More options equals… more options! And Capital One Miles (earned on the Venture line of cards as well as the Spark Miles for Business) just got a bit more valuable. Note that if you have a Capital One cash back card and also have a Miles-earning card (or get one later), you can transfer your cash back to Miles at a penny a point.
As of today, you can now transfer your Capital One Miles to 22 airline and hotel partners (as shown below).
The new transfer partners are:
- Japan Airlines (JAL) Mileage Bank (1,000 Capital One Miles = 750 JAL MileageBank miles)
- Qatar Avios (1:1)
- Preferred Hotels and Resorts I Prefer (1 Capital One Miles gets you 2 “I Prefer” points
All partners:
| Capital One Miles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Transfer Ratio | Expected Transfer Time | |
| Air Canada (Aeroplan) | 1:1 | Instant |
| Air France / KLM Flying Blue | 1:1 | Instant |
| Avianca Lifemiles | 1:1 | Instant |
| Aeromexico | 1:1 | Instant |
| British Airways Avios | 1:1 | TBD |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 1:1 | Nearly instant |
| Choice Hotels | 1:1 | 1 day |
| Emirates Skywards | 1:1 | Instant |
| Etihad Guest | 1:1 | 1-2 days |
| EVA | 2:1.5 | 1-2 days |
| Finnair | 1:1 | Instant |
| JAL (Japan Airlines) Mileage Bank | 2:1.5 (Account must be open for 7 days before transfer) | TBD |
| JetBlue | 5:3 | TBD |
| Qantas | 1:1 | 1-2 days |
| Qatar Avios | 1:1 | TBD |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1:1 | 1-2 days |
| TAP Air Portugal | 1:1 | TBD |
| Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | 1:1 | TBD |
| Wyndham Rewards Hotel Program | 1:1 | Instant |
| Virgin Red | 1:1 | TBD |
| Accor Live Limitless (ALL) Hotel Program | 2:1 | 1-2 days |
| I Prefer Hotel Rewards: | 1:2 | TBD |
The obvious winner in this new transfer partner announcement is JAL MileageBank, which has a number of sweet spots. The downside is that the points don’t transfer 1:1 but rather at 2:1.5 (1,000 C1 = 750 JAL).
That will make it a *bit* harder to extract value than if you have Bilt points which also transfer to JAL but at 1:1. That said, Capital One Miles are much easier to earn than Bilt points with a default 2X earning on many of their cards.
I already wrote a guide to JAL (Japan Airlines) MileageBank, so please refer to that if you’d like to know about JAL sweet spots including an Around the World award.
Importantly, apparently celebrating the launch of the transfer partners, there is an immediate transfer bonus for Capital One to JAL right now of 30% that gets you *almost* to 1:1 (1:0.95).
Beyond that, Qatar isn’t too interesting since you could already transfer to BA Avios which link instantly with a Qatar Avios account, meaning it’s repetitive.
And some will enjoy the Preferred Hotels and Resorts I Prefer program, though it’s notable that those with annual fee Citi ThankYou cards (Citi Strata EliteSM, Citi Strata Premier®, Prestige®, AT&T Access More) get double the transfer ratio at 1:4. I have seen solid deals with the program which often are 4*-ish, but rarely 5*. It’s hit or miss.
So, if you have a stack of both, it’s clearly the better move to transfer your Citi ThankYou. Citi also transfers to Choice at a 1:2 ratio which can book *some* I Prefer hotels so it can be worth comparing though usually if you want I Prefer, Citi at 1:4 will be the best value. (Access I Prefer here)
Thoughts?
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For JAL transfer times, it took maybe 5-10 min for my points to show up from Capital One. You do need to log out and log in. I had that same issue when transferring from Bilt to JAL as well.