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Earning Miles with the Capital One Venture Rewards Card

Hello. Has anyone used the Capital One Venture Rewards Card to earn miles? Is it worth it?

Posted by
23177 posts

I use the card for European travel because of the no currency conversion fee and not to collect points. I think there are better cards (Chase Sapphire, United cards, etc.) for earning points.

Posted by
7049 posts

Compare cards on bankrate.com to see which card has best potential for earning points. I use Capital One exclusively to avoid the foreign transaction fees overseas (can't comment on earning miles).

Posted by
2709 posts

I use a regular Cap One MC, get 1% cashback on everything, except gas and groceries get me 2% cashback. And unlike other cards I can credit this to my account whenever I want, i don't have to wait for $50 increments. And also no foreign transaction fees with conversion at the interbank rate.
This is a known quantity on what I am getting back. I'd love to hear an explanation of what miles actually equate to in dollars and cents.

Posted by
527 posts

Used to use Capital one for miles, but now use Lufthansa's Miles and More and United Mileage Explorer card. They are both Star Alliance so I can use miles on either of their airlines. United now does not have any foreign transaction fees for their card.

Posted by
1520 posts

We use the signature cap one card and have exceptionally pleased w the rewards. There may be better cards, we are quite satisfied w the level of customer service.

Posted by
2788 posts

Is that a credit card? Are you considering using it in Europe? If yes and yes, are you expecting to use it in ATMs for local currency? If yes again, be sure to find out how they treat cash withdrawals from ATMs as some credit cards tread those as cash advances and the fees are usually sky high.

Posted by
15560 posts

I've never used miles, so I don't know how other cards work. I've been accumulating miles on my Cap One MC, but I haven't used them yet. I do know that for flights, you have to use increments of that seem huge to me (tens of thousands for each use).

Posted by
12172 posts

I find I never use miles except to send a plane ticket to my mother or mother-in-law occasionally. When I traveled more with work, miles were more worthwhile. Now I think you do better, in both the long and short run, searching for the best deals rather than collecting miles with one rewards program. I did look at my miles on Capital One recently and used miles to "erase" a couple of hotel stays. I thought that was a nice feature, it made my miles worth something.

Posted by
1626 posts

Roberto, We opened a Cap One Venture rewards card a couple years ago for intl travel with no intl fees. While we get 1.25 points for every dollar spent, it only converts to reward eraser as a 1 point = $1. So recently I used 24,000 C.O. points to pay "erase" $240 off a hotel charge. The charge you want to get reimbursed for must be the same or less than the points you want to use. In this case I asked the hotel to charge me $240.00 on Cap One, and the balance on a different credit card. Previously I'd used the card for a $500.00 plane ticket, but since I only had 24,000 points, I couldn't use for a portion ($240)of the travel purchase. I prefer accumulating miles on card directly into an airline account as you usually get more bang for the buck. For example, on United, you can "buy" a saver RT to Europe for 60,000 miles. If you spent $60,000 to "earn" those miles, the benefit is equivalent to $1,500. Where as the Capital One Benefit for the same amount spent would only be equivalent to %750.00. In addition, if you travel at all for work or pleasure, make sure your frequent flyer hotels, car rentals, and flights all convert to miles to the same airline as your credit card.
If you do get a card for miles/points, you MUST be disciplined enough to pay of in FULL every month so you don't pay interest, EVER.

Posted by
818 posts

Better off with a card tat earns you airline miles. I only use miles when I get a super saver fare - so with 100,000 miles I can get a RT international first class ticket. With Capital One that only gets you $1000 - cost of RT international ticket.

Posted by
663 posts

I've got an Alaska Airlines visa card. They partner with airlines like American and Delta, among others. They gave me 25,000 miles just to sign up, give double miles when you purchase airline tickets, you get a domestic companion fare of $99 every year that hubby and I are using for Hawaii this December, and for only 40,000 miles I can get round trip airfare to a few places in Europe during off season, mid week, such as London, Dublin, Madrid, Milan, and Paris. I'm super close!

Posted by
281 posts

I like the American Citibank card. I love their E advantage Shopping Mall where I get points for shopping ONLINE at Nordstrom, QVC, Macy's, etc. I always go to the shopping website to find out who gives the most points
for an item. The points count up much faster.

Posted by
7 posts

Thank you all for your responses. A friend of mine uses the CITI AAdvantage Rewards Card, which is partnered with American Airlines. You get 50k miles when you spend 3k$ in three months, which if you use it to pay your bills, groceries, gas, etc, will get you there sooner rather than later. There's a 95$ annual fee that gets waived the first year. My friend has used it several times to go to Europe for almost nothing. She's going to Spain from Puerto Rico in December for around $100. She says that the annual fee does not bother her that much when she considers how much she saves in plane tickets. I will give it a try. Gracias all for your response; they were very educational.

Posted by
1010 posts

We always use our MasterCard Citibank Advantage card for everything, but international travel. I agree it is better to earn airline miles directly. We do use our Capital One card overseas though. There are no transaction fees with the Capital One card. There are transaction fees with American Express and Citibank. If you use your Citibank Mastercard (American airlines card), you will be charged transaction fees.