Capital One's 4 Most Valuable Transfer Partners

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For a limited time, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is offering an all-time high 100,000 bonus miles after meeting the minimum spending requirements.

This massive bonus launched around the same time Capital One announced game-changing improvements to its loyalty program. In April, the bank added four new transfer partners and upgraded seven existing partners so that your Venture Miles convert into substantially more airline and hotel rewards.

So right now, you can earn an unprecedented number of Venture Miles—and those miles are more valuable than ever before.

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

How to Apply

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

Annual Fee$95

Welcome Offer Earn 100,000 Miles when you spend $20,000 on purchases in the first 12 months from account opening, or still earn 50,000 miles if you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.

Show more

Why We Like ItHighlightsEarning Rates

Following the revamp of Capital One's rewards program and the addition of airline transfer partners, the Capital One Venture has catapulted into our list of top travel rewards cards. The ability to earn 2X miles on every purchase provides a decent return on spending. Plus the card offers some great perks.

• Earn 100,000 Miles when you spend $20,000 on purchases in the first 12 months from account opening, or still earn 50,000 miles if you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months; worth $600 in travel if redeemed for a fixed-value, or potentially much more when transferred to airline partners
• 2 Miles on every purchase
• Fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre✔^® (up to $100)
• No foreign transaction fees
• $95 annual fee

• 2 Miles per dollar on every purchase, every day.

Let's get one thing straight: when it comes to transfer partners, more options are always better. Every program—even a minor or obscure one—brings its own unique advantages. If there is a downside to having so many partners, it's that too many options can distract your attention from where the real value lies.

So in this post, we’re going to highlight the key partners to focus on for maximum value.

Why You Should Get the Capital One Venture Card

The sky-high welcome bonus and significantly increased value of Venture Miles aren't the only things that make this card so appealing. The Capital One Venture earns 2X miles on every purchase, every day. Forget about complicated bonus categories, and make this card the one you confidently pull out of your wallet for everything you buy.

If you like the simplified way you earn points, you'll love the fact that each mile is worth a minimum of 1¢ towards travel. As you'll see in a moment, the best transfer partners can deliver far more value. But it's nice to have a backup plan—especially when the level of difficulty is close to zero. With Capital One purchase eraser, you can redeem points to get a statement credit for virtually any travel purchase you make with your card.

And lastly, Capital One gives card members the ability to share/combine miles with anyone—a feature unmatched by any other major bank.  If you often travel with a partner, the ease of combining miles is a big reason why both of you should consider getting this card.

When you add up these benefits and consider the modest $95 annual fee, it's easy to see why we think the Capital One Venture is one of the most exciting credit cards available today.

Want More Details? Here's our dedicated post covering the Capital One Venture card's benefits and its 100,000-mile limited-time offer.

How We Picked the Best Transfer Partners

To determine the best transfer partners of Capital One (or any program, really), it essentially comes down to three factors:

1. Transfer Rate – While other major bank currencies tend to stick to a ratio of 1:1, Capital One has three different transfer ratios. Naturally, the partners that give you the best conversion rate (one point for each Venture Mile transferred) have a big head start over those with an inferior ratio.
2. Competitive Pricing – The next factor we considered is the partner program’s award pricing. A good transfer ratio won’t do any good if an award ticket or free hotel night is too expensive.
3. Diversity of Usefulness – Lastly, we considered whether a program offers attractive prices for a diverse set of trips. Almost every program can outshine the competition in specific situations. But unless you’re a true points-and-miles fanatic, it’s just not practical to learn about all of them.

Best Partner Overall: Avianca LifeMiles

It should come as no surprise that we're big fans of Avianca LifeMiles around here. As a Star Alliance member, LifeMiles offers some of the most generous award pricing you can find. The program doesn't add fuel surcharges to your out-of-pocket costs, or charge close-in booking fees. Plus, you can pay for award tickets using a combination of miles and cash, providing ultimate flexibility.

Here are some examples of the great redemptions possible with Avianca LifeMiles:

Denver (DEN) to Chicago (ORD) in United Economy

Newark (EWR) to Paris (CDG) in United Business Class

Save with Mixed Cabin Class Bookings

A unique feature of Avianca LifeMiles is that you can mix and match cabin classes. Before you inevitably ask, “why would you do that?” It's because LifeMiles pro-rates the award cost. For example, business-class awards from the U.S. to Western Europe typically cost 63,000 LifeMiles per person per way. However, throw in a short economy segment, and the overall price drops:

San Francisco (SFO) to Barcelona (BCN) in Swiss Airlines Business / Economy

In the example above, the total cost comes out to 60,240 LifeMiles. It's a small difference in this case, but why pay nearly 3,000 miles more when intra-Europe business class usually looks just like economy with the middle seat blocked.

This trick comes in handy, especially when you start searching for first-class awards:

Los Angeles (LAX) to Seoul (ICN) in ANA First Class and Asiana Business Class

Almost every other frequent-flyer program will charge you the first-class price for the whole itinerary—even if some of your flights are in economy or business class.

Best Hotel Transfer Partner: Wyndham Rewards

While not well known for the glitz and glamour of its luxury rivals, you shouldn't sleep on Wyndham. Beyond its partnership with Ceasar's Rewards, Wyndham happens to have the largest hotel footprint in the world. No matter where you go, you'll likely find a Wyndham property to rest your head.

Redemption rates at Wyndham properties fall within three award categories:

• 7,500 points per night
• 15,000 points per night
• 30,000 points per night

Given Capital One's recently improved 1:1 transfer ratio for Wyndham, this price chart suddenly looks a lot better!

Below are a few examples of great Wyndham redemptions. However, keep in mind that it isn't always a good move to use points. When paid rates are low, using points is less attractive. As a rule of thumb, you're looking for redemptions that save you more than one cent per point.

The Wyndham Reef Resort Grand Cayman

When paid rates are higher than $300, consider booking with 30,000 points.

The New Yorker, A Wyndham Hotel

When paid rates are higher than $300, consider booking with 30,000 points.

TRYP by Wyndham Jerusalem Bat Sheva

When paid rates are higher than $150, consider booking with 15,000 points.

Best Oneworld Airline Partner: Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

Cathay Pacific's Asia Miles program is another that people tend to forget, which is a shame since it has a lot to offer.

As the loyalty program for Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific, Asia Miles utilizes three distance-based award charts to price mile redemptions. These charts differ in relation to the operating carrier(s) of a given itinerary:

• Operated entirely by Cathay Pacific
• Operated entirely by a Oneworld Partner airline
• Redemptions involving more than one airline

For example, compare the price difference between these two options. You'll notice that although these city pairs are similar distances apart, the partner-operated award is slightly more expensive than the Cathay-operated award.

Round the World Tickets

The final of Cathay's three award charts is particularly intriguing since you can use it to create personalized Round-the-World (RTW) tickets. With a little bit of persistence and a lot of luck, you could put together an itinerary with:

• Up to five stopovers
• Operated by up to three airlines (including Cathay Pacific)
• While starting and finishing in the same city.
• Up to 50,000 miles in total distance traveled.

Asia Miles' multi-carrier award chart — great for building Round the World trips!

Given the breadth of the Oneworld operating network, that leaves a lot of room for creativity! For example, a possible RTW itinerary might be:

• Los Angeles (LAX) to Hong Kong (HKG) in Cathay Pacific business class
• Stopover in Hong Kong
• Hong Kong (HKG) to Tokyo (HND) in JAL business class
• Stopover in Tokyo
• Tokyo (HND) to Doha (DOH) in JAL business class
• Stopover in Doha
• Doha (DOH) to Los Angeles (LAX) in Qatar business class

How fun would that be? And at just over 22,000 miles in total length, it'd only set you back 185,000 Asia Miles!

Asia Miles is a great option for booking Qatar's famous QSuites business class product.

More Award Availability for Elite Members

With Cathay Pacific-operated awards, there's an extra level of value if you happen to hold Marco Polo elite status. That's because Asia Miles reserves even more award availability for its own elite members. While not a status most people simply stumble into, it's worth noting that Marco Polo Silver status is a current benefit of Founders Card. If you intend to fly Cathay Pacific often, this benefit could be enough reason to justify the card by itself.

You can learn more about FoundersCard benefits, and apply here.

Wildcard Airline Partner: Etihad Guest

While not part of any major airline alliance, Etihad maintains a list of more than 20 non-alliance partners that provide varying degrees of value. This includes American Airlines, where Etihad utilizes a much more generous award chart than AA does for its own loyalists!

Additionally, Etihad offers more award space on its own flights than it offers to partners. So, if you want to experience one of the airline's lauded premium-class products, Etihad miles are a decent option.

The only downside: you have to call to search and book partner awards.

Etihad's famous first-class product “The Apartment”.

American Airlines Partner Award Redemptions

You'll recognize Eithad's North America to Europe award rates when flying AA as the same as AA's pre-devaluation rates!

Virgin Australia Partner Award Redemptions

Finally, it's worth pointing out that Eithad partner Virgin Australia offers a wide array of award redemptions to costly destinations. These include the Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, and more—many of which run for just 6,900 miles per person in Economy. Considering cash fares for these same destinations can often break the bank, these represent solid deals.

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

How to Apply

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

Annual Fee$95

Welcome Offer Earn 100,000 Miles when you spend $20,000 on purchases in the first 12 months from account opening, or still earn 50,000 miles if you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.

Show more

Why We Like ItHighlightsEarning Rates

Following the revamp of Capital One's rewards program and the addition of airline transfer partners, the Capital One Venture has catapulted into our list of top travel rewards cards. The ability to earn 2X miles on every purchase provides a decent return on spending. Plus the card offers some great perks.

• Earn 100,000 Miles when you spend $20,000 on purchases in the first 12 months from account opening, or still earn 50,000 miles if you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months; worth $600 in travel if redeemed for a fixed-value, or potentially much more when transferred to airline partners
• 2 Miles on every purchase
• Fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre✔^® (up to $100)
• No foreign transaction fees
• $95 annual fee

• 2 Miles per dollar on every purchase, every day.

Bottom Line

Right now, the Capital One Venture offers an all-time-high 100,000 bonus miles. This, along with the card's reasonable $95 and newly increased mile value, makes it easy to get excited about Capital One Rewards.

With Capital One's purchase eraser feature, you can comfortably rely on this bonus to save you at least $1,000 on your future travel. But if you're willing to invest a small amount of time to book through a Capital One transfer partner, you can expect to walk away with significantly more value.

There are great ways to use many of the 15 other transfer partners not covered in this post. The more knowledgeable you become, the better you can evaluate all the other options to find the best fit. But if you're looking for the partners most likely to give you a great return with less effort, look no further than Avianca LifeMiles, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Etihad Guest, and Wyndham Rewards.

What's your favorite Capital One transfer partner?