How to Earn, Use, and Maximize Capital One Miles in 2023

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Capital One has been hyper-focused on self-improvement in recent years. It's got some of the best credit cards for earning travel and other rewards, and its momentum appears only to build. Here are some recent highlights:

• The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is a contender for the best premium credit card on the market.
• Capital One opened its first airport lounge in Dallas-Fort Worth — and it looks great.
• The Capital One Travel Portal offers exclusive features like cancel-for-any-reason coverage, refunds for up to 10 days if your airfare drops, and price-freezing for up to 14 days if you're not ready to book.

Capital One has created a solid rewards program for both earning and redeeming miles. Insider estimates Capital One miles are worth 1.7 cents each, on average. That's a higher value than you'll find on the majority of rewards currencies. Fortunately, they're extremely easy to earn.

Let's look at the best ways to earn and redeem Capital One miles.

We're focused here on the rewards and perks that come with each card. These cards won't be worth it if you're paying interest or late fees. When using a credit card, it's important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay.

How to Earn Capital One Miles

To earn Capital One miles, you're going to need a Capital One miles-earning credit card. Other Capital One credit cards earn rewards that can be converted into Capital One miles, but you'll need a Capital One miles-earning card to do that (we'll cover this in a minute).

Capital One Miles-earning Personal Cards

Cards That Earn Rewards Which Can Be Converted Into Capital One Miles

Even Capital One's strictly cash-back cards can help you accumulate Capital One miles. As long as you have one of the above cards, you can instantly convert your cash back into miles.

In your online account, simply head to the "Share My Rewards" button in the Rewards tab. You'll receive 1 Capital One mile for every 1 cent you transfer.

You can then open cards like the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card, which earns cash back at the following rates:

• Earn a one-time Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card
• 4% cash back on dining, entertainment, and popular streaming services
• 3% cash back at grocery stores (excluding superstores like Walmart® and Target®)
• 1% back on all other purchases

This is a great card to pair with a card like the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card to earn the most rewards on your everyday purchases.

How to Use Capital One Miles

Again, Insider's points and miles valuations peg Capital One miles as worth 1.7 cents apiece, on average. But as you'll see, there are a variety of ways to use Capital One miles, with the potential to get significantly more value from your rewards — or significantly less. If you're strategic, Capital One miles can unlock lie-flat airplane seats, luxury hotels, and much more.

Here are all the options you can choose from.

Book travel through the Capital One Travel portal

You can use miles to book your travel directly through the Capital One Travel portal. You'll receive a value of 1 cent each toward flights, hotels, and car rentals.

We generally encourage readers to use their miles to "erase" travel purchases from their cards instead of using them through the Capital One Travel portal. That's because this method won't earn rewards for travel purchases.

For example, if you buy $500 in hotel accommodations through Capital One Travel with your Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, you'll earn 5,000 miles for your purchase (10 miles per dollar). You can later go back and redeem 50,000 miles to offset the expense. 

However, if you were to simply redeem 50,000 miles at checkout for $500 worth of travel, you would earn zero miles. 50,000 miles would be deducted from your account, and your card would never be charged.

Transfer Capital One miles to airline and hotel partners

Here's the method that'll give you (by far) the highest value for your rewards.

Capital One has 18 transfer partners to choose from. You can convert Capital One miles into the following award currencies at the specified transfer ratio.

You may not be familiar with several of the above loyalty programs — but they each can play a part in helping you travel on the cheap (or virtually free) to just about anywhere you'd like to go. For example, you could:

• Transfer 39,000 miles to Singapore Airlines and book a round-trip flight on United Airlines from the East Coast to Hawaii.
• Transfer ~60,000 miles to Aeroplan for a one-way lie-flat business class seat on Air Canada to Western Europe.
• Transfer 30,000 miles to Wyndham for two free nights in a one-bedroom cabin in the Rocky Mountains through Vacasa.
• Transfer 15,000 miles to Turkish Airlines. You can then book a round-trip flight on United Airlines from anywhere in the US to anywhere in the US (including Hawaii). Just note that available award seats can be tough to find if you're not flying to/from a United Airlines hub.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Depending on how you use your miles, you could receive a value well over 5 cents each. Look at the below lie-flat business class flight to London. It costs 57,200 miles and 60 Canadian dollars.

The exact same flight costs more than $5,400 if you pay with cash. That means you're getting over 9 cents per mile by using your Capital One miles in this way.

Erase travel purchases from your credit card bill

If you don't want to deal with individual hotel or airline programs and you prefer to use rewards to cover any travel purchases you want, Capital One miles can still fit your strategy.

All Capital One miles-earning credit cards give you the option to redeem your rewards to cover eligible travel purchases made to your credit card within the last 90 days. That's extremely convenient — especially considering you won't need the miles in your account before purchasing travel.

Miles are worth 1 cent each when using them in this way. You can cash in your miles in any increment, unless you don't have the miles to cover your entire purchase. In that case, your minimum redemption is 2,500 miles.

Any purchase that codes as travel on your credit card account qualify, including:

• Airfare
• Hotels
• Rental cars
• Cruises and more

While getting just 1 cent each per mile may not seem like an exceptional value, the fact you can redeem your rewards for any travel you want is a big deal. You won't have to deal with complicated rewards programs or award availability.

Redeem for cash back or gift cards

Capital One also lets you redeem rewards for cash back or gift cards.

When redeeming for cash, you'll receive just 0.5 cents per mile. That's unreasonably low. If you plan to redeem for cash with regularity, consider opening a cash-back credit card instead.

Gift cards, on the other hand, are offered at the standard 1 cent per mile redemption option (except for Amazon gift cards, for which you'll receive a value of 0.8 cents). Individual card offerings vary and are subject to change.

Use rewards with Amazon and PayPal

You can use your Capital One miles for purchases made through Amazon and PayPal. If you've got an eligible Capital One credit card, link it to your account, and you'll see the option to pay with miles at checkout.

With either option, you'll only get a value of 0.8 cents per mile. This is far from the most strategic use of miles isn't a great redemption option, but it can be worth considering if you don't want to travel and are just after "free" stuff.

If you plan to use your rewards regularly with Amazon, read our guide to the best credit cards to use for Amazon purchases. You'll find a better credit card for your lifestyle there.

Capital One miles come with more redemption options than ever these days — including transfers to popular airline and hotel loyalty programs. You can still redeem your Capital One miles for any travel purchase charged to your account, as well as for gift cards and cash back.

If you're looking for a flexible travel credit card that fits your travel strategy, any Capital One travel credit card is worth exploring. Before you apply, however, take the time to compare other travel rewards credit cards and their rewards programs to ensure you wind up with the right one.