A Guide to Earning and Redeeming Miles in the Capital One Mileage Program

Capital One has become a major player in the loyalty program space. Four years ago, issuers had a limited lineup of credit cards and even more limited loyalty programs. Capital One miles can only be redeemed for travel purchases at a fixed rate, and its credit cards are often overlooked by no-annual-fee cards and cash-back cards.

All that changed in 2018 when Capital One brought on a slew of airline and hotel transfer partners. Capital One continues to expand the program, offering an impressive roster of transfer partners and credit cards that are more popular than cards issued by longtime players like American Express and Chase.

Capital One miles have become a valuable addition to a comprehensive travel rewards strategy. If you’re ready to learn how to earn and redeem Capital One miles for incredible travel experiences, here’s everything you need to get started.

There are two main ways to earn Capital One Miles. The most direct way is through credit card sign-up rewards and shopping with Capital One credit cards. Currently, you cannot earn extra miles through the Capital One shopping portal, dining rewards program or shopping apps like you can with some other programs.

However, the issuer offers an impressive array of rewards credit cards that offer substantial welcome bonuses, category bonuses and rewards for referring a friend. If you’d like to earn more Capital One Miles, here are all the ways to earn miles.

Capital One has significantly improved its credit card offering over the past few years. It currently offers four personal credit cards and two business credit cards in the travel rewards space. These cards are unique in that they earn more than 1 mile per dollar spent on non-rewards category spending, which puts them ahead of competing cards.

One thing to note before applying is that Capital One will draw your credit from all three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. Most other banks will only draw your credit from one issuer.

Let’s take a look at the current welcome bonus offers on personal credit cards to earn Capital One miles.

Capital One also offers a business credit card. Below is information on two of these options.

Adding Authorized Users to your card is a great way to earn even more Capital One Miles. Best of all, Capital One does not charge any fees for adding authorized users to the primary cardholder account.

Adding Authorized Users is a great way to meet spending requirements, unlock great welcome bonuses, and earn even more miles on everyday purchases. It also saves you annual fees if you add a spouse or family member. Be sure to recruit someone you can trust to pay their share of the bill at the end of the month.

If you’re a fan of the Capital One card, you can earn bonus miles by telling your friends and family. Capital One’s referral program offers thousands of bonus miles for each approved referral. The exact amount depends on the card you have, but you can log into your account to determine what you’re eligible for.

The range of recommendations offered depends on a variety of factors. For example, for the Venture Card, you will get 20,000 miles per approved referral (up to 50,000 miles per year), and for the Venture X Card, you will get 25,000 miles per approval (up to 100,000 miles per year). Capital One will even provide you with a personal referral link that you can share via text message, email or social media.

If your friends are in the market for a Capital One card and you keep raving about your card, this is a great way to earn rewards.

Whether you’re saving for a dream trip or trying to reduce your monthly bill, there are plenty of ways to redeem your Capital One miles. You can use your Capital One Miles for high-value options such as redeeming miles for travel purchases, transferring miles to Capital One’s 18 airline and hotel partners, or for non-travel rewards such as cash back or gifts Card.

You’ll get the most value from your Capital One miles by transferring to one of Capital One’s travel transfer partners. Whatever your decision, here are all the ways you can redeem your Capital One miles.

Over the past four years, Capital One has grown from zero transit partners to as many as 18 airline and hotel transit partners. Some of these partners overlap with other major programs like American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards. Popular hotel and airline loyalty programs are among them, giving you plenty of options for redeeming your Capital One miles.

If you wish to transfer your Capital One miles to one of our travel transfer partners, here are 18 options and their respective transfer rates.

If you’re saving Capital One miles without a specific goal in mind, here are some sweet spot bonuses worth considering.

Before the introduction of connecting partners, Capital One stood out with a direct travel redemption option. You can charge your card for any travel expenses and redeem miles for 1 cent each to eliminate the fee. This easy way to redeem miles for travel remains a great use of Capital One miles, especially when travel costs are low.

For example, an economy class ticket to and from Europe costs between 40,000 and 60,000 Etihad Guest Miles. But sometimes you can find flights as low as $350 to cities like Barcelona, ​​London and Lisbon. In this case, it would make sense to pay for the $350 flight with your Capital One card and redeem 35,000 Capital One miles to offset the purchase. Not only is it cheaper than transferring miles to an airline partner (in this case, Etihad Guest), but you can also earn miles on credit cards and airline loyalty programs.

In general, if you like an easy way to redeem your Capital One miles, redeeming any travel purchases you’ve made within the past 90 days for 1 cent is a worthwhile strategy.

Except for travel redemptions, Capital One miles can be redeemed for between 0.5 cents and 0.8 cents. You can use your miles for cash back, Amazon purchases, gift cards, event tickets or PayPal purchases. The exact value of your miles will depend on which of these redemptions you choose, but even the top rewards will be less than the value of your miles for travel.

These are the rates when redeeming Capital One miles for non-travel items.

When transferred to hotel and airline partners, Capital One miles are worth about 1.85 cents, according to frequent-flyer website The Points Guy. The exact amount depends on how you choose to redeem your miles. The highest value usually comes from high-end travel redemptions, such as business class seats and luxury hotels.

If figuring out the best way to maximize your Capital One miles sounds tedious, there’s an easier option: You can redeem your Capital One miles for 1 cent each on travel purchased with your credit card. This can be a good option if award space is limited or you don’t want to research the award rules of different airline programs.

Check out CNN Underscored’s guide best travel credit card Currently available.