New to the travel rewards world? Confused by how airline miles or hotel points work? That is the beauty of using points from cards like the *venture x*, *venture x business*, or the *capital one venture card*: There's nothing simpler than redeeming miles to cover travel purchases using Capital One miles.
Along with the no-annual-fee *capital one ventureone*, these cards give you an easy option to cover the cost of your travels using miles. It's incredibly versatile: From flights to hotels to rental cars and even Airbnbs, you can use them to book almost any travel expense imaginable. Honestly, there's no easier way to book travel and make it free.
Here's how using Capital One miles to cover travel purchases works.
Related reading: 9 Unique Ways to Use Capital One Miles for Travel
How to Use the Capital One Miles to Cover Travel Purchases
There's a growing list of ways to put your Capital One miles to use.
Sure, you can earn miles on your Capital One card and transfer them to one of nearly 20 airline and hotel partners. You can even book travel directly through the Capital One travel portal. But the easiest way to use these miles – and arguably the easiest way in the whole wide world of points and miles – is to pay for travel with your Venture card. Then, you can go back and remove that charge from your credit card statement with miles.
Let's say you've recently picked up the *venture x*. Once you've spent $4,000 within the first three months of opening the card, you'll earn the card's current 75,000-mile bonus. Factor in the usual 2x miles per dollar you earn for spending that $4,000 sum, and you'll have at least 83,000 miles.
Using this option, you can redeem those miles toward any travel-related purchase for 1 cent apiece. That means you've got a cool $830 you can put toward travel sitting in your account.
Here's exactly how to put it to use:
So, you've earned the big sign-up bonus – or perhaps you've continued spending on your Venture and racked up even more miles. Now it's time to use them on some travel expenses.
Start by putting any travel expenses on your Capital One Venture card … and we mean any. Capital One considers “travel costs” to contain a multitude – not just basic expenses like flights and hotels. From Airbnb stays to Uber rides, to flight and hotel purchases and even cruises – all of these count as “travel.”
That's right: Just pay for your flight, hotel, Uber, or parking fee with your Capital One card. Then give it a few days for your purchase to finalize and post to your account.
One note: It's totally fine to put non-travel purchases on your card. You just won't be able to use your miles to “erase” them. On the plus side, you'll still earn 2x miles for every dollar you spend on the Venture or Venture X card.
Now let's take a look at how to remove those travel purchases.
Step 2: Remove Travel Purchases
The second (and final) step in this process is to redeem your miles to cover the travel purchase.
Start by logging in to your Capital One account and click the Redeem button on your homepage.
Next, select how you'd like to redeem your miles: You can book flights or hotels directly through Capital One, get gift cards, redeem for cash, transfer Capital One miles to one of their partner airline or hotel programs, or the new option to redeem them for Apple products and other merchandise. Still, the easiest (and often our favorite) way to redeem Capital One rewards is the “Cover Travel Purchases” function.
From this page, select “Cover Travel Purchases.”
Once you've selected to cover your travel purchases, you'll be taken to a page where you can choose which travel-related purchases you've made on your Capital One Venture card you'd like to “erase.” This includes all eligible travel transactions from the last 90 days. Typically, it takes one to three days after your travel purchase for it to show up here.
Don't have enough miles – or don't want to spend them all? You can even redeem miles to cover just part of a purchase. As you can see, we've got the option here to redeem Capital One miles to cover the cost of train tickets and an Uber ride in Rome.
When using Capital One miles to cover travel purchases, each Venture mile is worth 1 cent. That means the 4,014 miles we've got in this account are worth $40.14, and we can cover the cost of each $9.40 train ticket from Rome (FCO) Fiumicino Airport for 940 miles.
Select which travel-related purchase you want to cover, and voila! Your points will be deducted, and your purchase will be virtually removed from your account – Capital One will simply credit you.
Don't want to cover the whole amount? No problem: You can fine-tune exactly how much of a purchase you want to cover using miles by simply typing in how many miles you'd like to use. For example, we can cover roughly half of this $1,300 hotel bill from Agoda with 67,000 Capital One miles.
Once you hit that green “Confirm” button, you're done! You'll have just completed one of the easiest travel rewards redemptions there is.
Keep in mind that you have 90 days to “erase” a travel purchase before it's no longer available. If you're ready to use those miles, don't wait too long to take care of those recent travel purchases!
An Example of Using Capital One Miles in Action
You can use Capital One miles to cover the cost of virtually any travel expense you can think of. But one of our favorite ways to redeem Capital One miles is on the expenses you can't typically cover with other credit card points or airline miles. That's just what I did recently.
Booking Delta flights? You're probably better off using some of your Delta SkyMiles – or even booking via Virgin Atlantic, a Capital One transfer partner. Locking in a stay at a Hilton or Hyatt? If you've got points with either program, use those instead.
But what about an Airbnb stay? Airbnb doesn't have its own loyalty program, so Capital One miles are the only way to cover the cost of your stay with points. Same goes for Viator tours and other excursions, spendy float plane rides to your resort in the Maldives, Disney tickets, and many more.
My wife and I took a trip to French Polynesia and Australia earlier this year and booked our flights to Tahiti (PPT) using Alaska Mileage Plan miles. But Bora Bora (BOB) is where we really wanted to get to … and even though it's just a 50-minute flight, those fares are not cheap.
These inter-island flights don't get much cheaper than $376 per person – or $752 for the two of us. That's $752 we'd rather put towards dinners at the Conrad Bora Bora Nui, renting a pontoon to cruise around the island, or other expenses throughout our trip. And we had plenty of Capital One miles to spare … so why not use them? That's what points and miles are there for, right?
We also had part of the $300 annual travel credit from our *venture x* left to use up – and that has to be used through the Capital One travel portal. So we fired up that portal and searched for our flights to Bora Bora. There they were: Same price as booking direct with Air Tahiti.
After kicking in the $85 left of our travel credit, we charged the remaining $667 or so to the Venture X Card. A few days later, we followed the steps above to remove that charge from the statement using just over 66,700 miles. Yes, you can use this method of covering travel purchases even after booking through the Capital One portal – and as you'll see, you should.
And since the Venture X Card earns 5x miles per dollar when booking flights through the Capital One travel portal, we also earned 3,337 Capital One miles right back for the initial $667 purchase, reducing the total cost of our roundtrip flights to Bora Bora to just over 63,000 Capital One miles.
Read more: Why You Shouldn't Redeem Capital One Miles Directly Through the Capital One Travel Portal
How to Earn Capital One Miles
To spend Capital One miles wisely, you’ve first got to earn them. You’re in luck: There are a handful of cards that can help you bolster your balance of Capital One miles, including a brand-new option.
The Capital One Venture X Card
The *venture x* is the bank’s very first premium travel card, and it might just be the best travel credit card out there.
Think of it as a souped-up version of the ever-popular Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card that’s chock full of extra benefits: Access to Capital One Lounges and Priority Pass lounges, a $300 annual travel credit, a credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, great travel and rental car insurance protection, and more. The annual fee clocks in at $395 a year, but the benefits can easily outweigh that.
Here’s the best part: You can currently earn 75,000 Capital One miles after spending $4,000 in the first three months. Considering you earn at least 2x for every dollar you spend on the Venture X Card, you’ll earn a total of at least 83,000 miles.
Learn more about the *venture x*.
The Capital One Venture X Business Card
With the official launch of the *venture x business* last fall, the bank essentially hit copy and paste on the personal Venture X card. The business version comes with all the same premium travel benefits like annual travel credits, airport lounge access, and elite-like benefits at Capital One's Premier Collection of hotels, all for a $395 annual fee.
For small business owners (and you could be one without even realizing it), this card earns an unlimited 2x miles on every purchase, everywhere. So whether you're paying for business supplies, office rent, utilities, or other vendors, you'll be getting a decent return on all your purchases.
While the spending requirement to earn the big welcome bonus is larger than most, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better bonus on a business card right now. Currently, you can earn 150,000 Miles once you spend $30,000 in the first 3 months from account opening.
Learn more about the *venture x business*.
The Capital One Venture Card
The *capital one venture card* has been a fan favorite among travelers for years – and for good reason. It’s truly one of the best travel credit cards for beginners.
You earn 2x points on every purchase and even get a credit that covers the cost of Global Entry or TSA PreCheck – all for a card with a $95 annual fee.
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Learn more about the *capital one venture card*
Capital One VentureOne Card
Think of the *capital one ventureone* as the littlest sibling to the Venture X and Venture Cards.
It’s a no-annual-fee card that will earn you 1.25x miles per dollar you spend. The welcome bonus is smaller, too – though still quite nice. You can currently earn bonus_miles_full
Learn more about the *Cap One VentureOne*.
Bottom Line
The beauty of Capital One miles is their simplicity. There's no easier way to redeem rewards for travel than using Capital One miles to cover travel purchases.
Whether your redemptions are big – like spending all 75,000 of those bonus Capital One miles from a new card to remove a $750 flight to Europe) from your statement – or small – like using miles to reimburse yourself for every Uber ride you take over the next month from your statement – you'll quickly master this foolproof way to get into travel rewards.
I made a travel purchase (not using miles) on my venture x card that was subsequently credited back to the account (in money, not miles) when I canceled the purchase. The charge (although refunded on my statement) is still showing up as a travel purchase in the rewards part of my account and shows that I can use miles to cover it (although it was already refunded). If I use miles to cover the purchase, will the redemption just be credited to what I owe on the account for other purchases)?
Are state park lodgings considered “travel”?
I would assume so, yes.
I am not clear on how/if points I used to erase a travel purchase get put back into my total rewards balance to use again if the original travel charge gets refunded to my card because of cancellation. Can you answer this definitively? Thank you!
dec 2023. Capital One specified that “Lodging” (which a Motel categorized itself) is NOT eligible for a travel reward/credit
This is super helpful! Any idea if there are restrictions on which travel purchases are eligible to be covered/erased? Specifically, i am booking a marriott stay and should be able to pay myself back with all the points i have, but is there any chance marriott purchases arent eligible?
Hi,
Can I open this card and use it to pay for a flight (i.e., the flight amount would go to the minimum spend) and then once I meet my minimum spend and get the bonus points, erase my flight purchase? Or would the flight not be able to be erased since I didn’t have the points at the time of purchase?
Hi Lauren. Great question! This absolutely works. Eligible purchases will be an option to use your points for 90 days. So once you get your points, it should still be available.
If I book a hotel room using the Capital One portal getting 10x points, can I erase the cost using my miles after the purchase is made? Do purchases in the Capital One portal code as travel for Capital One?
If I book a flight through the portal at 5x can I then erase the cost using my miles?
You can!
Follow-up to this question – if you erase the purchase does it also erase the 5x points you gained for it? For example:
If I purchase a $100 flight through the portal, I’ll gain 5x points (500 points). I can then use 10,000 points to erase purchase. Will I still keep the 500 points I gained or are those erased along with the purchase?
Hi Kevin, you would still get to keep the 5x points you earned from the purchase.
If I have a Travel Purchase worth 140,000 miles and I only have 100,000 accumulated miles to use to erase, will this Travel Purchase stay opened for the other 40,000 to apply future accumulated miles to it?
Hi Susan, I am not aware of any restriction to applying miles to the same transaction more than once. However, purchases will be available to remove for only 90 days.
If I pay off my card monthly, can I still use the eraser on travel purchases? Will that come out a statement credit?
You can. But you’ll be able to erase purchases as soon as they post to your account within a few business days. You might as well erase them right away before paying down the full balance, but either way should work. It would just appear as a statement credit.
How soon can I pay off purchases and still get the points? Can I make a purchase, pay it off the same day, and get the miles?
As soon as you want. No issues with that.
Do you happen to know if you can erase a purchase more than once? For example, if I spend $3000 on an Vrbo and only have 43,500 miles right now, can I use the purchase eraser to erase some of the balance and then do it again over the next 90 days as I earn more miles? Thank you!
Are theme park tickets erasable? I have 0% for the next 6 months
Hi Deva! Theme park tickets are not specifically included in what Capital One codes as “travel”.
If it’s something like Disney or Universal you can use a third party like Undercover Tourist and purchase through them. Then it should post as travel and you can erase.
I booked an AirBnB, then used my Cap One points to “erase” the purchase. I had to cancel the AirBnB. I got a $ refund, but what about a refund of my points? I can’t seem to figure it out. I spoke to a rep and said the points would be refunded, but it has been a month and nothing.
Did you ever get an answer to this I am in the same situation
Can I deduct the amount I used the points for from my next payment?
Hi Russel, when you use the Purchase Eraser, you are using points to remove a travel-related purchase. This will deduct that cash amount from your next statement. Hope this helps!
If I bought a hotel stay on my card through Hotels.com, will I still accrue the 10×1 points even if I erase the purchase after I buy?
Hi Brandon! Unfortunately, Venture’s promotion for 10x points with Hotels.com ended January 2020.
To get the extra points on travel (hotel, flight, car rental) you have to purchase through the capital one app or website. You can still use the purchase eraser on any travel no matter where you purchase from.
What happens if I used purchase eraser for a flight that then gets canceled due to Covid-19? Can I get the rewards points?
Hi Heather! If the airline cancels your flight, you’re due a refund. If you booked with your Venture card, that refund would go back onto your card as a statement credit, worth the same amount of points you used.