Would you like to save even more money when you book flights and hotels with your Capital One Venture? Well, here’s a simple strategy to help you save.
TPG values Capital One Miles at 1.85 cents each when you transfer them to airline and hotel partners like British Airways, Turkish Airlines and Wyndham. But there’s another way to look at it that could make your Capital One miles even more valuable.
The Capital One Venture offers 10 miles per dollar for hotels booked through Capital One Travel and 5 miles per dollar spent on flights booked through the portal. Other cards, such as the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and the Capital One Spark Miles for Businessearn 5 miles per dollar spent on hotels and rental cars and 2 miles per dollar on all other purchases, including flights.
Where do additional savings come from?
When browsing Capital One Travel, you’ll notice that you can pay with cash or miles. Below is an example of a weekend stay in Miami. At checkout (excluding the hotel service fee due at check-in), you will be charged $583.73 or 58,373 miles (a value of 1 cent per mile) for this stay.
If you paid strictly with miles, your card would never be charged – and therefore you wouldn’t earn any rewards. But if you were to pay with the Venture X Rewards card, you would earn 10 miles per dollar on this purchase. That amounts to 5,838 miles.
Capital One allows you to cover travel purchases within 90 days of the purchase date from your billing statement at a rate of 1 cent per mile. Redeeming your rewards this way is the best option as it allows you to earn miles for your spending.
So once this travel purchase is credited to my account, I can still use 58,373 Capital One miles to remove it from my statement as if my card was never charged. But because I initially purchased my trip with cash instead of miles, I am 5,838 miles richer. That’s essentially a 10% discount on my hotel booking.
If I were to book a flight through Capital One Travel using the same method, I would earn 5 points per dollar, so I could earn a 5% rebate by paying with the card and then using my points to “clear” the statement “.
Daily newsletter
Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter
Join over 700,000 readers for the latest news, in-depth guides and exclusive offers from the experts at TPG
The downside to this? You likely won’t earn hotel points or use elite status benefits for bookings made through Capital One Travel. This is because the major hotel chains usually require you to book directly to take advantage of these benefits. However, flights booked through Capital One Travel normally earn miles and are eligible for all elite status benefits. So make sure you add your frequent flyer number before you fly.
Related: 9 Things to Consider When Choosing to Book Through a Portal vs. Booking Directly
In short
Don’t use Capital One Miles when booking hotels, rental cars or even flights through Capital One Travel.
It’s almost always a better idea to make your travel purchase with your Capital One card to earn miles on your spending. That way, you can redeem your miles to offset the cost within 90 days of the purchase date.
This booking method ensures that you earn miles for the purchase, even if you know you want to redeem miles to cover the cost.