Capital One Travel: Your Guide To Booking Flights, Hotels & Car Rentals

Trying to figure out how to use your rewards? Whether you’re a longtime fan of Capital One Miles or you’ve just jumped on the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card train, there’s a lot to love about this flexible point currency.

Although it’s possible to transfer your Capital One miles out to a variety of partners, you can also use Capital One Travel to earn and redeem rewards for your stays. Let’s take a look at Capital One Travel, how it works, and when you should use it.

Why Book Travel Through Capital One Travel?

Capital One is heavily pushing its customers toward its travel portal — and for good reason. There’s a lot to love about Capital One Travel, and if you’re the kind of person who values simplicity and high rewards over elite status, it could be a good match for you.

Earn Miles or Points by Paying With a Credit Card

There are 2 ways in which you’ll earn miles or points when booking through Capital One Travel.

As a Capital One cardholder, you’ll earn a varying amount of miles depending on which card you use to pay:

Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

The Capital One Venture X card earns 10 miles per $1 spent on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5 miles per $1 spent on flights booked through Capital One Travel, and 2 miles per $1 spent everywhere else.

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

The Capital One Venture card earns 5 miles per $1 spent on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and 2 miles per $1 spent on everything else.

Capital One Spark Miles for Business

The Capital One Spark Miles card earns 5 miles per $1 spent on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and 2 miles per $1 spent on everything else.

Capital One Venture X Business Card*

The Capital One Venture X Business card earns 10 miles per $1 spent on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5 miles per $1 spent on flights booked through Capital One Travel, and 2 miles per $1 spent everywhere else. *(Information collected independently. Not reviewed by Capital One.)

You’ll still earn points even when paying with a different credit card; cards including the Chase Sapphire Reserve^® will earn you 3 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per $1 on all travel, even when using Capital One Travel to book.

Earn Points With Your Loyalty Program

Flights booked through Capital One Travel are counted as paid tickets. This is true whether you use your Capital One miles for a redemption or use cash. Because of this, you’ll be able to earn frequent flyer miles on any flights that you book. Signing up is free and easy — there’s no reason for you to miss out on these miles!

The same can’t be said of hotel programs. Nearly all hotel chains will skip out on benefits if you don’t book your stay directly with the hotel. Not only will you miss out on your perks, but you’ll also lose the ability to earn elite night credits for your stays, which can be a real blow if you’re trying to earn elite status. Keep this in mind when you’re using Capital One Travel for hotel bookings.

Ease of Use

If you’re not a huge points and miles geek, it can make sense for you to book with Capital One Travel. This is because it’s simple; you simply log in, look for the flights/hotels/rental cars that you need, and then book. You won’t have to sift through endless programs trying to find the best rates, and it’s especially easy when you’re looking to redeem your Capital One miles. They’ll always be worth 1 cent each when used for travel via Capital One Travel, which is a solid redemption. It’s not the best, however, as you’ll see later on.

Price Match Guarantee

In a bid for your business, Capital One offers a price match guarantee on all of its hotel bookings. If you find a publicly available price within 24 hours that is better than the one you’ve booked, Capital One will match it.

Capital One also offers price-drop protection for its flights. If the Capital One price prediction tool recommends you purchase a flight and you do, the same tool will automatically keep monitoring the cost of the flight. If prices drop again, you’ll get a refund on some or all of the price difference.

Bottom Line: There are a lot of reasons to book with Capital One Travel, though you’ll want to be wary of limitations that arise from booking with a third party.

What Are Capital One Miles Worth?

We value points and miles according to a variety of factors, including how easy they are to use and redeem. Although you can use your Capital One miles for travel on Capital One Travel, there are plenty of other ways they can be redeemed.

The most valuable use of your miles occurs when you transfer them to any one of Capital One’s hotel and airline partners. In these cases, you can get outsized value for every mile. This is why we consider Capital One miles to be worth 1.8 cents each — nearly double the amount you’ll get when redeeming them within Capital One Travel.

How To Access Capital One Travel

You need to be a Capital One cardholder in to access Capital One Travel. Once on the page, you’ll log in to your account. After logging in, you’ll be brought to the portal’s home page:

From here, you can choose to book flights, hotels, or rental cars.

How To Book a Flight Through Capital One Travel

Booking a flight through Capital One Travel is fairly intuitive. After you log in and reach the landing page, you’ll want to select Flights in the toolbar up top:

This will bring you to the search page for flights. You’ll want to input all your information, including departure airport, destination, and dates of travel:

Like Google Flights, Capital One Travel will give you an estimation of price within a calendar feature:

Unlike Google Flights, however, Capital One has partnered with the booking site Hopper to tell you when you should book. You’ll be presented with detailed information regarding price predictions:

As you can see in the screenshot above, you have the option to freeze your price or set a price watch alert. If you’re looking to book immediately, you’ll want to scroll down, where Capital One will give you a list of results:

When selecting a flight, Capital One Travel will also give you a breakdown of information and the ability to book economy or first class tickets:

Once you’ve selected your outbound flight, you’ll pick the return. If booking a one-way, you’ll be taken to the checkout page.

Hot Tip: Capital One’s price drop protection automatically monitors the cost of flights you purchase and refunds you if prices fall. 

As is normal with checkout pages, you’ll need to fill in your passenger information and credit card information. You can also select seats and choose whether or not you’d like to redeem miles. Capital One will give you 1 cent per point of value when using your miles through Capital One Travel. While this isn’t terrible, there are much better uses of those miles — such as transferring to a partner and booking a reward seat.

Once you’ve input all your info, you’ll hit Confirm and Book. That’s it!

Bottom Line: Booking flights through Capital One Travel is both intuitive and easy. Plus, you’ll be able to earn frequent flyer points on your booking.

How To Book a Hotel Through Capital One Travel

If you’re looking to book a hotel through Capital One Travel, the process is simple. As before, you’ll start by logging into your account. Once you’ve hit Capital One Travel’s landing page, you’ll select Hotels in the top toolbar:

You’ll be taken to Capital One’s hotel search bar, where you can put in your travel destination and dates:

Once you select Search Hotels, you’ll be taken to a results page featuring an interactive map:

Along with filtering by rating and price, Capital One offers a variety of ways to narrow down your search:

As we mentioned above, Capital One Travel offers a hotel price match guarantee, which means you won’t find cheaper prices elsewhere. If you do happen to stumble across one on a publicly available site within 24 hours of booking, you can submit a price match request and, if approved, Capital One Travel will drop the cost down to the rate you’ve found.

Selecting a hotel from the search results will open a new tab where you can alter your information:

Scrolling down, you’ll be able to select the room type you prefer:

Once you’ve picked your room, you’ll be taken to the checkout page where you’ll fill out your traveler and payment information. You can also choose to use your Capital One miles for a value of 1 cent per point towards your booking:

Hot Tip: Be aware that booking hotels through Capital One Travel counts as a third-party booking — which means you won’t receive any elite status benefits or credit towards earning elite status when booking this way.

Once everything is filled in, you simply need to select Confirm and Book.

How To Book a Rental Car Through Capital One Travel

Just as with flights and hotels, you’ll log in to your account. From the landing page, you’ll select Car Rentals from the top toolbar:

You’ll be taken to the rental car search page where you can enter your information, including dates of travel and location:

Once you’ve hit Search Cars, you’ll be taken to the results page:

You can choose from a variety of filters, including the rental car company you’ll be booking, what type of car you prefer, and the cancellation policy of your booking. After picking the car you’d like to reserve, you’ll have the chance to review your booking:

If everything is correct, you’ll hit Reserve, which will take you to the checkout page where you can enter driver information and your method of payment:

As with hotels and flights, you can apply your Capital One miles to your rental car booking at a rate of 1 cent each. Again, there are better ways to use your miles, which we’ll discuss below.

Hot Tip: Check out our handy guide on how to save money on car rentals, including options with points, upgrades, cash savings, and more!

How Do the Prices Compare to Other Sites?

Is it actually worth it to book through Capital One Travel rather than other sites? How do the prices compare? Let’s take a look.

Flights

Here’s a flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to London (LHR) in mid-May 2022:

Interestingly, Capital One Travel notes that this isn’t the best time to book. The cheapest options available are $715, and they’re all nonstop. However, Google Flights comes back with very different results:

Not only does Google suggest that prices are currently low, but it also returns an option that is nearly $200 less than what Capital One Travel is offering. A closer look reveals that although Capital One Travel has the outbound leg available of this cheap flight for $736 roundtrip, it doesn’t offer the same returns. Here’s what’s available from Google:

Meanwhile, here are the options you can get on Capital One:

Bottom Line: While Capital One allows you to book flights through its Capital One Travel portal, its prices aren’t always competitive with other offerings. Make sure to check a few other websites for flights to ensure you’re getting the best deal.

Hotels

So how do hotels on Capital One fare when compared to other booking options? This is especially pertinent as Capital One has its own price guarantee.

Hotels.com

Here’s a night at the all-inclusive Secrets the Vine Cancun in early June from Hotels.com:

Booking with Hotels.com will earn you 1 stamp towards a free night stay. After 10 stamps you’ll get a free night, which can be especially valuable when booking costly stays.

Priceline

And here are the results from Priceline, an online travel agency:

Bookings with both Priceline and Hotels.com can also be stacked with shopping portals. Using Rakuten with Priceline, for example, will earn you 5% back on your booking; this can either come in the form of $25.35 or 2,535 American Express Membership Rewards.

Booking Directly

Here’s how much it costs when booking directly with the hotel:

Secrets the Vine Cancun is a member of AMR Resorts, which was recently purchased by Hyatt. Although you can’t earn or redeem points with the property until later in 2022, Hyatt is offering a promotion for its cardholders for many new all-inclusive properties, including this one. Now through May 15, 2022, eligible cardholders will receive 10 points per $1 spent at these hotels.

This means that booking and paying with your The World of Hyatt Credit Card will earn you 5,070 World of Hyatt points. We value World of Hyatt points at 1.5 cents each, which means you’ll be getting $76.05 worth of points back on this booking.

Capital One Travel

Finally, here’s the rate within Capital One Travel:

With the 3 other sites we compared charging $507, Capital One Travel is a few dollars cheaper. But saving $15 doesn’t match the benefits other options are providing, like Hotels.com’s $200 resort credit.

There is, however, one case where booking via Capital One Travel is your best option. First, you won’t want to use Capital One Travel unless you don’t care about elite status — as we’ve mentioned above — so boutique properties can be a good option to book.

Second, as we mentioned above, those who hold the Capital One Venture X card earn 10 miles per $1 spent on hotels booked through Capital One Travel. In this situation, you’d earn 4,915 Capital One miles on your booking. We value Capital One miles at 1.8 cents each, which means you’ll earn $88.47 worth of miles. All in, you’ll net $403.53, which wins out compared to most other options.

Rental Cars

How good are rental car prices compared across multiple sites? The results are less exciting. Here’s what a 5-day rental from Los Angeles looks like at Capital One Travel:

RentalCars.com offers nearly the same price:

AutoSlash, meanwhile, saves you a full $65 on the cheapest rental car:

Bottom Line: The Capital One Venture X card offers 10 miles per $1 on rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and it comes with some nice car rental insurance coverage too.

Other Ways To Use Capital One Miles

Of course, redeeming your miles through Capital One Travel is just one way that they can be used. There is a multitude of uses for those miles.

Transfer to Travel Partners

Nearly always, the best use of your Capital One miles comes from transferring to hotel and airline partners. Capital One has many transfer partners from which to choose:

Hot Tip: Check out our guide on the best ways to redeem Capital One miles for max value.

Cover Travel Purchases

Just as when using your miles at Capital One Travel, Capital One will allow you to redeem your miles for recent travel purchases at a rate of 1 cent each.

Redeem for Cash-back

You can redeem your Capital One miles for cash-back, but this is a terrible use of miles. Capital One will only give you 0.5 cents of value per mile when redeeming to cash.

Get Gift Cards

There are a variety of gift cards available using your Capital One miles, but these still aren’t a great redemption. Your value will vary — and can even be as high as 1 cent per mile, but transferring to other partners will still give you better value.

Shop With Amazon

You can use your miles on a linked Capital One card, which will give you a value of 0.8 cents per mile.

Pay With PayPal

Paying with your Capital One miles through PayPal will net you 1 cent per mile, just the same as redeeming your miles within Capital One Travel.

Bottom Line: You can redeem your Capital One miles in a variety of ways, but only transferring them to hotel and airline partners will grant you more than 1 cent per mile in value. 

Final Thoughts

Capital One Travel is robust — and can be a good option for eligible cardholders who aren’t concerned about elite status. However, you’ll find better value for your miles when transferring to one of Capital One’s many travel partners. Regardless, you can find good deals within the travel portal, and the best price guarantee, combined with price drop protection, can make this portal tempting for many travelers.