Capital One Transfer Partners: What to Know | LendingTree (2024)

On this page

• Capital One transfer partners
• Best travel partners
• Least valuable transfer partners
• How to transfer miles
• Why transfer miles?
• Capital One Travel vs. transfer partners
• Cards that earn Capital One miles
• Tips for transferring miles
• FAQs

Capital One has a variety of travel rewards cards that allow you to rack up miles that you can use for travel at home and abroad. You can transfer Capital One miles to more than 15 airline and hotel loyalty programs to get the most value out of your rewards. While Capital One doesn’t partner with any major U.S. airlines, there are a few valuable programs in the list, including Avianca and Aeroplan.

This guide explains how to transfer your miles from your Capital One credit card to their transfer partners as well as which partners offer the most valuable rewards.

You’ll receive the highest value from your Capital One miles when you transfer them to a Capital One airline or hotel partner that converts on a 1:1 ratio and doesn’t charge fees.

Capital One currently partners with 18 travel loyalty programs. That includes 15 airline partners and four hotel partners with one program — Virgin Red — being in both categories. Most Capital One transfer partners offer a 1:1 transfer ratio, so you won’t lose any miles as you transfer them.

Current list of Capital One airline partners

Capital One has 15 airline partners that represent the three major airline alliances — Oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance.

Two airlines, Emirates and Etihad, aren’t part of an airline alliance, but you can move your Capital One miles to either of these airlines. They partner with various international airlines, which means you can, for example, transfer miles to Emirates if you want to use them to book with Japan Airlines.

If your preferred airline isn’t a Capital One partner, you may be able to redeem miles with it via an airline alliance.

Current list of Capital One hotel partners

Four hotel partners are eligible for Capital One miles transfers.

Choice Privileges Hotels

You’ll generally lose value on your Capital One miles by transferring them to the Choice Privileges program, where points are typically worth less than 1 cent apiece. Furthermore, while many travelers are seeking to redeem points for aspirational travel, the majority of Choice hotel locations are on the budget end of the spectrum.

ALL Accor Live Limitless

As the only hotel program whose points transfer at a ratio less than 1:1, Accor offers less value than its counterparts. For 2,000 miles Accor Live Limitless deducts 40 Euros from your bill. This appears to be a good deal until you remember this requires 4,000 Capital One miles due to the 1: 0.5 transfer ratio. At this rate, you’re better off booking your stay with Capital One Travel and paying with cash or using your miles for a statement credit.

EVA Infinity MileageLands

EVA Air is the only Capital One airline partner that transfers at a lower ratio. For every 1,000 Capital One miles you transfer, you only get 750 EVA Infinity miles. It also features a more expensive award chart. You’re better off transferring miles to a different Star Alliance program, like Air Canada Aeroplan or Avianca LifeMiles.

The process to transfer your Capital One miles is simple.

Here’s how to do it, step by step:

1. Log into CapitalOne.com.
2. Select your eligible Capital One credit card.
3. Click on “View Rewards.”
4. Choose the option you want to use.
5. Follow the prompts to complete the transfer.
6. Receive a confirmation email and save it for your records.

Note that the minimum number of miles you can transfer is 1,000. You must also transfer miles in increments of 1,000. For example, if you need 15,500 miles to book an award flight, you’ll need to transfer 16,000 Capital One Miles to the partner airline. The remaining 500 miles won’t go to waste; they can be used on your next trip.

Transfers aren’t always instant but you can generally expect them to be completed within 24 hours. Remember that transfers are final and cannot be reversed.

When you transfer miles between programs, make sure that the name on your credit card matches the name on your loyalty program account. Also, take a few minutes to ensure your address, email and phone number are up-to-date.

Transferring your Capital One miles to an airline or hotel loyalty program partner is likely to get the most value. You can find deals that make your miles worth up to 2 cents each — much higher than the 1 cent value you get from redeeming miles through the Capital One Travel portal.

Plus, adding your Capital One miles to an existing balance helps you earn rewards faster. Occasionally transfer bonuses are offered and give you even more value.

To illustrate the value of booking miles with one of the Capital One airline transfer partners, we’ll compare a flight through the Capital One Travel portal versus using British Airways Avios. We’ve chosen a one-way flight on Jan. 2, 2025.

The flight, operated by American Airlines, costs 16,000 Avios plus $5.60. Since Capital One Miles transfer at a 1:1 ratio to British Airways, you would have to transfer 16,000 Capital One Miles to book this award.

The same flight is available through Capital One Travel. It costs $608 (or 60,000 miles) — that’s 375% more miles. Transferring miles is a much better option in this case.

Another option is to book the flight through Capital One Travel with a Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card to earn 5x miles on the purchase. For the above example, you would earn 3,040 miles — so it wouldn’t outmatch the savings you would get from transferring the miles. But it could be worth it in other cases.

Capital One has six travel cards for consumers and business owners. Two cards have no annual fee while the others have fees and include various travel perks and protections.

Welcome bonuses and earning rates vary among the cards. With the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, you can earn up to 10x miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.

• Sign up for the loyalty program before transferring your miles if you’re not already a member. Have your ID on hand if a passport or driver’s license information is needed to register.
• Verify that a flight has plenty of award space before transferring your miles.
• Some airline programs allow you to put an award flight on hold to give you time to transfer miles. You should investigate whether this is an option for your chosen airline program.
• Your name and important contact information must match those in your loyalty program and Capital One account. Addresses and phone numbers are generally easy to update. However, if there’s an error in your birthdate or your ID, you may need additional customer service support.
• Rewards can’t be transferred back to your Capital One account, so be sure you want to make the transaction.
• Put as much of your spending on your Capital One travel credit card as possible to accumulate more miles.

Charlotte Zhang

Charlotte Zhang is a credit cards writer at LendingTree, where she explains credit cards and other personal finance topics in simple terms to help readers with financial decisions.

Charlotte believes learning about personal finance is a vital skill to prepare people for different financial scenarios in life.

Prior to joining LendingTree in 2023, she spent more than a decade contributing to personal finance and insurance websites, as well as parenting, education and travel websites and magazines. Before writing professionally, she taught English in China for over a decade.

Outside of work, she enjoys knitting, spending time with her husband and two kids and leading 4-H activities for community youth.

Specialties

• Credit card reviews
• Credit scores and building credit
• Budgeting
• Life insurance

Achievements

• 14+ years of personal finance writing experience
• 60+ articles written for LendingTree
• Writing has also been published in U.S. News & World Report, USA Today, The Penny Hoarder, Money Under 30 and The Simple Dollar

Education

• Bachelor of Science, Martin Luther College

Charlotte’s favorite credit cards

“I love the simplicity of cash back credit cards. I use the Discover it® Cash Back for its rotating categories and Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card to get 2% back on everything else.”

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