Capital One’s Venture and Spark cardholders have the flexibility to transfer their points to one of Capital One’s 18 travel partners. However, when reviewing the list of partners, it’s important to have some understanding of airline alliances and partnerships in order to maximize the value of your points. This is due to the fact that Capital One does not have partnerships with any major US airlines, making it essential to have knowledge of alternative airline options when redeeming your points.
For example, I wanted to transfer points to Flying Blue, the loyalty program for Air France & KLM, to book a flight with Virgin Atlantic. I could have transferred points directly to Virgin Red, the loyalty program affiliated with Virgin Atlantic, but Flying Blue was offering the same flight for fewer points.
I had a problem because I didn’t have enough Capital One points in my account to fill up my Flying Blue balance. My wife Sharon had enough points in her account, and I could have transferred points and booked through her Flying Blue account. However, I had a point balance in my account that I wanted to use. Luckily, I was able to take advantage of a unique feature of Capital One points: the ability to transfer points to another Capital One cardholder.
Transferring Capital One Points Between Different Member Accounts
Other banks have restrictions on their transferrable points. They limit who you can transfer points to and how many points you can transfer. Capital One has no such restrictions. The only requirement is that the person you’re transferring points to has a Capital One card that earns Venture or Spark miles.
The downside is there is no way to do this transfer online. You need to call Capital One.
I called the number on the back of my Venture X card and was in contact with a representative within minutes. I explained that I wanted to transfer points to Flying Blue but didn’t have enough, so could I transfer points from Sharon’s account to mine?
She said it would be no problem, but the person who’s transferring the points needs to be the one to initiate the transfer. This meant I needed to get Sharon on the phone. (I try to avoid this where possible because she hates talking on the phone to banks.) I put her on the phone and the rep walked her through the process. The only question she needed to answer was if she wanted to transfer all or part of her point balance. I provided the number of points and that was it.
When I logged out of my Capital One account and logged back in, the transfer was instant. I was then able to transfer the points to Flying Blue and book my flight to London on Virgin Atlantic in Upper Class.
Final Thought
Capital One’s transferrable point program isn’t perfect. However, when it comes to transferring points between accounts, it offers the most lenient rules of all bank programs.
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3 comments
Good to know however Citi TYP can be transferred to other TYP accounts as well.
Yes but transferred points only have a limited lifespan of 90 DAYS after the transfer before expiring and you can only do 100K point to a given person per year.
Huh? I don’t get caught flat footed too often but I had no idea you could do this. No other restrictions? Thanks so much.