Capital One miles program: Your guide to earning and redeeming

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Capital One has become a significant player in the travel rewards world. In years past, the issuer had a limited credit card lineup with an even more limited loyalty program. Capital One miles could only be redeemed toward travel purchases at a fixed rate and its credit cards were often overlooked for no-annual-fee and cash-back cards.

All of that changed in 2018 when Capital One introduced a slew of airline and hotel transfer partners. Since then, Capital One has continued to expand its program, offering an impressive roster of transfer partners and credit cards that are gaining popularity over those issued by the likes of long-term players in the space American Express and Chase.

Capital One miles have become an incredibly valuable addition to a well-rounded travel rewards strategy. If you’re ready to learn how to earn and redeem Capital One miles for an incredible vacation, here’s everything you need to know to get started.

How to earn Capital One miles

There are two primary methods for earning Capital One miles. The most straightforward way is through credit card sign-up bonuses and by making purchases with Capital One credit cards.

At the moment, you can’t earn extra miles through a Capital One shopping portal, dining rewards program or shopping app like you can with some of the other major loyalty programs.

However, the issuer delivers an impressive lineup of rewards credit cards that offer substantial welcome bonuses, category bonuses and rewards for referring friends. If you’re in the market for more Capital One miles, here are all the ways you can earn them.

Earn Capital One miles from Capital One credit cards

Capital One has significantly improved its credit card offerings over the past few years. Currently, it offers four personal and three business credit cards in the travel rewards space. The unique thing about these cards is that they all earn more than one mile per dollar spent on non-bonus category spending, putting them ahead of competitive cards.

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

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

As discussed, Capital One also offers business credit cards, including:

Earn Capital One miles by adding an authorized user

Adding an authorized user to your card is a great way to earn more Capital One miles. And best of all, Capital One doesn’t impose any fees to add authorized users to the primary cardholder’s account.

Adding an authorized user is a great way to meet spending requirements, unlock a big welcome bonus and earn more miles on everyday purchases. It can also save you money on annual fees if you add a spouse or family member. Just be sure to recruit someone you can trust to pay their share of the bill at the end of the month.

Earn Capital One miles by referring a friend

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

Referral offers range depending on a number of factors. For example, you could be offered 20,000 miles per approved referral for the Venture card (up to 50,000 per year) and 25,000 miles per approval (up to 100,000 miles per year) for the Venture X card. Capital One will even give you a personal referral link that you can share via text, email or social media.

If your friends are in the market for a Capital One card and you’ve been raving about your own, this is a great way to get rewarded for it.

How to redeem Capital One miles

Whether you’re saving up for your dream trip or looking to take a dent out of your monthly bills, there are plenty of ways to redeem Capital One miles. You can use Capital One miles for some high-value options like redeeming miles towards travel purchases, transferring miles to Capital One’s 18 airline and hotel partners or for non-travel rewards such as cash back or gift cards.

You’ll generally get the most value by transferring to one of Capital One’s travel transfer partners. Here’s a look at all the ways to redeem Capital One miles.

Redeem Capital One miles by transferring to travel partners

In the past four years, Capital One has gone from having zero transfer partners to a whopping 18 airline and hotel transfer partners. Some of these partners overlap with other major programs like Amex Membership Rewards®, Bilt Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards® and Citi ThankYou Rewards. Popular hotel and airline loyalty programs are among them, giving you tons of options for redeeming Capital One miles.

Here’s a look at Capital One’s transfer partners:

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

Redeem Capital One miles for travel at a fixed value

If you’re looking for simplicity, you can use your Capital One miles to cover any travel expense you charge to your card. This includes hotel stays, Uber and Lyft rides, flights and other travel expenses. Just charge the eligible travel expense to your Capital One card and use points to cover the charge within 90 days. Your miles are worth 1 cent per miles when you do this.

This can sometimes be a better deal than transferring points to an airline or hotel partner when fares are low. You can find sometimes finds tickets to major European cities for under $500. For example, this round-trip Delta ticket from New York-JFK to London-Gatwick (LGW) can be booked for as low as $432 in basic economy or $614 in Main Cabin.

Meanwhile, you can book the same trip in Main Cabin by transferring 48,000 Capital One miles to Air France-KLM Flying Blue. Plus, you’ll pay $164.60 in taxes and fees.

In this scenario, if you’re comfortable with flying basic economy, it makes sense to pay for the $432 ticket with your Capital One card and redeem 43,200 Capital One miles to offset the purchase. We also recommend doing this for a Main Cabin ticket. The 61,400 miles requited to offset the $614 ticket offers a higher cent per point value than transferring 48,000 miles to Flying Blue and paying the $164.60 in taxes and fees.

Generally speaking, if you favor a simple approach to redeeming Capital One miles, redeeming at 1 cent apiece toward any travel purchase you’ve made in the last 90 days is a valuable strategy.

You can also redeem Capital One miles at 1 cent per point through the Capital One Travel portal, but you’ll often have more flexibility with your booking if you book direct with the airline or hotel.

Redeem for other fixed redemptions

Outside of travel redemptions, Capital One miles can be redeemed between 0.5 cents and 0.8 cents apiece. You can use 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 highest return will be lower than what your miles are worth for travel redemptions.

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

How much are Capital One miles worth?

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

If figuring out the best way to maximize Capital One miles sounds tedious, there is a simpler option: You can redeem Capital One miles for travel purchases made with your credit card at 1 cent apiece. This can be a great option if award space is limited or you don’t want to research award rules for different airline programs.

Looking for a travel credit card? Find out which cards CNN Underscored Money chose as the best travel credit cards currently available.