The most recent Credit Card Points and Miles program that has elevated into favorable contention is Capital One Rewards Miles. For years, Chase’s Ultimate Rewards and Amex’s Membership Rewards ruled the award space. Then Citi ThankYou made some splashes with their own program. Now Rewards Miles has entered into elite contention with the other programs. Learn all about Capital One Rewards in this Basic Guide!
In this Basic Guide
- What are Capital One Rewards Miles
- Transferrable Award Currency
- How to Earn Capital One Rewards Miles
- Welcome Offers
- Refer-a-friend
- How to Redeem Capital One Rewards Miles
- Transfer to Travel Partners
- Book through Travel Portal
- Statement Credit for Travel Purchases
- Other Options
- How to Combine Capital One Rewards Miles
- Between Capital One Accounts
- Send Miles to another account holder
- Basic Breakdown
What are Capital One Rewards Miles
A Rewards Mile (RM) is a form of award currency earned in a variety of ways. The most common being from Capital One Credit Cards. The base value of a RM is 1 cent, however, points are worth more when they are redeemed via the travel transfer partners.
Transferrable Award Currency
One important distinction of RM is that they are a transferable award currency. Basically, this means that the miles are not locked into a specific use. For example, a co-branded credit card like one of the Chase Southwest credit cards can only earn points that can be redeemed on Southwest Airlines. Since RM’s are transferrable, the options for redemption increase tenfold.
How to Earn Rewards Miles
Welcome Offers
The primary way to earn Rewards Miles is via one or more of their Credit Card options. All of the cards that earn Rewards Miles come with a welcome spending offer which can generate a large sum of miles from meeting an initial minimum spending requirement.
| Personal Credit Cards | Small Business Credit Cards |
| Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card | Capital One Spark Miles for Business |
| Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card | Spark Cash Select from Capital One |
| Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card |
Basic Pro Tip – Be sure to double-check the Capital One Rules when applying for a new card. The two major rules are 1/6 (one application every six months) and a max of two Capital One branded cards open at a time. Here is a link to the updated rules webpage.
Refer-a-friend
Once you open a Capital One Rewards Miles earning card, you’ll be able to refer a friend from the “I want to” menu.
How to Redeem Capital One Rewards Miles
Transfer to Travel Partners
There are 16 different Rewards Miles transfer partners to choose from. A few of my favorite options include Aeroplan, Lifemiles, and Miles & Smiles which are fantastic for international travel premium airline bookings. Wyndham is also an underrated option for hotel bookings that include All-Inclusives and Vacasa Vacation Rentals.
| Program | Conversion |
| Aeromexico – Club Premier (Airline Partner) | 1:1 |
| Air Canada – Aeroplan (Airline Partner) | 1:1 |
| Air France KLM – Flying Blue (Airline Partner) | 1:1 |
| ALL – Accor Live Limitless (Hotel Partner) | 1:1/2 |
| Asia Miles | 1:1 |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 1:1 |
| British Airways Executive Club | 1:1 |
| Emirates – Emirates Skywards | 1:1 |
| Etihad Airways – Etihad Guest | 1:1 |
| EVA Air – Infinity MileageLands | 1 : .75 |
| Finnair – Finnair Plus | 1:1 |
| Qantas – Qantas Frequent Flyer | 1:1 |
| Singapore Airlines – KrisFlyer | 1:1 |
| TAP Miles&Go | 1:1 |
| Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | 1:1 |
| Wyndham Rewards | 1:1 |
Book through the Travel Portal
Flights, Hotels, and Car Rentals can be booked through the Capital One Travel Portal at a 1:1 redemption rate.
Statement Credit for Travel Purchases
Prior to Capital One adding the transfer partners, the ability to erase travel charges from the bank statement with rewards miles was the best use. Anything that codes as travel can be erased, including Airbnb and many excursion companies. When I first opened the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, the eraser option came in handy for a trip to Costa Rica. Simply, use a Rewards Miles credit card to cover the purchase and erase it with miles within 90 days.
Other options for redeeming Rewards Miles
There are a handful of other options found with the Capital One Rewards Miles portal. Options include purchasing gift cards to popular merchants like Amazon, redeeming for cash (statement credit or check), shopping directly through Amazon, or redeeming through PayPal. To be clear, I don’t recommend using any of these options as they reduce the value below the 1 cent per mile value that is found when redeeming for travel above.
How to Combine Capital One Rewards Miles
There are two different options for combining Capital One Rewards Miles: between accounts and between people.
Between Capital One Accounts
Simply click Move Rewards to transfer between eligible personal and business credit cards. For example, transferring spark miles to rewards miles. There have also been some data points suggesting that Capital One cashback credit cards can also transfer into Rewards Miles.
Transfer Rewards Miles to another person
To transfer to another person, simply call the number on the back of your credit card. As of now, there is no way to transfer between people in the online portal.
Basic Breakdown
The Capital One Rewards Miles program is certainly taking steps to be competitive with the other major credit card programs. I love the option to transfer to travel partners and am interested in the new products that are being released. Who else is loving the positive moves that have taken place with the Rewards Miles program?
I’d love to hear in the comments below or over in our 8,400+ Member Basic Travel Facebook Group!
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