Best Ways to Use 75,000 Capital One Miles
Capital One made quite a splash with their new Capital One Venture X card. But now their tried-and-true Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is out with an elevated offer of 75,000 bonus miles. Venture miles use to be worth a fixed value when redeemed for travel, but now with several transfer partners, Capital One has really upped the appeal of their program. In this post we’ll review the new offer and show you some great ways to use 75,000 Capital One miles.
RELATED: Transfer Partners For Each Transferrable Currency
Venture 75,000 Miles Offer
You can earn 75,000 bonus Capital One miles after opening a new Capital One Venture card account and spending $4,000 in the first three months. This is a nice boost from the standard offer of just 60,000 miles. The card earns 2X miles everywhere and 5X miles on hotels and rental cards booked through Capital One Travel.
The card offers some other perks, including a reimbursement credit for either TSA PreCheck or the Global Entry enrollment fee and a fairly standard suite of Visa Signature travel insurance perks.
The annual fee of $95 is not waived the first year, which is the only bummer with this offer.
It’s still a very valuable offer, especially if you can leverage some of the great Capital One transfer partner options. Without further ado, here are five ways I’d use 75,000 Capital One miles.
Ten One-Way Domestic United Flights Using Miles & Smiles
I’m a big fan of the Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles loyalty program, mainly because of the cheap awards the program offers on domestic flights within a country. Flights within a single region as defined by Turkish Airlines cost just 7,500 one-way in economy. Business isn’t much more at 15,000 miles.
The 50 U.S. states all fall within the same zone, which means you can use 75,000 Capital One miles for a whopping ten free one-way economy tickets on United-operated flights. That’s pretty crazy.
Ticketing with Turkish Airlines is a pain in the neck. But the savings have been worth fighting through either a phone call or email exchange with them. The online interface works for some routes and tickets, and it tends to have technical issues.
Air France 777-300ER Business Class to Paris
It can be difficult these days to find SkyTeam business class awards at reasonable rates. Delta has raised prices multiple times over the years for partner tickets. Luckily, booking Air France flights directly using their own Flying Blue miles often isn’t a bad deal. I’m eyeing tickets this fall for just 71,000 miles. As a 1:1 Capital One transfer partner, Flying Blue is a program you shouldn’t overlook.
The one bummer is the taxes and fees. Expect $200-$250 one-way between the U.S. and Europe.
Fly Finnair’s Excellent A350 Business Class to Helsinki
Finnair offers one of the best business class products I’ve flown. It’s a pretty standard reverse herringbone hard product, but the catering and service made the flight for me. I’d highly recommend flying their flagship A350-900.
Transfers to Finnair Plus are one of the more intriguing ways to use 75,000 Capital One miles. The program doesn’t get a lot of press compared to many others. The award rates aren’t the best, but they certainly aren’t bad, and the surcharges are low.
You can fly one-way in business class between the U.S. and Europe for 80,000 Finnair Plus miles. This means that the welcome offer for the Capital One Venture card plus points earned from the minimum spend will get you all you need.
Ten Short-Haul Domestic U.S. Flights Using LifeMiles
If Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles is too intimidating, LifeMiles is a good backup option. This frequent flyer program breaks the continental United States up into three regions. Within each region, tickets are usually just 7,500 miles one-way. I have to caveat this since there are odd exceptions, both below and above that rate.
The coolest part is that United short-haul tickets with a connection even price out for just 7,500 LifeMiles. I’ve used these awards well over a dozen times now, and it will continue to be a staple award for me.
Those 75,000 Capital One miles from the current Venture offer? They can get you ten one-way same-zone tickets using LifeMiles.
Short-Haul and Hawaii Round-Trips Using Avios
Avios are a fantastic currency for booking short-haul nonstop flights on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines. Awards are priced based on flight distance. Any flight of 1,151 or fewer miles costs just 9,000 Avios each way. This means that a 72,000 Avios will get you four round-trip tickets in the economy cabin, and you’ll pay just $44.80 in fees.
If you live on the West Coast and want to fly to Hawaii, the 75,000 bonus Capital One miles will get you nearly three tickets (actually, after meeting the minimum spend, you’ll have enough). Hawaii flights cost 13,000 Avios each way, which means 78,000 will get you three round-trip tickets.
To find award space, it’s likely best to search aa.com or alaskaair.com first, using their calendar view to identify the cheapest dates. Then check the available space on the British Airways website.
Final Thoughts on How to Use 75,000 Capital One Miles
The only thing preventing me from jumping into the Capital One ecosystem is…Capital One. They have been historically stingy when it comes to new card approvals, and I’ve never managed to be approved. Given the set of Capital One transfer partners, I’d love to pick up either this current 75,000 miles offer on the Capital One Venture card or their new Venture X card. I doubt it will happen anytime soon, though.
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