[Expired] Transfer Capital One Miles to Qantas With a 20% Bonus

Update:The offer mentioned below has expired and is no longer available.

Transfer bonuses are always a good thing since they allow you to get more from the points that you’re transferring. We see them fairly frequently, and this month’s includes a 20% bonus from Capital One when transferring miles to Qantas. Is this a good deal? Let’s take a look.

Qantas Transfer Bonus Details

This transfer bonus, announced today, allows those with eligible Capital One cards to convert their Capital One Miles to Qantas Airways for 20% more.

Capital One Miles usually transfer to Qantas at a 1:1 ratio; with this bonus, they’re transferring at a 1:1.2 ratio. The promotion is valid until September 1, 2024, which gives you plenty of time to move your points over if you’re so inclined.

Is It Worth It?

Qantas Airways is Australia’s flag carrier, and not an airline you’d typically think of for redeeming rewards. This is because, although they use a distance-based award chart, the rates that they charge tend to be pricier than those of other airlines.

Qantas does happen to be one of the few remaining airlines that’ll allow you to book a round-the-world ticket, so if that’s something you’re interested in, it might be worth a look.

Other than that, however, booking an award flight with Qantas is generally going to be more expensive than with a fellow Oneworld airline, with one exception.

Here’s an interesting scenario where Qantas’ distance-based award chart proves quite useful. Air Tahiti Nui isn’t a member of Oneworld, but it does partner with several Oneworld airlines for its flights. This includes Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, and Qantas Airways.

That means you have the ability to redeem Qantas Points for expensive flights to the beautiful French Polynesian island of Tahiti with Air Tahiti Nui.

Saving Miles on French Polynesia Flights

Here’s an example of a one-way business class flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Tahiti (PPT) next year from American Airlines:

80,000 miles for an 8-hour flight is hugely overpriced, especially when you consider that you can fly from Los Angeles to Europe for just 57,500 miles.

Alaska Airlines offers the same Air Tahiti Nui flight at a price of 60,000 miles in business class and 40,000 miles in economy class.

But we can take advantage of Qantas‘ distance-based chart to find flights for far less in economy:

With the transfer bonus, your cost will be just 21,000 Capital One Miles for a flight in economy that would set you back twice as much elsewhere.

Even in business class, which would typically cost more than Alaska Airlines, you can leverage the bonus to save a few miles:

The 20% bonus means you would only need to transfer 57,000 Capital One Miles to book this ticket in business, which is 3,000 fewer miles than booking with Alaska or 23,000 fewer than booking with American Airlines.

Perhaps most importantly, however, is that it is much easier to earn Capital One Miles than Alaska miles or American miles. With massive credit card welcome offers available in the last few years, it wouldn’t be a shocker if you had a higher balance of Capital One Miles than either of these 2 airlines.

Final Thoughts

Capital One has announced a 20% transfer bonus for Qantas until September 1, 2024. While this isn’t useful for most, savvy travelers can leverage the bonus to save on flights to French Polynesia — in business or economy class.