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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? The trick: Utilizing the partners and alliances of Capital One's 15 airline partners.
Even better, awards can 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 to Hawaii for just 7,500 miles each way.
Today, let's break down the best sweet spots 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 offering new cardmembers a solid 75,000 bonus points once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening.
- Earn 75,000 Miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening; worth $750 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
- 5X miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- 2X miles per dollar on all other purchases
- 2 miles per dollar on all eligible purchases
- 5 miles per dollar on flights when booking via Capital One Travel
- 10 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars when booking via Capital One Travel
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 transferring miles to Capital One 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 7,500 Capital One Miles
- American/Alaska Domestic Award Flights From 7,500 Capital One Miles
- American Award Flights to Mexico, Bahamas, and the Caribbean From 7,500 Capital One Miles
- Delta Domestic Award Flights From 7,500 Capital One Miles
- American/Alaska Award Flights to Hawaii From 13,000 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 15 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 Club Premier | 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 |
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:
- 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 6,500 LifeMiles each way — such as from Newark to Pittsburgh:
- Turkish Miles&Smiles: 7,500 miles for all awards within the United States — including Hawaii
United Award Flights to Hawaii From 7,500 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 7,500 miles. The downside is that the Miles&Smiles website makes it quite difficult to search and book these awards. But, this award pricing is worth the hassle. Here are our tips for searching for these 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 through 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 to Hawaii when booking through TAP Portugal. So, even Miles&Go might come in handy sometimes.
American/Alaska Domestic Award Flights From 7,500 Capital One Miles
Travelers have several options for booking American or Alaska domestic awards using Capital One miles:
- British Airways awards start at 7,500 Avios for nonstop flights under 650 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.
The best option is going to 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 come in handy in some situations.
Cardholders can also use Capital One miles to book Alaska award flights through Singapore KrisFlyer. Singapore recently devalued these awards, but you may still be able to find value. 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 7,500 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 7,500 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) — as well as the route from Charlotte (CLT) to Marsh Harbour, Bahamas (MHH):
Longer routes can also be a good deal with nonstop options from:
- 9,000 Avios from Austin, Charlotte, Dallas, Raleigh/Durham, and Philadelphia.
- 11,000 Avios from Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, New York JFK, and Philadelphia.
You can even fly Alaska Airlines nonstop from Seattle to Cancun or Belize City for 13,000 Avios each way:
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 increases from there:
- 8,500 points for nonstop Delta flights between 501-1,000 miles.
- 11,500 points for nonstop Delta flights between 1,001-1,500 miles.
- 12,500 points for nonstop Delta flights between 1,501-2,000 miles.
- 15,000 points for nonstop Delta flights between 2,001-3,000 miles.
One of the sweet spots available through this award chart being able to fly between Atlanta (ATL) and Nassau (NAS) for 8,500 Capital One miles each way:
Flying Blue used to be a reliably decent way of booking domestic Delta award flights. However, Flying Blue recently transitioned to dynamic award pricing for Delta flights. Now, deals can be hit or miss. We are finding a few flights pricing cheaper before — but nothing cheaper than 10,500 miles each way:
American/Alaska Award Flights to Hawaii From 13,000 Capital One Miles
British Airways distance-based award chart comes in handy again for award flights to Hawaii. You can fly nonstop American or Alaska awards from the West Coast to Hawaii for just 13,000 Avios. That's one of the best options for award flights to Hawaii. Stretched to the max, you can fly from Phoenix to the Hawaiian islands for just 13,000 Avios.
Asia Miles also offers AA and Alaska award flights to Hawaii starting at 15,000 miles each way. British Airways is typically going to be the better option. However, the math could change if there's a transfer bonus to Cathay.
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 that you're getting 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 Denver (DEN). 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 not a single one of Capital One's 15 airline partners is U.S.-based, you can use Capital One miles to book award flights on American, Alaska, Delta, and United. Or, you can use Capital One's Cover Travel Purchase option to use Capital One miles to book cheap cash flights.
Using the Capital One sweet spots we covered in this post, you can use the current 75,000 bonus points on the Capital One Venture X or the Capital One Venture to book up to five roundtrip flights to Hawaii on United using Turkish Miles&Smiles, 10 one-way flights on American or Alaska, or fly up to 12 one-way United flights.
How do you plan to use 75,000 Capital One miles?
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So I’ve been unwitingly redeeming these at the 1c rate for travel since our travel is domestic US. Is there a risk that I transfer the miles to say Turkish and the previously available award flights are no longer available, leaving the miles stranded?
That’s certainly a risk – especially with how wonky Turkish can be with award availability. If you want to be extra careful, you can put an award on hold with a Turkish ticketing office before transferring miles. I did that when booking a trip for my dad to Hawaii – emailing the ATL ticket office (sales.atl@thy.com). Definitely takes some more time though.
Great article, JT! Still relatively new to points/miles and had/have been “on the fence” about getting into another transferrable currency (CapitalOne). One of the key reasons was the lack of a single US airline partner. Will bookmark this article for future reference.
Thanks Steve! Glad that this article helps. And yes, even for those that have been a while, there’s always a struggle between doubling down on a program you know vs. venturing (pun intended) into a new mileage program.