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Note: this is just an updated version of the post that first went out yesterday, Sunday 15 September, that originally announced this promotion.
In December 2018 Capital One introduced a significant upgrade to a number of its credit cards when it introduced a series of airline loyalty program partners into which Capital One miles could be transferred.
Now, with a total of 15 airline loyalty program partners, Capital One is looking to challenge the likes of Chase, Citi and American Express in the transferrable currency space, but the challenge isn’t as strong as it could be thanks to the rates at which Capital One miles transfer to other currencies.
Where points issued by Chase, Citi, and American Express mostly convert to other loyalty programs in a ratio of 1:1, Capital One miles mostly transfer over in a ratio of 2,000:1,500….and that’s not great.
Fortunately, Capital One appears to realize the weakness in its program so it occasionally offers transfer bonuses which boost the transfer ratios to something more reasonable (we’ve seen 4 bonus promotions so far this year) and that’s exactly the scenario that has kicked-in today.
Between Monday 16 September 12:01 AM Eastern and 31 October at 11:59 PM Eastern, Capital One Venture, and Spark Miles account holders will receive a 33.3% bonus on all miles transferred to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program.
During the offer period Capital One miles transfer over to Qantas in a 1:1 ratio which brings Capital One in line with what Citi and American Express already offer – this makes this a nice bonus for Capital One Venture and Spark Miles account holders but no big deal for those of us with Membership Rewards and/or ThankYou point balances.
As with most transferable currencies, a minimum of 1,000 miles must be transferred per transaction but, unlike some transferable currencies, Capital One will allow cardholders to transfer points in 100 mile increments thereafter.
Bottom Line
Most readers who hold a Capital One credit card will probably hold the Venture card which earns 2 miles/dollar on all purchases except for purchases made through Hotels.com/venture where the card earns 10 miles/dollar (through January 2020).
What this promotion therefore means is that Venture cardholders will (effectively) earn a minimum of 2 Qantas Frequent Flyer Miles per dollar on all purchases made through 31 October.
A number of AMEX and Citi cards will beat this earnings rate when cardholders shop in categories that earn a bonus (dining, travel, groceries etc…), but for non-bonused spending this promotion may come in useful.
