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The changes below have taken effect, and this post is no longer being updated. Here is our archive of major updates from card issuers and loyalty programs.
For the most up-to-date information, see our guide to Capital One transfer partners.
Capital One has quietly shared—via the transfer miles page—that two loyalty programs are leaving the Capital One Miles transfer program on May 13, 2020. After today, cardholders will no longer be able to transfer miles to Hainan Airways Fortune Wings Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club. This was first caught by Doctor of Credit today, meaning cardholders are getting almost no notice before this change.
Key Terms
- Hainan Airways and Qatar Airways are leaving the Capital One transfer program effective May 13, 2020
- You will no longer be able to transfer miles to these programs on or after May 13.
What's the Damage?
In our post covering Capital One's transfer partners, we discussed how both of these partners weren't all that lucrative for cardholders in the first place.
Hainan Airways is an airline from mainland China. Its loyalty program—Fortune Wings Club—is also the loyalty program for a slew of other non-alliance Chinese carriers. Award pricing is complex, with different distance-based award charts for each partner airline. In most cases, it’s not especially rewarding. However, it might come in handy if you needed a short, domestic flight in China.
Qatar's Privilege Club is a similar story. Although it's a member of the Oneworld Alliance, partner award pricing generally isn't very competitive—nor is pricing for its own flights, for that matter. The one circumstance when transferring Capital One Miles to Privilege Club could be a good idea was to take advantage of an ‘Easy Deal‘ promo.
Our Take
Capital One has been really busy adjusting the benefits of its credit card portfolio recently. Last month we saw the start of a ‘Capital One Offers' program in beta as well as two newly added redemption options for mileage-earning cards.
The hard pill to swallow in this is how little notice cardmembers received. Even if there weren't a lot of people taking advantage of these partners, the few that were are now left out to dry with one day notice. That's simply unacceptable.
Thankfully, this shouldn't be too painful of a loss for most Capital One cardholders. However, if you've been meaning to transfer miles to Hainan or Qatar, you ought to do it today!
Have you redeemed miles with Hainan or Qatar?
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