AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
Some travelers may overlook the Capital One miles program as it doesn't partner with U.S. airlines like American Airlines, Delta, United, or Alaska. But, did you know that you can still book award flights on all of these airlines using Capital One miles? The trick: Utilizing the partners and alliances of Capital One's 16 airline partners.
- Earn 75,000 Miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
- 5X miles on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- 2X miles on all other purchase
- Fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre✔® (up to $120)
- No foreign transaction fees
- $95 annual fee
- 5X miles per dollar on purchases through Capital One Entertainment (through 12/31/2025)
- 5X miles per dollar on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- 2X miles per dollar on all other purchases
Even better, awards can be even cheaper to book through these partners than through U.S. airline mileage programs. For example, you can book United award flights for as few as 6,000 miles and flights between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii for just 10,000 miles each way.
Today, let's break down the best sweet spots for using Capital One miles to travel within North America, including Hawaii, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
If these Capital One miles sweet spots for flights within North America sound appealing, you're in luck. Both the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card are currently solid new cardmember bonuses with plenty of miles to take advantage of the awards highlighted in this post.
- 10X miles per $1 on hotels and rental cars booked via Capital One Travel
- 5X miles per $1 on purchases through Capital One Entertainment (through 12/31/2025)
- 5X miles per $1 on flights when booking via Capital One Travel
- 5X miles per $1 on vacation rentals booked via Capital One Travel
- 2X miles per $1 on all other eligible purchases
These two cards rank among the top of AwardWallet's list of best everyday spending cards as both earn (at least) 2X Capital One miles on every purchase. Capital One miles are worth a minimum of 1 cent per point when redeemed toward travel purchases, meaning you're getting a baseline return of 2% back on every purchase. However, you can get much more value from Capital One miles by utilizing transfer partners.
Page Contents
- Capital One Airline Transfer Partners
- The Best Capital One Sweet Spots
- United Domestic Award Flights From 6,000 Capital One Miles
- United Award Flights to Hawaii From 10,000 Capital One Miles
- American/Alaska Domestic Award Flights From 8,000 Capital One Miles
- American Award Flights to Mexico, Bahamas, and the Caribbean From 12,000 Capital One Miles
- Delta Domestic Award Flights From 7,500 Capital One Miles
- American/Alaska Award Flights to Hawaii From 15,000 Capital One Miles
- Book Cheap Flights From 1,898 Capital One Miles
- Bottom Line
Capital One Airline Transfer Partners
Before we dive into the sweet spots, here's an overview of Capital One's 16 airline partners, transfer ratios, and which U.S. airline partner each has:
| Capital One Transfer Partner | Transfer Ratio | ...which you can use to book award flights on: |
|---|---|---|
| Aeromexico Rewards | 1:1 | Delta |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1:1 | United |
| Air France/KLM Flying Blue | 1:1 | Delta |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 1:1 | United |
| British Airways Executive Club | 1:1 | American and Alaska |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 1:1 | American and Alaska |
| Emirates Skywards | 1:1 | United |
| Etihad Guest | 1:1 | American |
| Finnair Plus | 1:1 | American and Alaska |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 1:1 | American and Alaska |
| Singapore KrisFlyer | 1:1 | United and Alaska |
| TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go | 1:1 | United |
| Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | 1:1 | United |
| Virgin Red | 1:1 | Delta |
| EVA Air Infinity MileageLands | 4:3 | United |
| JetBlue TrueBlue | 5:3 | JetBlue and Cape Air |
Related: How to Transfer Capital One Miles to Airline and Hotel Partners
The Best Capital One Sweet Spots
United Domestic Award Flights From 6,000 Capital One Miles
As you can see in the chart above, several Capital One transfer partners are members of Star Alliance. And you can get an excellent deal booking United awards through a few of them (there's hundreds you can book!). Just be mindful of the taxes and fees.
- Air Canada Aeroplan:
- 6,000 points for routes under 500 miles
- 10,000 points for routes between 500 – 1,500 miles
- 12,500 points for routes between 1,501 – 2,750 miles
- LifeMiles: You can book United awards for as few as 7,500 LifeMiles each way — such as from Seattle to Palm Springs:
- Turkish Miles & Smiles: 10,000 miles for all awards within the United States — including Hawaii
United Award Flights to Hawaii From 10,000 Capital One Miles
Let's not gloss over that Turkish Miles & Smiles award price, as it's one of the best Capital One sweet spots available. It's simply incredible that you can fly anywhere in the U.S. to Hawaii for just 10,000 miles. The downside is that the Miles & Smiles website makes searching and booking these awards quite difficult. But this award pricing is worth the hassle.
Related: How to Search and Book Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles Awards
If you're on the West Coast and don't want to deal with the hassle of Miles & Smiles, Aeroplan also offers excellent award pricing to the 50th state. As long as you keep the routing to/from Hawaii under 2,750 miles, you'll pay just 12,500 points each way. That means you can start in several West Coast cities and connect to one of United's flights to Hawaii. 
TAP Portugal Miles&Go doesn't offer particularly appealing pricing on United. However, AwardWallet found more United award availability when booking through TAP Portugal. So, even Miles&Go might come in handy sometimes.
American/Alaska Domestic Award Flights From 8,000 Capital One Miles
Travelers have several options for booking American or Alaska domestic awards using Capital One miles:
- Qantas Frequent Flyer awards start at 8,000 points for routes under 600 miles.
- Asia Miles awards start at 10,000 miles for nonstop flights under 750 miles.
- British Airways awards start at 12,000 Avios for nonstop flights under 650 miles.
The best option will depend on whether you can book a nonstop flight (use British Airways) or need to connect (use Qantas or Asia Miles). Since each mileage program uses different distance bands, each of the three options can be useful in some situations.
Cardholders can also use Capital One miles to book Alaska award flights through Singapore KrisFlyer. Rather than using a distance-based award chart (like British, Qantas, and Asia Miles), Singapore breaks the U.S. into five zones. Flights within a zone — and sometimes to nearby zones — start at just 8,500 miles each way.
American Award Flights to Mexico, Bahamas, and the Caribbean From 12,000 Capital One Miles
You can also take advantage of British Airways' distance-based award chart to fly to the Bahamas, the Caribbean, or Mexico for as few as 12,000 Avios. This sweet spot is limited as this award rate requires nonstop AA flights under 650 miles. But, that's long enough to cover about a dozen flights from Miami (MIA), like MIA to Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ):
Longer routes can also be a good deal with nonstop options from:
- 16,000 Avios from Austin, Charlotte, Dallas/Fort Worth, Raleigh/Durham, and Philadelphia.
- 20,000 Avios from Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, New York-JFK, and Philadelphia.
If you need to book a connecting flight, check the award rate when booking through Qantas Frequent Flyer. Qantas will often be less expensive than the exact same itinerary booked via British Airways when there are one or more connections.
Delta Domestic Award Flights From 7,500 Capital One Miles
Several Capital One airline transfer partners can also book flights with Delta. These partnerships aren't nearly as lucrative as the sweet spots we covered above. But, you can book nonstop Delta awards for as few as 7,500 Virgin Atlantic points when the distance traveled is less than 500 miles.
Virgin Atlantic award pricing quickly increases from there:
- 11,000 points for nonstop Delta flights between 501-1,000 miles.
- 16,500 points for nonstop Delta flights between 1,001-1,500 miles.
- 18,500 points for nonstop Delta flights between 1,501-2,000 miles.
- 22,000 points for nonstop Delta flights between 2,001-3,000 miles.
One of the sweet spots available through this award chart is flying between Atlanta (ATL) and Nassau (NAS) for 11,000 Capital One miles each way — with minimal taxes and fees:
Flying Blue used to be a reliably decent way of booking domestic Delta award flights. However, Flying Blue transitioned to dynamic award pricing for Delta flights. Now, deals can be hit or miss. But, you can still snag deals like Raleigh-Durham to Orlando for 7,500 Flying Blue miles.
American/Alaska Award Flights to Hawaii From 15,000 Capital One Miles
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles offers American and Alaska award flights to Hawaii starting at 15,000 miles each way, overtaking British Airways as the best option. Comparatively, Executive Club charges 20,000 Avios per way. If you don't have any Avios to begin with, it's worth booking through Asia Miles. However, the math could change if there's a transfer bonus to Executive Club.
Book Cheap Flights From 1,898 Capital One Miles
Whenever you consider booking award flights with Capital One miles, remember that Capital One miles can be redeemed for 1 cent per mile to cover travel purchases. So, ensure you get at least one cent per mile in value from any award booking. For cheap flights, just book the cash flight with your eligible Capital One card. Then, go into “Cover Travel Purchases” and redeem points for a statement credit to offset the cost of the flight.
For example, say you're considering booking a Frontier flight between Las Vegas (LAS) and Los Angeles (LAX). When the cost is just $18.98, you would only need 1,898 Capital One miles to cover this travel purchase. So, it's not worth checking award rates.
Bottom Line
Even though Jetblue is the only one of Capital One's 16 airline partners that is U.S.-based, you can use Capital One miles to book award flights on American, Alaska, Delta, and United by transferring your Venture miles. With a stash of 75,000 miles, you could book up to three round-trip flights to Hawaii on United using Turkish Miles & Smiles, 9 one-way flights on American or Alaska, or fly up to 12 one-way United flights.
For inexpensive flights, you'll want to consider booking a cash fare directly with the airline and redeeming miles for a statement credit to cover the cost.
How do you plan to use 75,000 Capital One miles?
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
