start with the easiest route for using Capital One miles. This is what Capital One is really known for – and a big reason why many travelers love Capital One.

No airline or bank makes it easier to redeem points and miles toward travel than Capital One. Just charge your flight, hotel, Airbnb, or nearly any other travel expense to your Capital One card. A few days later, you can go in and erase that charge from your statement using miles. No confusing award charts, rules, blackout dates, or hoops to jump through.
 

Read our step-by-step guide to covering travel purchases with Capital One miles!

Using Capital One miles this way, each one is worth 1 cent. That means you can book a $500 flight using 50,000 Capital One miles. That's not exactly earth-shattering value, but it's easy as can be – and it goes far when you find a cheap flight, hotel, or other travel expense.

Here's a real-world example. Let's say you're a Thrifty Traveler Premium member and just received an alert for $216 flights from New York (JFK) to San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU).
 

Just pay for that flight directly on Delta's website with your Capital One card, go to your account a few days later, and cover the purchase with 21,600 miles. That's all it takes.

This is tailor-made for travelers who want a quick-and-easy way to use their miles. Don't want to deal with booking through third-party portals, and don't want to decode the mystifying world of how airlines set award prices when using their miles? Capital One miles are for you.

There are a few advantages to redeeming Capital One miles like this, beyond convenience. For starters, it's one of the few ways to make a flight completely free as your miles will cover the taxes and fees that booking with traditional airline miles will not – and you'll still earn miles with the airline you're flying.

But the real beauty is that it can go, far, far beyond booking flights. Think of any travel expense, and you can cover it using your miles … including expenses that other credit card points can't cover. For example:

• You could cover a $500 Airbnb or VRBO with 50,000 miles
• Charge your $40 train ticket anywhere in the world to your Capital One Card, then redeem 4,000 miles to cover the cost
• Book a tour or excursion through Viator or Airbnb Experiences
• Ubers, Lyft rides … you name it, you can cover it all with Capital One miles

Needless to say, there's a ton of flexibility and ease when using Capital One miles this way.

When To Use the Capital One Miles to Cover Travel Purchases

This feature is a great option for travel expenses where you wouldn't otherwise be able to use miles – think boutique hotels that are not affiliated with a traditional loyalty program, train tickets throughout Europe, a seaplane transfer in the Maldives, and even a boat rental in Bora Bora. 

Plus, using Capital One miles this way allows you to book directly with the hotel, airline, or any other travel company. It removes the complication of a third party should things with your reservation go wrong. 

Above all, using miles this way is your best option when the travel expense is cheap … but you really want to make it “free.” And if you just can't be bothered with learning the ins and outs of mileage program sweet spots and loopholes, using Capital One miles to cover your travel purchases is a solid use.

Read more: Unique Ways to Use Capital One Miles

The Capital One Travel Portal

Just like most banks these days, Capital One has its own travel portal where you can directly search for flights, hotels, vacation rentals, and cars, allowing you to book using miles. But the Capital One Travel Portal is new and improved, with some great features you won't get elsewhere.
 

The flight-booking engine is powered by the popular travel app Hopper. That means you should generally find the same prices you see directly through the airline or via Google Flights – but not always. Just tap in the details of the flight or hotel you're hoping to book with miles and start searching.

Just like using miles to cover travel purchases booked directly, every mile is worth 1 cent toward travel through the portal. 

That means you can once again book that same $216 flight to San Juan for just 21,600 Capital One miles. And whether you don't have enough miles in your account or want to save some, you can apply as many (or as few) miles to the purchase to reduce the cost.
 

While you may not be getting more bang for your buck by using miles through the travel portal, Capital One has given travelers a few compelling reasons to consider it:

• Capital One will automatically refund you if the price of your flight drops after booking. Those Price Drop Protections come in the form of a credit and are only available on flights where Capital One and Hopper predict that prices won’t fall, and they're capped on up to $50 – or 5,000 miles – in refunds total. Still, that's a nice feature.
• You can freeze a fare through the portal for up to 14 days, then decide and come back to buy it later at that price. Capital One charges a small fee to freeze a fare.
• Much like Google Flights, Capital One allows you to set price alerts for the flights you want to book. That means you'll get an email if the flights you're looking at drop or increase in price.
• Capital One offers an add-on “cancel for any reason” travel insurance policy, which is quite reasonably priced.
• If you're paying with cash rather than using miles, you'll earn 5x miles per dollar spent on flights and vacation rentals booked through the portal, and a whopping 10x miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars if you have the Venture X card. If you have the regular Venture Card, you'll earn 5x miles on hotels, vacation rentals, and rental cars.

But it's not all sunshine and rainbows booking through the travel portal. We've found that oftentimes hotels are higher priced through Capital One Travel compared to booking direct or with another portal. You also won't earn miles on your purchase when redeeming them through the portal, making the case for covering travel purchases even stronger. 

When To Use the Capital One Travel Portal

There are a few scenarios in which using the Capital One Travel portal – as opposed to the other options for using your miles – can make sense.

First and foremost, if you have a *venture x*, you get an annual $300 travel credit to use for bookings in the Capital One Travel portal. Unlike the $300 travel credit that comes on the *chase sapphire reserve*, you must make your booking within the Capital One Travel portal to receive this annual credit. It's far and away the best situation in which you should turn to the Capital One Travel Portal.

And here's a little secret: Any cash balance you charge within the portal can be covered with Capital One miles once that charge posts to your account. So you could book a flight through the portal with your Venture X card, earn 5x miles on that transaction (as opposed to 2x miles if booked directly with the airline), and then use your miles to go back and cover the charge.

Beyond that, taking advantage of the price protection, and the ability to freeze pricing can be good reasons to book through the Capital One portal.

Using Capital One Transfer Partners

If if you want to get maximum value from your miles, you'll want to look into Capital One transfer partners.

Admittedly, this method is a little more advanced and will require some extra work. But for those ready to do their homework, the value can be significant.

Capital One added the ability to transfer miles straight to airline programs way back in 2018. After steadily adding more and more partners and making significant improvements, it's now a bonafide option with some killer value. With few exceptions, every 1,000 Capital One miles you transfer gets you 1,000 airline miles or hotel points.

Here's the full list of Capital One transfer partners.
 

Read our guide to Capital One transfer partners and learn how you can transfer your miles!

It gets even better, as Capital One routinely offers transfer bonuses, giving you a 15% to 40% bonus when sending your miles to select partners. That's a great way to squeeze even more out of your Capital One miles, as these bonuses are practically free airline miles.

But not just any transfer will do. Knowing where to transfer your miles is a key to maximizing this redemption option. And remember, these transfers are a one-way street. Once you send miles to an airline or hotel, you can't get them back into your Capital One account. That means you'll want to make sure transferring your miles is the best option – and that the flights or hotels are actually available to book.

Make sure to read up on the best ways to use Capital One miles for more ideas!

When To Use the Capital One Transfer Partners

Looking to book a flight? Check the price directly with the airline and through the Capital One travel portal. Remember, since your miles will be worth one cent each through these methods, a $500 flight could be booked for 50,000 miles. There is a chance that this would require fewer miles than what you could find using the transfer partners.

But there are no doubt sweet spots available when using Capital One transfer partners. For example, using Air France/KLM's flying Blue program, you can book Delta flights to Hawaii for as low as 21,000 miles each way – give or take a few thousand miles, as Flying Blue award rates tend to fluctuate. 

Capital One miles also transfer 1:1 to Air France/KLM Flying Blue, so 42,000 miles means you're set to get there and back. Just beware that finding the Delta flights you want can be a bit of a challenge: Never transfer miles before you've confirmed the flights you want are available.

But when you do find them, it's a deal that's tough to beat.
 

Whether you book through the travel portal or use miles to cover the cost of booking directly with Delta, these exact same flights would cost you nearly 73,000 miles. In many cases, the savings can be even more substantial by leveraging the right transfer partners.
 

When you learn and use sweet spots like this one, transferring miles will almost always be a better deal than taking another route.

Bottom Line

With Capital One miles, you'll have three different ways to redeem them for travel: Covering direct travel purchases, booking through the Capital One Travel portal, and using transfer partners.

Each of these methods has pros and cons, but having all of them at your disposal and using which one works best for you is ultimately what makes these miles so valuable.