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Capital One miles became a transferable points currency after originally only having the ability to be used to offset travel purchases on your monthly statement.
Even though you can still use Capital One points for a fixed value to cover travel expenses, to book travel through Capital One, or even redeem them for gift cards, you’ll get the best value by making use of the Capital One transfer partners.
If you’ve had a Capital One credit card but are new to miles and points, learn who the Capital One transfer partners are and how to redeem Capital One miles for the maximum value.
Every mile earned is the result of your everyday spending and monthly bills. The more you learn, the more you’ll be able to redeem your points like a pro.
In this guide, I’ll cover everything you need to get started with the Capital One transfer partners.
Which credit card(s) do I need to earn and get access to the Capital One transfer partners?
Capital One offers a few travel rewards credit cards and business credit cards that earn Capital One miles and have access to the Capital One airline transfer partners. These cards include:
- Capital One Venture X
- Capital One Venture Rewards
- Capital One VentureOne Rewards
- Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business
- Capital One Spark Miles for Business
The Capital One Venture X, Venture Rewards, and Spark Miles cards earn 2x the Capital One miles for every dollar you spend.
The VentureOne earns 1.25 miles per dollar spent, while the Spark Miles Select earns 1.5 miles for each dollar.Â
Who are the Capital One transfer partners?
There are 15 Capital One airline partners and 3 Capital One hotel partners.
The Capital One airline partners are:
- Aeromexico
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Avianca
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Emirates
- Etihad
- Eva Air
- Finnair
- Flying Blue- Air France/KLM
- Qantas
- Singapore Airlines
- Tap Air Portugal Miles & Go
- Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
- Virgin Red (There are several ways to use these points, but redeeming them for flights is undoubtedly the best value, which is why they’re listed as an airline transfer partner.)
The Capital One hotel partners are:
- ALL – Accor Live Limitless
- Choice Privileges
- Wyndham Rewards
What is the transfer ratio for Capital One miles to their partner airlines?
Capital One has made significant changes to its transfer partner ratios for the better! It’s clear with this move that Capital One is looking to be a major player in the flexible points arena, competing with banks like American Express, Chase, and Citi.
All Capital One miles transfer to their airline partners at a 1:1 ratio, EXCEPT for Eva Air, which transfers at a 2:1.5 ratio.
Capital One miles transfer to their hotel partners, Choice Privileges and Wyndham Rewards, at a 1:1 ratio. When you transfer your Capital One miles to ALL, Accor Hotel’s loyalty program, you’ll get a 2:1 transfer ratio.
Consider the Capital One Venture X and Venture Rewards cards earn 2 miles for every dollar spent. At a 1:1 transfer ratio for nearly all of the Capital One transfer partners, there’s a serious and compelling reason to target non-bonused spending to earn this valuable flexible award travel currency.
If you’ve had a Capital One miles-earning credit card from before Capital One added transfer partners, you were likely in the habit of redeeming your Capital One miles to offset travel purchases from your credit card statement.
When using your miles in this way, your Capital One miles have a fixed 1 cent per point value.
But, when used to book an award seat with an airline transfer partner, especially if it’s in a premium class, you can get a far greater return value for fewer miles out of pocket.
Consider that Aeroplan charges 110k miles to fly round-trip business class from Seattle to Tokyo. You’d need to transfer 110k Capital One miles to Aeroplan to book this award.
Google Flights, on the other hand, shows a rough average cash price of $3k for a round-trip business class itinerary from Seattle to Tokyo.
If you purchased this flight and used Capital One miles to offset the purchase on your statement instead of transferring miles to Aeroplan, you’d need 300k Capital One miles to cover the charge.
Put that in perspective, you could almost fly 3 people round trip in business to Tokyo by transferring Capital One miles compared to getting just 1 round trip business class ticket when not transferring miles.
Convinced how transfer partners (when maximized) can dramatically increase the return value of your flexible points, like Capital One miles?!?
How long does it take for Capital One miles to transfer?
Many transfers to Capital One travel partners happen instantly.
However, some Capital One mile transfers take between 1-2 days. These transfer partners include ALL- Accor Live Limitless, Etihad, Eva, Qantas, and Singapore.
Cathay Pacific appears to be the outlier taking the longest amount of time, 4-5 days.
Please note, I haven’t yet tested every transfer partner’s processing time. The information above is compiled from my own experiences, data points on Flyertalk, from my Facebook Group, and a consensus from the miles and points community.
These transfer times are not a guarantee and as always, your mileage may vary.
No matter what, though, never transfer miles from any flexible point program until you’ve checked and confirmed the award availability you need.
Once you transfer Capital One miles to an airline, you can’t reverse the transfer.
So, what happens if a transfer takes too long? How can you protect your valuable miles from being stranded in an airline account where the award space has vanished?
- Ask the airline to place the award you’d like to book on hold to allow for a points transfer to process. Not every airline does this, but some will.
- Always have a Plan B. Are you flexible with your dates or destination? Are you willing to position to another airport?
- If not, is there another future trip you can use the miles for?
Can I share my Capital One miles with others?
You can share your Capital One miles with any person who has one of the Venture or Spark cards.
This is less restrictive than Chase or American Express and doesn’t come with any of the time restrictions Citi imposes on point transfers to family and friends.
However, you can’t transfer Capital One miles to another person’s airline or hotel frequent flyer account.
Your name must match on both your Capital One and loyalty program accounts for the transfer to a partner to work.
How do I transfer points to Capital One partners?
Just like transferring points to airline and hotel partners in other flexible point currencies like Amex Membership Rewards, log in to your Capital One online account and choose the transfer miles option.
From there, you’ll pick the airline partner and enter your loyalty program details.
Keep in mind, Capital One miles can only be transferred in 1k mile increments.
Why not just earn miles or points for the airline I want to use instead of earning Capital One miles?
Transferable points and miles are flexible. They aren’t limited to just 1 airline loyalty program.
On the contrary, United Airlines miles are always United Airlines miles. Yes, they can be used with their airline alliance partners, but they’ll always be subject to United Airlines’ availability, pricing, and booking rules.
Capital One miles can be used across any of the 17 Capital One travel partners.
Transferrable points like Capital One miles or Chase Ultimate Rewards also provide decent protection against an airline devaluing its award chart.
For example, if Aeroplan Air Canada devalues its award program, you can transfer your Capital One miles to another airline partner. Your Capital One miles keep their value instead of fluctuating based on the decisions of a particular airline.
Who are the best transfer partners to redeem Capital One miles?
You might be flush with Capital One miles. After all, the Venture Rewards and Venture X cards are among the most popular travel rewards credit cards!
With the addition of airline & hotel transfer partners, your Capital One card and your miles gained tremendous value.
It’s important to realize, though, all airline & hotel transfer partners are not created equally. Each airline and hotel has its own award pricing and sweet spots…or lack thereof.
The ideas below highlight a few of the better transfer partners when using Capital One miles. The more you learn about each transfer partner, the better you’ll become at redeeming your Capital One miles and maximizing the right airline transfer partners.
Avianca LifeMiles are a less expensive way to book Star Alliance award flights compared to what United would charge for the exact same flights.
If you’re someone who is over 5/24, Avianca is a great way to access Star Alliance flights, especially if your Ultimate Rewards and United accounts are low on points.
Find deals on domestic routes operated by United whether you’re hoping for a city break or finally checking the Grand Canyon off your bucket list.
Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles is an airline program that has gained in popularity, particularly for a few notable sweet spots.
Turkish Airlines is a member of the Star Alliance along with United. It’s possible to book United flights for a lot less than what United would charge for the exact same flights.
In particular, award flights to Hawaii are super cheap and one of the best miles and points redemptions available. Getting to Hawaii for 15k Turkish miles round trip is an absolute steal, even when you consider the effort you might need to get the flight booked.
Aeroplan Air Canada is another valuable Capital One transfer partner. In addition to the round trip business class to Tokyo example from above, you can fly in business class to western Europe from North America for just 120k Aeroplan miles.
You could fly to Italy with miles in business class on a Star Alliance partner like United for less than what United would charge!
It’s also worth pointing out, Singapore Airlines and Flying Blue (Air France/KLM) are transfer partners for all flexible points currency programs.
This means if you’re low on Chase UR points, Citi ThankYou points, Amex MR points or Marriott Bonvoy points, you could transfer Capital One miles to these airline loyalty programs to add to your overall mileage balance.
So, which Capital One transfer partner would you like to use?Â
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