How To Cover Travel Purchases With Capital One Miles [Step-by-Step]

Capital One’s travel rewards credit cards earn valuable Capital One miles, which are versatile for many reasons. Not only can you transfer your miles to Capital One’s hotel and airline partners, but you can also redeem them for airfare, hotels, or rental cars through the Capital One travel portal.

However, there’s another lesser-known way to redeem Capital One miles: covering qualifying travel on your statement credit within 90 days of purchase.

It’s easy to use your Capital One miles in this way once you know how — keep reading to learn the step-by-step process!

What Qualifies as a Capital One Travel Purchase?

Capital One has 10 travel categories that qualify as a “travel purchase” on your statement credit:

Each Capital One mile is worth 1 cent when redeemed for travel within 90 days of the purchase.

Of course, there are more obvious travel categories in the list above, such as airlines and hotels. However, where Capital One miles become even more useful is the ability to use them to cover all other travel-related expenses, from cruises to train tickets. On the other hand, travel agents can be a trickier category to figure out. If you’re working one-on-one with a personal travel agent, they may (or may not) fall into Capital One’s travel category depending on what systems they use. Meanwhile, online travel agents (OTAs) like Expedia and even Costco Travel will fall under this travel category, and therefore you can cover these expenses within 90 days of purchase.

How To Cover Travel Purchases With Capital One Miles

Capital One makes it easy to cover all or part of a travel purchase with your Capital One miles. From either your desktop or mobile app, you’ll log in to your Capital One account and click on the box that displays your rewards balance.

Click on View Rewards if you’re on the desktop version. On the mobile app, you’ll just select your card to see your rewards balance. Next, you can see all the ways that you can redeem your miles, including Cover travel purchases.

Then, a box will appear that displays all of your qualifying travel purchases within the past 90 days.

From here, you’ll be able to scroll through your eligible travel purchases. As you can see in the screenshot above, you can see what the expense was, the amount, and how many miles you’ll need to cover the entire cost. If you don’t have enough miles or don’t want to use your entire balance, you can also elect to cover part of the purchase.

Other Ways To Use Capital One Miles for Travel

Using your Capital One miles to cover eligible travel purchases is just one of the ways to maximize these travel rewards. Remember that you can also transfer your miles to more than a dozen airline and hotel transfer partners or book new travel through the Capital One Travel portal.

Transfer Capital One Miles to Airline and Hotel Programs

In general, transferring your miles out to Capital One’s airline and hotel transfer partners is the best way to get the most value out of your miles.

For example, the screenshot below shows the cash rate for a Virgin Atlantic flight from San Francisco (SFO) to London (LHR), where an Economy Classic fare costs $765. If you were to book this same flight through Capital One Travel, you would either pay a similar cash rate or spend 76,500 Capital One miles as each mile is worth 1 cent per point through the portal.

Now if you decided instead to transfer your Capital One miles directly to Virgin Red (which you can then easily move to Virgin Atlantic), you would see that the same flight requires just 17,500 Virgin Points and $151.70 in taxes and fees. Thanks to a 1:1 transfer rate, you would need nearly 60,000 Capital One miles fewer by transferring your miles to Virgin Red — which is a fantastic deal despite the taxes and fees.

Sometimes, there are transfer bonuses that give your bonus miles when transferring your Capital One miles to transfer partners. Our Transfer Partner Calculator makes it easy to determine how many miles you need to transfer for the redemption that you want.

Note that the minimum transfer amount required for each loyalty program is 1,000 miles. Transfer times will vary, between instant transfers like with Wyndham Rewards to upwards of 36 hours with Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer.

It’s worth noting that transfer ratios from Capital One to a partner can vary as well. Thankfully, however, all but 2 transfer partners transfer at a 1:1 ratio. Accor Live Limitless (ALL) and EVA Infinity MileageLands transfer at 2:1 and 2:1.5, respectively.

Book Travel With Capital One Miles

Don’t want to deal with the headache of transferring your Capital One miles? The simplest way to book travel with your miles is by using the Capital One Travel portal. You can book flights, hotels, and rental cars through the portal at a rate of 1 cent per mile.

Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card holders also get exclusive access to The Premier Collection. Similar to Amex’s Fine Hotels + Resorts, The Premier Collection offers a portfolio of luxury hotels with premium perks for Capital One Venture X cardholders. Premier Collection hotels can be booked directly through the Capital One Travel portal. Perks include up to $100 experience credit (varies by hotel), complimentary breakfast for 2, a space-available room upgrade, and more.

Best Credit Cards for Earning Capital One Miles

There are 3 personal credit cards that earn Capital One miles:

In addition, these business cards earn Capital One miles:

In addition to lucrative welcome bonus offers, Capital One makes it easy to earn miles — especially on travel purchases. Each of these cards come with access to Capital One Travel, but Capital One Venture X cardholders come out ahead by earning 10x miles on hotels and rental cars and 5x miles on flights when booked directly through the portal. All of the other cards above will earn 5x miles on hotels and rental cars through the portal.

Each of these cards also earns between 1.25x and 2x miles on all other eligible purchases, making it easy to earn a lot of Capital One miles.

Final Thoughts

Most people are familiar with redeeming Capital One miles through transfer partners or via the Capital One Travel portal. Another great option to use your miles is to cover all or part of your travel purchases on your statement credit — and it’s easy and convenient to do so!

For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the above benefits are provided by Visa^® or Mastercard^® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply.

The information regarding the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information regarding the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information regarding the Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information regarding the Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.

Information regarding the Capital One Spark Miles for Business was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.