After logging in to your Capital One account, follow these steps:
- Click "View Rewards."
- Select the credit card account with the miles you want to use.
- Select a redemption method.
From there, the rest of the process will depend on which redemption method you chose. Here are your choices:
- Book a trip
- Convert rewards
- Cover travel purchases
- Redeem for experiences
- Get gift cards
- Redeem for cash
- Redeem with PayPal
- Shop with Amazon
- Move rewards
This may seem like a lot of options. Keep in mind that you're probably going to find one or two you like and use those exclusively. For example, I always go with "Convert rewards" to transfer my miles to Capital One partners, because that gets me much more value than any other option.
From a value perspective, the two best options are to convert rewards and cover travel purchases. Below, you can find out how each option works and the value they offer.
Book a trip
This takes you to Capital One Travel, where you can book a flight, hotel, or rental car and pay using your miles. You get a value of $0.01 per mile, so a $200 flight would cost you 20,000 miles.
While this isn't a bad option, you're better off paying for your trip in cash using your Capital One card. Then, use your miles to cover the travel purchase you made.
The advantage of paying in cash first is that you can earn miles on the travel booking. You could earn 5x to 10x miles per $1, depending on your Capital One card and what you book.
Let's say you want to use your miles to cover a $500 travel booking. You could redeem 50,000 miles and make that booking through Capital One Travel. Or, you could pay in cash and potentially earn up to 5,000 miles on it. You could still redeem 50,000 miles to cover the travel purchase later. The difference is that you also earn 5,000 miles this way.
Convert rewards
With this option, you can transfer miles to one of Capital One's travel partners. You can then use those miles through that partner's loyalty program. For example, if you transfer 30,000 miles to Air Canada, you'll have 30,000 miles you can use to book a flight through its Aeroplan program.
The value you get varies depending on what you book. It's possible to get $0.02 per mile or more, so this can be a great way to use your miles.
With most of Capital One's partners, transfers are at a 1:1 ratio and process either right away or within 48 hours. Here are the partners, the transfer ratios for each, and the number of miles you'd get in each partner's loyalty program by transferring 1,000 Capital One Miles: