Guide to Capital One Venture Miles

Today, we’re exploring the versatile world of Capital One Venture miles and uncovering unique redemption strategies for the everyday traveler. 

One of our favorite cards is the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. This card accumulates Venture miles, a flexible currency redeemable for a wide range of travel expenses and even select non-travel purchases like event tickets. Today, we are delving into specific sweet spots and strategic approaches to maximize the value of your Venture miles and talk about other cards that earn these miles.

For those also accumulating Chase Ultimate Rewards, you may find parallels with our previous guides on leveraging those points.

The Venture Miles Ecosystem

The Venture X card is not the only avenue for earning Venture miles.

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, with a $95 annual fee, and the VentureOne Rewards, with no annual fee, also contribute to your Venture miles balance.

Business cards like Capital One Venture X Business card and Capital One Spark Miles card (note: Spark Miles cards do report to personal credit bureaus and impact 5/24 status) also earn Venture miles. 

An often understated feature of Capital One is the ability to convert cash back earned from their cash back cards into Venture miles. For example, the Capital One Spark Cash Plus card’s cash bonus can be directly converted to Venture miles, significantly adding to your miles.

Capital One also offers flexibility in point sharing. Venture miles can be transferred to any individual, meaning that you can pool miles for group travel with family or friends at any time for free. This policy is far more generous than many competitors.

Earning Venture Miles: Consistent Accrual and Bonus Opportunities

Venture cards offer a straightforward earning structure. The Venture X and Venture cards consistently earn 2x miles on nearly all purchases, providing a solid baseline for everyday spending.

Capital One Travel

Elevated earning rates are available when booking travel through the Capital One Travel portal. Venture X cardholders booking hotels and rental cars through this portal can earn 10x miles per dollar.

Flights booked through Capital One Travel earn 5x miles. I will elaborate on maximizing these bonus categories below.

Capital One Offers

In your Capital One credit card account, you’ll find a section called “shopping offers”. Capital One used to offer cash back for their offers, but now most of them earn miles. And some offers earn a lot of miles!

Offers are targeted and change regularly. 

The shopping offers work like a shopping portal. When you click through an offer, you’ll be taken to the merchant. You earn bonus miles when you make an eligible purchase through that shopping link.

You don’t have to pay with a Venture card, but you do have to click through the shopping offer link before making the purchase in order to get the bonus miles.

Be sure to look at the terms and conditions for specific details and exclusions as these can change depending on the merchant.

Convert Cashback to Venture Miles

If you have a Capital One card that earns cashback and a card that earns Venture Miles, you can convert the cashback from your cashback card to Venture Miles.

The cashback cards that qualify for this are the Quicksilver, Savor, and Spark Cash cards.

You’ll also need a miles earning card such as the Venture, VentureOne, Venture X, Venture X Business, and/or Spark Miles for Business.

To convert your miles, go to your card account and select “view rewards”. From there, select “combine rewards” and choose the account you want to move the cashback to.

     

You can also combine Venture Miles with a friend or family member using the same process for free!

Note: It’s worth noting that you can convert cashback into miles, but you can not convert miles into cashback with this process. However, if you want to redeem your miles for cashback, there are some ways to do that!

Redeeming Venture Miles: Erasing Travel Purchases + Advanced Strategies

Initially, Venture miles were primarily designed for offsetting travel purchases, a straightforward redemption method that is still commonly used.

When an expense is coded as travel by the merchant, you can use Venture miles to “erase” the charge. Eligible travel purchases cover a broad spectrum. They are generally categorized by merchant coding and include things like airlines, hotels, car rentals, public transportation, etc.

By using Venture Miles to retroactively “erase” these travel expenses from your statement, you effectively redeem miles for cash back against travel.

A practical example is utilizing Venture miles for Disney tickets. Tickets acquired directly from Disney World may code as “entertainment,” but purchases through online travel agents like Undercover Tourist typically code as “travel,” thus enabling point redemption. As an added benefit, Undercover Tourist often offers Disney tickets at rates below those available directly, helping you save even more.

This direct redemption method provides a consistent value of one cent per mile. Therefore, a balance of 75,000 Venture miles equates to $750 in travel credit.

Advanced Strategies for Venture Mile Redemptions

Erasing travel purchases can be a great way to stretch your travel budget, but it’s not the only way to use Venture Miles! Let’s look at some ways to supercharge your miles. 

Pre-Earn Redemption

Capital One’s system allows for a unique approach where travel purchases made after card opening but before miles are fully accrued can be retroactively redeemed once the welcome bonus and initial spending miles are deposited. This allows for immediate utilization of a new Venture or Venture X card for planned travel. 

Practical Scenario: A Venture X cardholder with a $4,000 spending requirement for a 75,000-mile bonus could book a $4,000 cruise on the new card. Upon statement closure, the 75,000-mile bonus, plus 8,000 miles from the purchase, would be awarded. Those 83,000 miles (equaling $830) could then be applied as a statement credit against the cruise purchase.

Travel purchases within the previous 90 days are eligible for redemption.

Optimizing Capital One Travel Bookings

You can use your Venture Miles to reserve travel directly in the Capital One Travel portal, but don’t do that! An even better approach is to book hotels and rental cars via the portal and check out with your Venture X card. That way, you make the most of the 10x mile earning rate.

Then, you can still redeem miles against the travel charge on your statement. You’ll use the same amount of miles either way, but by putting the charge on your card first, you also earn miles from the purchase.

Practical Scenario: A Venture X cardholder books a car rental using the Capital One Travel portal. The total cash cost is $300. They could use 30,000 miles to pay for that purchase when they make the booking. OR they could charge that $300 to their Ventur X card and earn 3,000 miles (10x miles). Then, they could still erase that travel charge with 30,000 miles. 

This maximizes miles earnings while still allowing you to redeem miles to cover the travel expense.

• Consideration: Booking hotels through Capital One Travel may keep you from earning hotel loyalty points or utilizing elite status benefits. This strategy is most effective for independent hotels or non-loyalty-affiliated stays. 
• Price Assurance: Capital One Travel provides a price match guarantee. If you find a lower publicly available rate within 24 hours of booking, Capital One will provide a credit for the difference. 

Major League Baseball Ticket Redemptions: One really unique redemption option is using your Venture miles for Major League Baseball tickets. Priced at 5,000 miles per ticket, this can offer compelling value for premium game experiences. Availability is typically released in blocks, so you’ll want to check regularly for the best ticket opportunities. 

Transfer Partner Sweet Spots: Airlines

Beyond direct redemptions to cover travel expenses, Venture Miles can be transferred to a network of airline and hotel partners. This often unlocks increased value for certain sweet spots.

If you’re new to transferring miles, I highly recommend you check out my Travel Points 201 guide. This walks through the basics of transferring points and also includes a handy chart to show you which bank points transfer to which airline and hotel programs. 

Here are some key airline transfer partners and their specific strengths:

Air Canada Aeroplan (Also a Chase Ultimate Rewards partner)

Aeroplan, a Star Alliance member, is noteworthy for not imposing fuel surcharges on award tickets and for its stopover policy. For just 5,000 miles, you can incorporate a stopover into your itinerary, effectively visiting multiple destinations within a single award ticket. Note: There can be steep fees (often $150 per ticket) to cancel award tickets. 

Avianca LifeMiles (Also an Amex Membership Rewards partner).

Another Star Alliance partner, LifeMiles, also avoids fuel surcharges. Historically, LifeMiles has offered competitive award pricing for Star Alliance flights, often lower than partner airline programs. However, their website can present navigational challenges, and changes or cancellations can have substantial fees, similar to Aeroplan.  

British Airways Avios (and the Avios Ecosystem) (Also a Chase Ultimate Rewards partner)

Transferring to British Airways Avios grants access to a broader ecosystem of Avios-based programs, including Aer Lingus, Iberia, and Finnair. While Avios programs can offer excellent award pricing, fuel surcharges are typically applied. That means taxes and fees are often high. If you want to learn more about Avios sweet spots, check out my podcast episode here about ways to use Chase Ultimate Rewards.  

Flying Blue (Air France/KLM) (Also a Chase Ultimate Rewards partner)

Flying Blue, the loyalty program for Air France and KLM, is frequently promoted for its economical fares to Europe. Promotional award rates can be as low as 15,000 miles each way, although taxes and fees can be significant, around $200 roundtrip per person. Flying Blue also allows for complimentary stopovers in Amsterdam or Paris. 

Qantas

Particularly relevant for travel to Australia and New Zealand. Qantas offers a non-stop route from New York to Auckland with relatively reasonable economy award pricing. We found routes for around 75,000 points + $150 in taxes. While Qantas is often part of broader routing options in our destination guides, fuel surcharges can be elevated on other routes. 

Singapore Airlines (Also a Chase Ultimate Rewards partner).

Best for flying on Singapore Airlines, particularly for routes to Southeast Asia. 

Turkish Airlines

While Turkish Airlines’ Miles&Smiles program can present booking complexities (website functionality, customer service inconsistency), it offers a high-value domestic US redemption: one-way tickets within the US (including Alaska and Hawaii) for 10,000 miles on United flights. This requires availability at United’s “saver level” award pricing, which may require phone booking and agent assistance. 

Virgin Red

While not solely an airline program, Virgin Red integrates with Virgin Atlantic and unlocks cruise redemptions. Virgin Atlantic has recently adopted dynamic award pricing, which has (in some cases) yielded really low award fares. Particularly in economy class on US-London routes (as low as 6,000 miles + $80 in taxes). This could be strategically combined with other return travel methods from Europe.

Transfer Partner Sweet Spots: Hotels

Venture miles extend to hotel transfer partners as well. Some of the most notable are Choice Privileges and Wyndham Rewards.

Choice Privileges

Often undervalued, Choice Privileges, which includes brands like Comfort Inn and Quality Suites, offers compelling value, particularly in Europe. European Choice properties tend to offer enhanced quality and family-friendly accommodations. 

Choice Sweet Spots: 

• • European Accommodations that Sleep a Family of Four: Choice’s European portfolio often includes hotels with larger rooms suitable for families. And here’s a map to help you find those family-sized hotel rooms in Europe. 
  • US Suites: Select US properties, especially within the Ascend Collection, offer suite redemptions with your points. Check out this Choice Privileges map that we made to help you find these properties!
  • Preferred Hotels: Access to higher-end independent hotels within the Preferred Hotels & Resorts network at competitive rates. We have a map for Preferred Hotels with Choice Points, too!

Earning Optimization for Choice Points:

While Venture miles transfer at a 1:1 ratio to Choice, Citi ThankYou Points and Wells Fargo Rewards points offer a better 1:2 transfer ratio. This makes programs like Citi Strata Premier or Wells Fargo Autograph Journey more efficient for accumulating Choice points. 

Wyndham Rewards

Wyndham’s portfolio spans a range of hotel and resort properties, primarily in the US, with award nights starting at 7,500 points, but more commonly priced between 15,000 to 30,000 points per night.

One of the things I like about Wyndham is the ability to book larger rooms, including multiple bedrooms. Additionally, if you’re looking for all-inclusive options, they have some available. 

Wyndham Sweet Spot: Vacasa Vacation Rentals: Wyndham’s partnership with Vacasa vacation rentals offers unique redemption opportunities. Booking Vacasa properties with Wyndham points eliminates cleaning fees and taxes. Pricing is tiered by bedroom count, with rates varying based on the nightly cash rate of the rental.

Tip: Vacasa homes categorized as one bedroom sometimes have additional sleeping spaces like a loft. These can often accommodate more people, with some sleeping up to 8.

• Practical Example: If a home costs $250 per night and has one bedroom, this will cost you 15,000 points. But if the house has two bedrooms, it doubles the price to 30,000 points. 
• Wyndham Card Benefit: Wyndham credit card holders receive a 10% discount on award bookings, reducing your point costs even more. 

Capital One Referral Program Note:

You can earn miles when you refer someone and they open up a new Capital One Credit Card.

Capital One’s referral program has a specific condition: referral bonuses are only awarded if the referred individual is a new Capital One credit card customer.

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