Capital One Miles Card--Anyone have experience w/it?

Have used it with no problems. They don't care what airline you fly and there's no restrictions because the amount of "miles" you need is completely dependent on the cost of the ticket. They are simply buying a ticket from the airlines, so as long as a seat is available, and you have enough "miles" to cover the price, it's yours.

The nicest thing about this is that you can choose your exact itinerary, including what airline you fly and you earn FF miles on the flight from the airline.

Last I checked, each "mile" is worth about 1.2 cents in ticket purchasing power, so you have to decide if this the best deal available for you out there.

Thanks, Brian--that clears it up a lot!!

I don't mean to step on socialworker's post but I juct had this thought the other day and meant to post: Does anyone know how it works if you have, say, 20,000 miles with Capital One and 40,000 miles with American Express. Can you "move" them to Delta, for instance, to purchase a ticket? (I know you can move miles from AMEX because I've done it. I don't know about Capital One.) Thanks.

I've used my CapOne card miles several times for domestic coach flights for both myself and family. It honestly was as easy as making one phone call and receiving a confirmation code and website where you could print out your itinerary.

I'm not sure that you can use the miles for 1st or business class, though.

We use AMEX and a United Mileage Plus card for large purchases for our business, and rack up miles pretty quickly. It is an almighty hassle to use these when we need them.

I've had a capital one card for a number of years and have used it often both on donestic flights and most recently to eastern Europe. No hassle, no blackout dates, any airline etc.
I use it for ALL purchases even down to a $3.00 purchase at Wally World!

I like it too, very easy to redeem miles.

I use my Milesone card for almost all credit card purchases and have bought quite a few flights with it. With the recent changes they made to how you can use it, it is hard to beat. I book my own flight any way I want, Orbitz, hotwire, priceline, or any airline, etc., then after it posts to the Capitol one credit card, I just call and tell them to apply my milesone points to that flight. If you want to figure out how many miles you are going to be using based on the price of the flight, just take the price times 80. So if you get a flight for say $300 then you are using 24,000 miles. I rarely pay that much for a flight if I can help it because I always watch and wait for a good price. but even if you do, if your are flying out of your area of the country, say midwest to east or west coast, you are still using only 24,000 for a $300 flight. I have usually only had to use 20,000 of my points to go from St. Louis to California or Florida because I find a flight around 250.

You can't move the Capital One miles to any frequent flyer program because they aren't really 'miles'. They've chosen to market the card as a 'mileage' earning card because most consumers are familiar with the concept of frequent flyer miles. A more accurate description of the Capital One card is that it's really a rebate card. As Brian_in_Charlotte has described, the amount of 'miles' necessary for redemption is totally dependent on the cost of the purchased ticket multiplied by a certain factor. The multiplier used depends on the solicitation you receive. So a $250 ticket would cost 20,000 'miles' if you have a card with a 80 multiplier or 25,000 if you have a 100 multiplier. From what I understand, you simply purchase your ticket and Capital One credits you with the cost and deducts the appropriate 'mileage' from your balance. These are not frequent flyer award tickets but rather revenue tickets.

I prefer to stick with traditional single airline affinity cards or programs like Amex Membership Rewards or Starwood Preferred Guest where it's possible to combine the miles earned from purchases with miles earned from flying and other sources. I also prefer to redeem my miles for international business class tickets, so it would take a very long time for me to accrue enough Capital One 'miles' for a ticket if using a cost multiplier factor (that is if you can redeem business class at all).

However, I understand that for some people cards such as these are a better alternative than traditional affinity cards.

I'd also look into a cash rebate card as an alternative. With a 100 multiplier, you're essentially getting a 1% rebate and with an 80 multiplier, 1.25%. If you can find a straight cash rebate card that offers a higher percentage (or even the same percentage), then I think you're better off as you can spend a cash rebate check on anything you want and aren't restricted to certain purchases like airline tickets.

That's a good point Patty. I do use a cash rebates Amex card for most of our purchases. With bonuses for grocery stores, gas stations and home depot, we end up getting somewhere north of 1% cash back. And I do value cash more than free airline tickets.

I use the Capital One Visa for those rare occasions where Amex isn't accepted.

Thanks, Patty. You did a much better job of explaing the Capital One miles cars better than the Capital One website. I think I'll stick with AMEX. It seems so much . . . simpler.

Same for me, I will stick w/the cards I have--I was considering signing up for the Cap One card, but now--thanks to all the knowledge on this board--I see that there is really no advantage in it. Thanks!

I contacted Capital One today and forced the phone rep read me the legalese. It said the multiplier was 125! He attempted to justify it by reminding me that I could earn 2 miles per $1 on travel/entertainment. That makes the program confusing and somewhat misleading. I've been using Chase Travel Plus for years, and with the exception of the rotten 21 day advanced purchase, it's been pretty good.

So....without an advanced math degree,we're all..basically....clueless?

What an informative thread - esp for those, like moi, who thought they had a pretty good deal going....

Who knew????

We wanted a Capital One card to use in Europe because they are one of the few cc companies NOT adding an extra percentage onto foreign transactions.

We received many offers from them, all slightly different, and ended up getting two cards. Besides the factors (which Patty explained so well above) of how many miles you get per dollar spent and what the multiplier is, it turns out they have another way of limiting your rewards.

Our first card was 1 mile per dollar with a multiplier of 80. Our second card was 2 miles per dollar with a multiplier of 125. Of course, the second card is a better deal, so we planned to use it for everything. Here's the catch: the first card has a $30,000 credit limit on it, but the second card has a $5000 credit limit.

Yes, I phoned and tried to get that limit raised, or even switched for the other card, but no go. I finally figured out that was their sneaky way of limiting my mileage rewards.

Left a very bad taste in my mouth, I must say.

I got a notice a month or so ago stating a change in the terms (mulitplier, how much is earned per dollar charged). It seemed a bit worse, but largely a wash.

Point is, you can't use the numbers in the older posts above anymore as they've changed the program.

Brian, we got that same notice, but because of the way we use our card it's a huge blow to us. What irritates me most is they are not upfront with all the new rules, either in the mailing or on their website. We've been loyal customers of Capital One for 10+ years but I'm really irritated. I understand they're in this to make money so I can see why they changed the rules, but geez, don't be so sneaky about it.

Excuse me, jocelyn,

I don't understand how it could be a "blow" to you. The rules change basically is that, instead of earning 1 point(or mile) for each dollar you spend (as it has been), now you will earn 1.25 points (miles) per dollar spent. That is better than before, not worse.

I also like the fact that there is no foreign currency charge, which other companies use to really rip you off. I have used my capitalone, as another person said, by booking through Orbitz and then calling capitalone to have my points applied to my ticket purchase. Doing it this way, you could buy your tickets the day before the flight and use your points to pay for it. Very convenient for me.

Actually, the program that we had through Capital One allowed us to buy a ticket to Europe, up to $1000 in value, for 65,000 points. For that same $1000 ticket, we now have to use up 100,000 points. How is this better?

I've had a different experience with Capital One. They changed my program last fall from 25,000 points for a free domestic ticket in the eastern zone of the USA to the new 35,000 points for a ticket <$350. I get 1.25 points per dollar spent, but that is a far cry from the advertised no hassles. Then they stick you with interest charges on your bill if you don't pay the monthly charges in full and assume that the credit for the ticket costs will make up the difference. I cashed in two tickets last month but I figure that I spent almost 3 tickets worth of points as of the rate they gave me last fall. I'm looking to leave Capital One, any suggestions?

lavgreen, doesn't every credit card charge you interest if you don't pay in full each month? I don't quite get your contention that they "stick you with interest charges". Can you explain how this is different from other mastercard's out there?

I think lavgreen was expecting the mileage redemption credit from Capital One to appear on the same statement cycle as the actual ticket purchase and it sounds like that did not happen which resulted in finance charges.

What I found, in my situation, about interest charges on Capitol One, is that you have to make the full payment 2 months in a row, & then they don't charge interest, after that. I got sucked in by their 6 months 0% interest on any balance. So I let the balance ride until just before the date their rep told me that the interest rate would be instituted. I paid off the full balance on the last statement they sent me before the date to start interest charges. The next monthly statement then showed an interest charge. I called Capitol One to find out why. The rep said sure you paid it off, but read the fine print, you have to pay the full balance for 2 months in a row, & then keep paying off the full balance each month before there are no interest charges. I had only paid the full balance for 1 month, & until I made that 2nd full payment, interest charges accrued. The rep did wave the interest charge, but she did get abit snotty about it.

I have stopped using Delta Skymiles card, because it is such a bother getting FF trips. We used our Capitol One for a London trip and I was very happy.....no hassle!!!!!

Capital One Miles Card: Advantage--easy to actually get tickets when cashing in on FF miles. Big disadvantage--each mile is worth only 1.2 cents. So this is like a Christmas Club savings account in a bank--so convenient, but really not to your advantage financially. What do I do--I use dividend cards (AMEX and Dividend CitiCards) and pay "retail,consolidator, or APEX" prices -- Why? because the dividend cards pay me more than 1.2 cents per mile and on Citicard, they send me a check immediately when my refund is at least $50--the credit card companies do not make money on my "float." People who think that "loyalty" or amount of purchase gives you special privileges in using FF miles are deluded. The magic words are capacity control which means you will have a huge amount of difficulty in cashing in your miles, especially during desirable times. The use of FF miles to get a "premium coach seat" or to upgrade to a business or first class seat cheapens the value of your miles even more. The rationalization that the use of miles to upgrade when you have excess miles to burn is silly if you have the option to get a cash dividend which is worth more than than the FF cents per mile. Only if you get the FF miles to your account when someone else is paying your ticket, such as on a company related business trip, might this strategy sound logical. The bottom line is that FF programs are like retail stores saying that a product sells for 90% off; the problem is that the product is not available and if if became available, then it would not be 90% off. Why go through this unethical, marketing hype? For me, cash is king. I do not have any FF cards, including Capital One cards and have no hassle getting an airline ticket on the day I wish to fly.

The use of FF miles to get a "premium coach seat" or to upgrade to a business or first class seat cheapens the value of your miles even more. The rationalization that the use of miles to upgrade when you have excess miles to burn is silly if you have the option to get a cash dividend which is worth more than than the FF cents per mile.

For the past 3 years, I've used my miles for business class tickets from the US to Africa which are 120,000 miles each. The cost for such a ticket would be in the neighborhood of $6000+ each. For the sake of argument, let's say that I'm also willing to fly coach (which I'm not). A coach ticket from US to Africa would cost me 80,000 miles. Most of the cash rebate cards I've seen earn 1% on the majority of purchases and a higher percentage only on certain categories or during a promotional period, so let's say I'm able to average 1.5% (which I'm not even sure is possible). That means charging $80,000 would equal a $1,200 cash rebate which is several hundred to a thousand dollars shy of the actual cost of an economy ticket from the US west coast to Africa depending on the time of year. At $120,000 = $1,800, it doesn't even come close to the cost of a business class ticket. While it does require some work and flexibility on my part, I've never not been able to get the flights I need.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. If you can point out a cash rebate card that would consistently net 3-5%, I might be interested.

We have used our Capitol One miles several times without any problems. With the card you buy your ticket anywhere and then get the price refunded from Capitol One if you have enough miles in your account.
A few years ago we had enough miles to cover the cost of 2 tickets to S. American. I needed 3 tickets which we purchased from Expedia at a discount, then had Cap 1 use the miles in our account to refund the cost of two of them. We purchased the tickets with our Cap 1 card so we got added miles for the cost of all 3 tickets.
Just recently my wife traveled to the UK at the last miniute and spent $900 on a ticket thru Priceline. Our almost 200,000 miles on the Capitol One account was more than enough to cover it. I claimed the ticket cost online, they had a record of the ticket purchase and immediately credited my account for the $900.
You can book flights thru Cap 1 but I haven't tried them yet. If you don't want to use the miles to get ticket costs refunded, you can use them to purchase other things at the Cap 1 website.
We've had the Cap 1 card since 1995 and have never had a problem with their service.

We've booked lots of trips with this card and it has always been easy---we love it!