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Capital One is at it again with a recently-announced 25% bonus on points transferred to Avianca LifeMiles through 11:59 p.m. ET on July 31, 2019. Ever since Capital One revamped its loyalty program by adding airline transfer partners, the program has become much more competitive.
This bonus is only available if you have one of the following Capital One cards:
- 50,000 Miles after spending $3,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening; worth $500 in travel if redeemed for a fixed-value, or potentially much more when transferred to airline partners
- 2 Miles on every purchase, plus earn 5 Miles on hotel bookings and car rentals through Capital One Travel
- Fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre✔® (up to $100)
- No foreign transaction fees
- $0 intro for first year; $95 after that
- 2 Miles per dollar on every purchase, every day.
- 5 Miles on hotels and car rentals through Capital One Travel
- 20,000 Miles once you spend $1,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening; worth $200 in travel if redeemed for a fixed-value, or potentially much more when transferred to airline partners
- 1.25 Miles on every purchase, plus earn 5 Miles on hotel bookings and car rentals through Capital One Travel
- 0% intro APR on purchases for 12 months; 14.49% - 24.49% variable APR after that
- No foreign transaction fees
- $0 annual fee
- 1.25 Miles per dollar on every purchase, every day.
- 5 Miles on hotels and car rentals through Capital One Travel
- 50,000 Miles once you spend $4,500 on purchases within 3 months from account opening; worth $500 in travel if redeemed for a fixed-value, or potentially much more when transferred to airline partners
- 2 Miles per $1 on every purchase, everywhere
- 5 Miles on hotel and rental car bookings through Capital One Travel℠
- Fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre✔® (up to $100)
- No foreign transaction fees
- $0 intro for first year; $95 after that
- 2 Miles per $1 on every purchase, everywhere.
- 5 Miles on hotel and rental car bookings through Capital One Travel℠
- 20,000 Miles Miles once you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening; worth $200 in travel if redeemed for a fixed-value, or potentially much more when transferred to airline partners
- 1.5 Miles per $1 on every purchase
- 5 Miles on hotel and rental car bookings through Capital One Travel℠
- Intro APR of 0% on purchases for 9 months; 14.49% - 22.49% variable APR after that
- No foreign transaction fees
- $0 annual fee
- 1.5 Miles per $1 on every purchase.
- 5 Miles on hotel and rental car bookings through Capital One Travel℠
Capital One Partners
Capital One points are transferrable to these 15 airline partners:
| Transfer Partner | Transfer Ratio |
|---|---|
| Aeromexico Club Premier | 2:1.5 or 1000:750 |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 2:1.5 or 1000:750 |
| Air France/KLM Flying Blue | 2:1.5 or 1000:750 |
| Alitalia MilleMiglia | 2:1.5 or 1000:750 |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 2:1.5 or 1000:750 |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 2:1.5 or 1000:750 |
| Emirates Skywards | 2:1 or 1000:500 |
| Etihad Guest | 2:1.5 or 1000:750 |
| EVA Air Infinity MileageLands | 2:1.5 or 1000:750 |
| Finnair Plus | 2:1.5 or 1000:750 |
| Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings Club | 2:1.5 or 1000:750 |
| JetBlue TrueBlue | 2:1 or 1000:500 |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 2:1.5 or 1000:750 |
| Qatar Airways Privilege Club | 2:1.5 or 1000:750 |
| Singapore KrisFlyer | 2:1 or 1000:500 |
As seen in the chart above, most transfers are at a 2:1.5 ratio. Incorporating the 25% bonus, 1,000 Capital One points convert into 938 LifeMiles, resulting in an almost 1:1 ratio. Although the transfer rate may appear lower than the typical 1:1 ratios seen with Chase, Citi, or Amex, the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card and Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business both earn a base 2x points per dollar, effectively earning up to 1.5x airline miles on every dollar spent. That’s a top return on non-bonus spending – better than you’ll receive on most co-brand airline cards.
Avianca LifeMiles
Avianca is part of Star Alliance; the largest global alliance with 28 airline partners. Avianca does not impose fuel surcharges, which is a significant savings, especially when redeeming with carriers that are notorious for adding on surcharges (i.e. Lufthansa). Furthermore, Avianca's award chart allows for various sweet spot opportunities, including:
- Transcontinental business class awards within the U.S. for 25,000 miles
- U.S. to Europe in business class for 63,000 miles
- U.S. to Europe in first class for 87,000 miles
- U.S. to Southeast Asia in business class for 78,000 miles
- U.S. to North Asia in first class for 90,000 miles
Using LifeMiles on a ticket to Europe, would, for example, allow you to fly with Luftansa but avoid paying the hefty surcharges that the carrier imposes on its awards. Although it only costs 60,000 United miles to fly to Europe in business class on a United-operated flight, awards with other Star Alliance carriers start at 70,000 miles. Thus, paying 63,000 LifeMiles for a U.S.-to-Europe award (especially with no fuel surcharges) is a no-brainer. A 25,000 transcontinental business class award is a good bet as well, especially since United made its award chart dynamic.
In addition to flying and crediting your ticket to Avianca, there are plenty of ways to earn LifeMiles. Amex, Citi, and Marriott are also transfer partners. However, if you still cannot gather enough LifeMiles for a ticket, Avianca permits purchases of up to 60% of the miles needed for an award. When you purchase LifeMiles, it counts as an airfare purchase, resulting in additional points earned when using a credit card with a travel category bonus.
Our Take
Capital One continues to strengthen its rewards program by offering lucrative transfer bonuses to airlines. The 25% bonus on points transferred to LifeMiles provides an opportunity to book discounted award tickets with no extra fuel surcharges. If you have an award redemption with a Star Alliance carrier in mind, this transfer bonus is a good one to jump on.
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Not a big fan of their hard products
I guess that there will be more updates on the Avianca in the months to come.
I always wait for transfer bonuses if possible when using transferable points. It can really boost your points value. Looking at history of boluses can be helpful to predict when you may see new transfer bonus.
Definitely. In fact, I’d nominate this topic as a running post by AW… accumulating the history of programs’ transfer dates and offers to make those predictions! If there’s a trend like you suggest, it would be enormously helpful to folks.
Avianca has lower prices for Latin America to US flights but miles program are not that interesting.
Wow all transfer partners of Lifemiles have had transfer promos recently.
Free bonus miles are always nice.
Hadn’t heard of Avianca before but Star Alliance helps
What I do not like about CapOne is they always pull from all three CBs.
Awesome deal. Just transferred 100k.
I miss the days when Avianca’s award chart called Guam “domestic US” and you could fly to Tokyo for 12,500 miles.
CapitalOne does not like me.
LifeMiles is not an interesting program. Avianca has limited availability of its own flights and finding flights with its partners is not easy.
This is a very good deal, and I just took advantage of it!
This was a nice promo. I also got 10k points back as I have the rewards + card. Citi is now my favorite over UR and Amex MR.
Avianca is a company that struggles to survive and needs to grow back, so they have to launch interesting deals for passengers.I bet that is more to come!
Capital One makes it SO easy to cash out for rewards & transfers. No limitations like other cards have. I recommend for this reason alone!
With all the recent news about the data breech at Capitol One, it certainly makes me pause long and hard before considering opening a new account with them.