Capital One Miles: How the Program Works
To get the most out of Capital One Miles, you'll want to use them for travel.
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If you have a Capital One travel credit card, you earn Capital One miles every time you use it to pay for something. Here’s what you need to know about those miles and how to get the most out of them.
Earning Capital One miles
Depending on which Capital One travel card you’re using, you'll earn 1.25 to 2 miles for every dollar you spend on purchases. You'll earn extra miles when you use your card to book travel through Capital One. Miles don't expire as long as your account remains in good standing. You'll get the most value out of your miles by redeeming them for travel. We'll get into redemption options later.
Cards that earn Capital One miles directly include:
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Annual fee: $395.
Rewards:
2 miles per dollar spent on purchases.
5 miles per dollar on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel.
10 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.
Bonus offer: Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
Annual fee: $95.
Rewards:
2 miles per dollar spent on purchases.
5 miles per dollar on hotels, vacation rentals and car rentals booked through Capital One Travel.
Bonus offer: Enjoy a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.
Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card - Miles Boost
Annual fee: $0.
Rewards:
1.25 miles per dollar spent on purchases.
5 miles per dollar spent on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.
Bonus offer: LIMITED-TIME OFFER: Earn $500 in travel bonuses. Enjoy $100 to use on Capital One Travel in your first cardholder year, plus earn 40,000 bonus miles once you spend $1,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening - that’s equal to $500 in travel.
Capital One Venture X Business
Annual fee: $395.
Rewards:
2 miles per dollar spent on purchases.
10 miles per dollar spent on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.
5 miles per dollar on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel.
Bonus offer: Earn 150,000 bonus miles once you spend $30,000 in the first 3 months from account opening.
Capital One Spark Miles for Business
$0 intro for the first year, then $95
Capital One Spark Miles for Business
Annual fee: $0 intro for the first year, then $95.
Rewards:
2 miles per dollar spent on purchases.
5 miles per dollar on hotels, vacation rentals and car rentals booked through Capital One Travel.
Bonus offer: Earn a one-time bonus of 50,000 miles – equal to $500 in travel – once you spend $4,500 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening.
Capital One also offers a no-annual-fee version of the Spark Miles card, the Capital One® Spark® Miles Select for Business. That card has a base rate of 1.5 miles per dollar spent, plus it earns 5 miles per dollar on hotels, vacation rentals and car rentals booked through Capital One Travel. Read our review of the Capital One® Spark® Miles Select for Business.
Transferring rewards from Savor
Nerds who have both a Venture-branded travel card and the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card confirm that you can transfer the cash-back rewards you earn on that card to your Venture. Such transfers come at a rate of 1 Capital One mile for each 1 cent transferred. The $0-annual-fee Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card earns 3% cash back on dining, entertainment, grocery stores and popular streaming services and 1% on other purchases. So pairing a Savor and a Venture can mean maximum mileage.
How to redeem Capital One miles
Capital One miles are most valuable when redeemed for travel. And there are multiple ways to do that.
Paying for travel directly
Use them to book travel through Capital One, or you can redeem them for credit on your statement against travel purchases. With either option, miles are worth 1 cent apiece. The big draw here is that you can book travel however you want — through Capital One or elsewhere, flying on any airline, staying at any hotel — and use your miles to pay for it. That's why the ubiquitous ads for the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card stress that there are no blackout dates or restrictions on how you use your miles.
You can use your miles to book travel through Capital One's portal. Miles are worth 1 cent apiece when redeemed this way. For example, if you wanted to book a plane ticket for $450, it would cost you 45,000 miles.
Alternatively, you can redeem your miles for statement credit against travel purchases, at the same 1-cent-per-point value. Say you used your card to purchase a plane ticket directly from the airline for $380. You could use 38,000 miles for a $380 credit that effectively wipes out the charge. This ability to book travel however you want and then use your miles to pay for it — without the blackout dates or restrictions that often complicate efforts to redeem hotel points or airline miles directly — is a key selling point in advertising for the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.
There is also no minimum redemption amount when using your miles for travel expenses.
Transferring to loyalty programs
Capital One lets you transfer your miles to the loyalty programs of more than 20 airline and hotel partners. In some cases, though, the transfer ratio is less than 1-to-1. Your points could be worth 1.6 cents when redeemed this way, according to NerdWallet's valuations, but the exact value you get depends on how you use the rewards in the program you moved them to.
Gift cards
This redemption option will also get you a value of around 1 cent per mile. The minimum number of miles needed to redeem for a gift card varies depending on the merchant. In most cases, gift cards start at $25, which means you'd need 2,500 miles. Sometimes gift cards will be "on sale" for redemption, so a $25 gift card might be 10% off and therefore would cost only 2,250 miles.
Other redemption options
You can use your Capital One miles for cash back in the form of a check or statement credit for a non-travel purchase. But cash-back redemptions cut the value of a mile in half, to 0.5 cents each. You'll need a minimum of 5,000 miles for a cash-back redemption.
The last word on Capital One miles
There isn't a lot of fine print in the Capital One rewards program that could trip you up. There’s no limit to the miles you can earn, and miles never expire as long as your account is open and in good standing. If you close your account, however, you’ll lose any unused miles.
Also, if you pay your credit card bill late and are charged a late fee, you won't earn miles during the billing cycle that the late fee was charged. But carrying a balance won’t affect your ability to earn rewards, as long as you make your minimum payment on time.
2x-10x
Miles75,000
Miles
2x-5x
Miles75,000
Miles
1%-8%
Cashback$100 Credit + $200 Cash Bonus
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