Capital One Miles Redemption: How To Use Capital One Miles (2024)

Capital One offers fixed-value redemptions for most of its rewards. This means that unless you transfer your miles to a travel partner, you’ll typically receive 1 cent per mile. Capital One has made redeeming miles seamless and effortless, with all your options available directly on the Capital One website or through the Capital One app.

Redeem For Future Travel

Capital One has an intuitive travel portal that makes it simple to redeem your miles. Search the Capital One travel portal for your city, dates and the number of people traveling. Then, on your checkout page, you can charge your card or redeem your miles at 1 cent each to cover some or all of the cost. So 25,000 miles would offset a $250 hotel stay.

Redeem for Recent Travel Purchases

If you’re unsure if you want to pay cash or miles at the time of booking, Capital One will let you use miles to offset past purchases from your credit card. Once logged into your account, choose the option called “Cover Travel Expenses,” and you’ll be presented with a list of purchases you’ve recently made on your card that are eligible for this redemption option.

This is a fantastic way to use your miles later, even if you didn’t feel comfortable committing to using them beforehand. Whether you book with miles before travel or use them afterward, you can redeem them at the same rate. There’s no downside to waiting for the charge to post first.

Even if you don’t have the miles needed to cover the stay today, you can likely book the room with your card with no financial risk. That’s because when you book with a hotel directly, the hotel often won’t charge your card until your arrival. Until then, you’ll have extra time to build your rewards balance.

Transfer To Travel Partners

Capital One has over 15 transfer partners to choose from. Moving points from Capital One to these partners allows you the chance to find even more value for your points. Here’s the full list and their transfer ratios.

When logged in to your account, head to the “Convert Rewards” box and click. This will take you to the list of all the transfer partners.

Find your program of choice and click on Transfer Miles. A popup window will appear where you can enter your account membership number. This is the membership number for your airline or hotel program, not your Capital One account.

Your name on your Capital One account has to be the same as your airline or hotel account. Otherwise, the transfer could be delayed or denied.

The last step is deciding how many miles you want to send. You’ll need to send them in 100-mile chunks with a minimum of 1,000 miles. Many transfers are instant, but some can take about 24 hours.

Redeem for Cash Back or Gift Cards

Though redeeming for cash back and gift cards is not a great option, it’s important to know that it exists. When redeeming for cash back, you’ll receive 0.5 cents per mile redeemed, a 50% loss compared to the option for eliminating travel purchases.

Most gift cards can be redeemed at a rate of 0.8 cents per point, while some may offer a better redemption value.

Before redeeming your miles for less than 1 cent a piece, consider whether you can wipe out a travel purchase or get more value from your miles another way.

Redeem for Tickets, Experiences and Events

You can redeem miles through the Capital One Entertainment platform for tickets to shows and sporting events. There are also several cardholder exclusive offers throughout the year such as presale or discounted tickets and VIP packages.

These events tend to sell out fast. So if you see something that catches your eye, don’t wait too long.