Capital One Miles Value: How Much Are They Worth?

Credit miles are a great way to save money on travel, especially if you fly frequently. Capital One allows you to earn miles on four of its credit cards, namely the Venture cards. You can earn miles on anything from hotel stays and flights to rental cars booked during travel.

But what is the Capital One miles’ actual value? What can you save with your miles rewards? Below, you’ll find all you need to know about Capital One miles’ value.

How To Earn Capital One Miles

You can earn Capital One miles through four credit cards. Along with getting miles on hotel stays and car rentals, new members get bonus miles on the minimum expenditure amount specified for each card.

VentureOne Rewards for Good Credit

The VentureOne Rewards card has no annual fee and is suitable for people with good credit. You can earn unlimited 5x miles on rental cars and hotels you book via Capital One Travel.

Plus, you earn unlimited 1.25x miles on other purchases.

Unlike other Venture cards, this one does not have any bonus miles for new card members.

VentureOne Rewards

VentureOne Rewards also has a $0 annual fee and allows you to earn unlimited 5x miles on rental cars and hotels booked via Capital One Travel. You also get unlimited 1.25x miles on other purchases.

New card members earn 20,000 bonus miles after spending $500 on purchases in the first three months of opening the account.

Venture Rewards

The Venture Rewards credit card is offered to people with excellent credit scores. It has a $95 annual fee.

You can earn unlimited 5x miles on rental cars and hotels booked via Capital One Travel. Moreover, you can earn 2x unlimited miles on other purchases.

As a new card member, you earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 in the first three months of opening your account.

Other travel benefits of this card include:

• Two free visits to Capital One Lounges every year

• Up to $100 TSA Precheck or Global Entry credit

Venture X Rewards

With a $395 annual fee, the Venture X Rewards credit card from Capital One is the newest addition to the Venture series. You earn unlimited 10x miles on rental cars and hotels booked through Capital One Travel.

Plus, you earn unlimited 5x miles on all flights you book with Capital One Travel. For other purchases, you earn 2x miles.

As a new cardholder, you earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 in the first three months of opening the account. Other travel benefits of this card include:

• Complimentary Priority Pass membership

• $100 credit for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry

• Unlimited access to Capital One Lounges

Capital One Miles: How Much Are They Worth?

Capital One miles are worth about $0.01 each, but the value may vary based on how you redeem them.

Capital One has a rewards calculator on its website where you can check the worth of your miles. To erase any confusion, the VentureOne miles are offered through these two cards:

• VentureOne Rewards

• VentureOne Rewards for Good Credit

The Venture miles are for these two cards:

• Venture X Rewards

• Venture Rewards

Suppose you spend about $1,000 on purchases every month. You’ll earn 24,000 Venture miles, equivalent to $240 in travel rewards, or 15,000 VentureOne miles, equivalent to $150 in travel rewards.

According to this calculation, one mile is equal to $0.01.

Likewise, if you spend $2,000 in purchases every month, you earn 48,000 Venture miles or 30,000 VentureOne miles. The former is equal to $480 in travel rewards, and the latter is equivalent to $300 in travel rewards.

People with the Venture X credit card are likely to spend more money in a month since they pay a $395 annual fee and likely travel more frequently. If you spend $10,000 per month, you’ll earn 240,000 Venture miles. These are equal to $2,400 in travel rewards.

How Can You Use Capital One Rewards?

The most obvious way to use miles is to book a flight, but there are some other ways you can redeem your Capital One miles.

Cover Travel Purchases

Besides flights, you can use the miles to cover your hotel stays or pay for experiences. If you have a Venture card, you can use the miles to cover any travel purchase within 90 days of making the purchase.

If you have enough miles, you can even get the whole trip for free.

Note that all purchases you make from hotels, airlines, car rental agencies, limousine services, rail lines, taxi cabs, travel agents, timeshares and cruise lines are considered travel purchases by Capital One.

However, the respective merchants assign codes to each category. The merchants decide how and when the rewards can be redeemed for their service.

Share Rewards

If a friend or family member is planning a trip but is short on miles on their Venture card, you also can transfer your miles to them. In this way, they can save a major chunk of their travel expenditure or eliminate their total flight cost altogether.

Capital One lets you send as many miles to friends or family as you want.

Transfer Miles to Airlines

Capital One partners with over 15 airlines. You can transfer your miles to the loyalty programs of these airlines and get access to different services and redemptions based on the program.

For instance, you can use your miles to upgrade your seat to first class on a partner airline.

Since each airline partner has its own policies and conditions, you should compare the prices before booking a flight since you may get a different fare for the same itinerary from different partners.

Redeem for Cash

If you’re not planning to travel or book a hotel stay any time soon, you can redeem your miles for cash. The miles are redeemed as a check or a statement credit.

The amount will take two to three days to appear in your account. If you’ve requested a check, it will arrive through the mail in two to three weeks.

Book a Flight/Trip

Capital One Travel is Capital One’s portal to book flights, hotel stays and car rentals for 5x unlimited miles on all Venture cards. You also can redeem your miles through Capital One Travel to save money on accommodation and flight fares.

Get Gift Cards

Capital One Venture cardholders can also redeem their miles to get gift cards from different merchants, like Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, iTunes and more.

How To Make the Best of Capital One Miles

Since the Capital One rewards can save you hundreds of dollars when you book flights from Capital One’s travel portal, it’s best to redeem your miles from there directly. Transferring your miles to partner airlines isn’t always the best idea since you could be restricted by the terms and conditions of the airline or its loyalty program.

But if you don’t want to travel by air, you can also go around the country by train.

With a Venture card, you can pretty much eliminate all of your travel expenses, provided you have sufficient miles. Alternatively, you can show up to an event in a limousine and let your Venture miles cover it.

Final Take

Capital One Venture cards, with their 5x unlimited miles on purchases and bonus miles, can help you save a substantial amount on your next journey. Even if you don’t want to redeem your miles for airfare, you can use them to book a limousine, pay for travel expenses, book hotels, rent cars, buy gift cards, transfer miles to select loyalty programs, share them with your friends and family or simply redeem them for cash.

Before you transfer miles to Capital One airline partners, make sure to compare the prices from each airline to get the best deal. The differences in redemption policies may make the fare different for each airline.

FAQs About Capital One Miles

Here are some frequently asked questions about Capital One miles value.

• How do I use Capital One Travel?

  • Capital One Travel is the travel portal from Capital One that you can use to book flights and hotel stays. The website predicts flight prices with 95% accuracy and sends you notifications when it's the best time to book, helping you save up to 15% on average.

  • Even better, Capital One Travel refunds you the difference up to a certain amount if it's wrong about the price drop. You earn unlimited 5x miles for all bookings made through Capital One Travel with your Venture credit cards.

• Do Capital One miles expire?

  • Capital One rewards, including miles, do not expire as long as your account is open. You can redeem your miles or rewards throughout the length of your account's life.

• What does Capital One consider travel?

  • Capital One considers all hotels, airlines, taxi cabs, bus lines, car rental agencies, timeshares, travel agents and cruise line purchases as travel.

Daria Uhlig contributed to the reporting for this article.

Editorial Note: This content is not provided by Capital One. Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author alone and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by Capital One.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Capital One Miles Value: How Much Are They Worth?