Best ways to spend your Capital One welcome bonus (2024)

Now that you’ve got a hefty pile of travel rewards, how should you spend it?

Well, traditional wisdom states that you should redeem your miles through Capital One Travel to score a free flight, hotel or rental car. But in truth, that’s the third best option in terms of value. In fact, while 75,000 points will always be worth $750 via Capital One Travel, our first option here could potentially stretch their value up to 2 cents per point (CPP), or $1,500 in value.

So without further ado, let’s explore the 3 best ways to spend Capital One miles.

1. Transfers – up to 2 CPP

It should come as no surprise to veteran travelers that transferring your miles is actually the best way to maximize them.

But before we discuss which transfer partners present the best value-multipliers, let’s look at a complete list of our options:

1:1 Transfer Partners

• Aeromexico Club Premier
• Air Canada – Aeroplan
• Cathay Pacific – Asia Miles
• Avianca LifeMiles
• British Airways Executive Club
• Choice Privileges
• Emirates Skywards
• Etihad Guest
• Finnair Plus
• Flying Blue
• Qantas Frequent Flyer
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• TAP Miles&Go
• Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
• Virgin Red
• Wyndham Rewards

Other transfer partners

• EVA Air (Infinity MileageLands): 1,000 Capital One miles:750 miles
• ALL (Accor Live Limitless): 1,000 Capital One miles:500 points

Now, which program should you move your Capital One miles to for maximum value?

By our measure, you’ll probably get the most bang-for-buck with Air Canada, where Aeroplan points can be worth up to 2 cents each if you find the right deal. Have a look at the airline’s redemption charts and you’ll notice that one-way flights on partner airlines – including United – start at just 6,000 Aeroplan points.

Turkish Airlines is another great option, with flights from North American to Turkey starting at just 40,000 points one-way. That means your 75,000-mile welcome bonus could cover the bulk of a round-trip to Istanbul (and the best-tasting baklava in the world).

On the hotel side, you don’t have many options to begin with so it becomes an easy choice. Accor Live Limitless (ALL) only accepts Cap One Miles at a weak 2:1 ratio and Choice Privileges points are generally worth under a penny each, so neither option is really worth considering.

That leaves Wyndham Rewards, where thankfully, your points are worth around 1.1 cents each. That means you could theoretically transfer 75,000 Cap One miles and get ~$825 in value booking with brands like Ramada, LaQuinta, Dolce and The Registry Collection.

Needless to say, if you’re willing to put in a little effort and research, it’s easy to get over one cent per mile out of your Cap One stash through a well-planned transfer.

2. Cover Recent Travel Purchases – Up to 1.05 CPP (sort of)

If you’re unable to find a transfer that helps with your upcoming travel plans, your next instinct might be to redeem your miles through Capital One Travel. After all, you’ll get a full penny-per-mile that way–meaning your 75,000 bonus could cover an entire $750 flight to baklava-town.

But before you start salivating at the thought of a honey-drizzled Mediterranean treat, allow me to point out a massively underrated redemption option: covering your travel purchases.

See, Capital One allows you to redeem your miles for eligible travel expenses on your Venture card going back 90 days. The redemption rate is one mile per cent, so if you booked a rental car 87 days ago for $150, you could use 15,000 miles to cover the charge from your account.

According to Capital One, eligible travel expenses generally include:

• Airlines
• Hotels
• Rail lines
• Car rental agencies
• Limousine services
• Bus lines
• Cruise lines
• Taxi cabs
• Travel agents
• Timeshare annual fees and rentals

Now, here’s why redeeming your miles with the travel eraser is actually a better option than redeeming them through Capital One Travel.

Let’s say you have a $750 flight coming up:

• If you book the flight through Capital One Travel using 75,000 miles, you won’t pay anything out of pocket–but you also won’t get any rewards from the booking, either.

• By contrast, if you book your $750 flight on Capital One Travel using your Venture card (VentureOne, Venture or Venture X), you’ll earn 5X or 3,750 miles on the booking worth $37.50 towards future travel. Then, when your $750 charge hits your statement, you can simply cover it with your 75,000 miles.

So even though redeeming for travel technically only has a redemption rate of one cent per mile, it enables you to earn an extra 5X by booking upfront using your Venture card and simply erasing the charge later. In that way, it (sort of) generates 1.05 cents per mile in value.

3. Capital One Travel – 1 CPP

Even though you’ll earn more miles by booking with your Venture card and covering the expense later, there may still be reasons you’d prefer to book with miles instead.

Maybe you’re trying to keep your credit utilization low for the benefit of your credit score. Maybe you’re worried the travel expense won’t be eligible for covering later (even though on paper, most flights, hotels and rental cars should be).

Or maybe you just like that feeling of booking a trip for “free.”

Whatever the case, redeeming your miles through Capital One Travel is definitely still a viable option. To the uninitiated, Capital One Travel is a portal site where you can book flights, hotels and rental cars using cash, miles or a combo of both. It works a lot like KAYAK.com, and it’s just as intuitive:

Miles are always worth a penny each on Capital One Travel, which keeps things extremely simple. And sometimes, if you’re just looking to get away without having to worry about transfer rates or “eligible” travel expenses, the simplest redemption option may be the best overall.

The takeaway

Capital One Miles may not be the most versatile points on the market, but that might actually serve to their benefit. With so few redemption options worth at least a penny each, you’re less likely to be paralyzed by choice.
Plus, it’s nice that all three options listed above encourage you to keep traveling. You have to get out of the house in order to maximize your miles, so that trip to Iowa, Italy or Istanbul isn’t just aspirational anymore–it’s logical.

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