[Resolved] Capital One Just Launched a New Transfer Bonus, But Don't Transfer Miles Yet

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Update: Capital One reached out to confirm that this issue has been resolved. Customers who transferred miles for Virgin Red over the weekend should see their bonus miles post today — as mine already have. New transfers are instantly posting with the transfer bonus. Here's more about how to maximize this Virgin Red transfer bonus from Capital One.

Earlier this month, Capital One mile transfers were inexplicably down “for maintenance” for more than two weeks. And Capital One still hasn't provided a public reason for this issue. Although Capital One transfers are available once again, it doesn't seem like everything is working as normal.

Today, Capital One seems to launch a new transfer bonus. However, I don't recommend counting on the transfer bonus posting — at least yet. Here's what we know so far.

Capital One Transfer Bonus Issue

This afternoon, I logged into my Capital One account to see a new 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Red:

As I wrote up a post sharing this new transfer bonus, I noticed that the AwardWallet Transfer Tool didn't show any transfer times for Capital One transfers to Virgin Red. So, I set up an AwardWallet Balance Watch for a 1,300-point deposit in my Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account and started the transfer.

To manually check if the transfer had already been posted, I logged out of my Virgin Red and Flying Club accounts and logged right back in. Sure enough, my balance changed… but not as much as I expected. I checked my account details to see that only 1,000 points had been deposited in my Virgin Red account.

I called Capital One and reached a very pleasant and helpful agent. She found the terms for a 30% Capital One transfer bonus launching today (October 15, 2022) for “any and all transfers” to Virgin Red. So, that eliminated two potential causes of the transfer issue: that the transfer bonus hadn't launched yet or there was a minimum transfer threshold.

The agent dutifully tried contacting other Capital One teams and even tried calling Virgin Atlantic. However, she couldn't find what could be the reason that the transfer didn't go through correctly.

Bottom Line

Capital One notes that mile transfers may take 24 hours to complete. So, it's possible that the 30% transfer bonus will post in a later transaction. However, I wanted to let you know that you shouldn't count on this Capital One transfer bonus posting immediately — at least for now.

I contacted Capital One's Public Relations team about this transfer bonus issue. They responded noting that the team is currently investigating this issue. I will update this post as we learn more.