There are lots of reasons to love Capital One travel cards and their ultra-valuable miles, but a steady stream of transfer bonuses isn't one of them. Lucky for you, there's a brand-new one you can use to your advantage.
Travelers with cards like the *venture x* and the *capital one venture card* can get a 20% bonus when transferring Capital One miles to Air France/KLM Flying Blue, a great mileage program to get from the U.S. to Europe, one of the best ways to book business class, and the best new way to book many Delta flights for fewer miles. This transfer bonus makes those deals even better.
This new bonus runs all the way through Sept. 29, so you've got plenty of time to put it to use.
Not sure where to start? Read our guide on Capital One transfer partners and how to make it happen!
Using transfer partners like Air France/KLM is one of the best ways to use Capital One miles for even more value. And these transfer bonuses make it even better – think of it as a way to get some free airline miles. Transfer bonuses to Air France seem to crop up once or twice a year.
But no matter how appealing a 20% bonus might be, you should never transfer credit card points willy nilly. This is a one-way street: Once you send your credit card points to an airline account, you can't get them back. That means you'll want to have a purpose for these miles.
Fortunately, there are some great ways to put this bonus to use…
Best Ways to Use This Bonus
We'll never turn down some free Flying Blue miles.
This is the combined mileage program for Air France and KLM, and it's one of the best ways to book flights with SkyTeam airlines including Delta, Korean Air, and Air France or KLM, of course.
Fly Air France or KLM to Europe
With low rates and fairly solid availability to actually book these flights with your miles, this is one of the best ways to book business class to Europe.
Whether you want to get to Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG), Amsterdam (AMS), or connect almost anywhere flying business class to Europe, Flying Blue charges as low as 50,000 each way. With this transfer bonus, you’d need just 41,700 Capital One miles to make it happen.
You can also book economy awards to Europe using Air France and KLM miles – including one-way trips from several U.S. cities for less than 20,000 miles. But Flying Blue also passes on some hefty cash surcharges on award tickets that make it less appealing for economy prices, while it can easily be worth paying $200 or so for a one-way business class ticket for Europe.
Finding flights at these low rates may require some flexibility, as you won't find them on every single date. Luckily, Air France and KLM allow you to easily scroll through up to a month's worth of flights to find the best deals. Flying Blue typically tacks on about $200 for a one-way business class award to Europe – and about $380 or more for the way back. As steep as it sounds, that's a small price to pay for $6,000-plus flights.
And it’s a great ride across the Atlantic Ocean whether you’re flying with Air France or KLM.
Read our full Air France business class review!
Occasionally, though, the deals get even better.
Book Discounted Promo Rewards
Every month, Flying Blue unleashes a set of discounted routes it calls Promo Rewards. And the airlines' latest monthly promo is a decent one, offering deeply discounted economy rates to Europe from a handful of U.S. cities. Occasionally, we even see deep discounts for business class.
Just beware: You'll have to act fast, as availability at these rates tends to go fast (or has already disappeared) – especially if you want to fly business class. But even in economy, the deals are amazing: With fares as low as 15,000 miles each way (12,000 with the transfer bonus!), it could easily be worth paying $150 or so in taxes and fees to pull off a trip to Europe this fall or winter.
For travel through January 2025, you can book:
- Detroit (DTW) starting at 15,000 Flying Blue Miles
- Boston (BOS) starting at 15,000 Flying Blue Miles
- Houston-Intercontinental (IAH) starting at 15,000 Flying Blue Miles
- Toronto (YYZ) starting at 15,000 Flying Blue Miles
No matter which route or cabin you choose, this 20% bonus just makes these flights even cheaper.
Book Delta for Less!
For years, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club was the go-to method to book Delta-operated flights when the airline was charging far too many SkyMiles. But after a slew of devaluations in recent years to that program, those days are over.
Now, Flying Blue is the best workaround to book many Delta flights. And this 20% transfer bonus means you can do it for even fewer Capital One miles.
Want to book short Delta domestic flights? Flying Blue charges as few as 6,000 or so miles, like for these flights from Minneapolis to Chicago-O'Hare (ORD). With that 20% bonus, you'd need only transfer 5,500 Capital One miles to Air France/KLM.
Delta might be charging 50,000 SkyMiles or more for roundtrip flights to Hawaii, but you can book those exact same flights for under 40,000 miles through Flying Blue.
Flights down to Mexico and the Caribbean are a serious sweet spot for Flying Blue, like this flight on the new route from Minneapolis to Aruba (AUA) for just 37,000 miles roundtrip. With that 20% transfer bonus, that's just 30,000 Capital One miles!
Sadly, the days of booking Delta One business class to Europe for 50,000 points each way via Virgin Atlantic are over. Luckily, it can still be a bargain through Flying Blue: Air France/KLM, meanwhile, still charge low cash fees on top of your miles.
While finding availability on any of Delta's nonstop routes from Europe can be a challenge, we recently alerted our Thrifty Traveler Premium members to multiple deals flying Delta One from New York (JFK) to London-Heathrow Airport (LHR) for just 63,5000 miles one-way.
With that 20% bonus in mind, you'd only need to transfer 53,000 Capital One miles for this lie-flat seat to London!
Fly to Taipei in Business Class
One of the best ways to get to Taiwan – or connect elsewhere in Southeast Asia – is in China Airlines' spiffy business class seats. And using Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles is the best way to make it happen.
You could fly from Vacnouver (YVR) to Taipei (TPE) for just 65,500 Flying Blue miles.
Factor in this 20% transfer bonus, and you'll need to transfer just 54,600 Capital One miles. Not bad for a 12-plus hour flight in seats like these, right?
How to Transfer Capital One Miles to Air France/KLM
Figure out the best way to use your Capital One Miles through Flying Blue but not sure how to actually transfer those miles? Don't worry: This is the easy part.
Just log into your Capital One account and select the option to “View Rewards.”
From there, click “Convert Rewards.”
Capital One will pull up a long list of nearly 20 transfer partners you can send your Capital One Miles to. But with this bonus, Air France/KLM Flying Blue should appear at the very top.
Once you choose your transfer partner, you'll get a prompt to enter your frequent flyer account information. Keep in mind that the name on your Capital One account must match your frequent flyer account. So if you're hoping to immediately transfer points to a friend or family member – even an authorized user on your Venture X account, for example – you're out of luck.
Once you've linked your frequent flyer account, it's time to decide how many miles to transfer. Remember that you can fine-tune your transfer in increments of 100 (so long as you transfer at least 1,000 miles). Capital One will show you exactly how many Flying Blue you'll get with this 20% bonus.
Capital One warns that transfers will complete within 24 hours. But in our experience, transfers to Air France/KLM Flying Blue are always instant: You should have your miles in your Air France account, bonus and all, within a few minutes – if not seconds.
Bottom Line
Transfer bonuses are great – it means you need fewer points to book your next getaway. And a 20% bonus when transferring Capital One miles to Air France/KLM Flying Blue is an excellent one for Capital One cardholders.
Just be sure you know how you'll put those miles to use before transferring them to Air France/KLM. And start doing your research soon, as this transfer bonus ends Sept. 29.
Hi. This is very helpful! Do you know if there will be another 20% bonus promo in 2024?
Chicago is on promo I believe. I booked Chicago to Vienna via Paris for 11,250 each way and took advantage of the c1 20% transfer bonus too.