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The Capital One Travel portal is an online travel platform that allows customers to book flights, hotels, and rental cars. The site provides exclusive travel deals, discounts, and tools to help you save on your next vacation. Select Capital One credit card customers can earn elevated rewards for every purchase made through the portal or redeem them for bookings. It's a great tool that lets you make all your travel reservations in one place and takes the guesswork out of redeeming miles.
However, Capital One Travel also has several downsides. You're giving up loyalty rewards with those programs by booking hotels and rental cars through Capital One. The Price Freeze function also doesn't work as promised and redeeming Capital One miles for travel bookings may not be the best way to maximize your rewards.
The Capital One Travel Portal offers excellent value for money and flexibility, with various travel options to suit any budget. It also provides a range of rewards, discounts, and tools to help you save on your travels.
With the added convenience of booking flights, hotels, and car rentals all in one place, it is the perfect choice for anyone looking to book their next trip. While some of its features are more gimmicky than others, the fact remains that this portal provides ease and convenience for travelers who don't want to deal with multiple booking platforms and loyalty programs.
The Capital One Travel portal is a travel booking platform powered by Hopper, an app that helps travelers pick the best times to book and travel at the lowest prices. Capital One Travel offers competitive prices, exclusive discounts, and access to a wide selection of flight, hotel, and rental car options for Capital One cardholders. Customers can use the portal to earn and redeem rewards on travel bookings.
Additionally, the portal provides helpful tools such as a price calendar to find the cheapest airfares and price drop protection that will refund the fare difference if it drops post-booking. The portal also has a price freeze feature, which allows users to "freeze" a specific airfare for up to $25 or 2,500 miles.
One of the key benefits of using the Capital One Travel portal is that certain types of bookings will earn you higher rewards when you pay with an eligible Capital One credit card. For example, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card earns 10 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars and 5 miles per dollar on flights booked through Capital One travel. And with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, you'll earn 5 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through the portal.
This works out well for Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card cardholders' flight bookings since Capital One lets you enter your frequent flyer number on the booking page. You'll not only earn elevated Capital One miles, but you'll also earn airline miles and elite-qualifying miles through your chosen frequent flyer program. You won't get the same benefits on hotel or rental car bookings, so that's worth weighing into your booking decision.
Above all else, the Capital One Travel portal provides convenient and easy travel booking. You can use it to compare airfare from multiple airlines at once, helping you find the best deal on your next trip. Additionally, you can use your Capital One miles to pay for travel bookings at a rate of 1 cent per mile, or get discounted rates on certain flights or hotel stays. Finally, customers have access to customer service representatives who can answer questions and assist with bookings.
The Capital One Travel portal can be a great way to earn elevated rewards and enjoy extra perks. Booking flights through this portal can make sense since you can double-dip, earning rewards with your credit card and frequent flyer miles from airlines. However, you won't earn hotel points or elite night credits on Capital One bookings, which means you'll miss out on possible elite benefits with major hotel loyalty programs. Depending on how often you travel, this could be a significant downside.
Transferring Capital One miles to one of the 18 airline or hotel partners can be a much better value proposition. If you redeem your miles for business and first-class travel, you'll usually get more than the 1 cent per mile your rewards are worth through the Capital One Travel portal. For example, a sample of fun, valuable ways to use the Capital One VentureOne welcome bonus of 20,000 miles after spending $500 on purchases within three months from account opening.
However, not all card members want to learn the ins and outs of various loyalty programs to get the most value. Some people want simplicity and the Capital One Travel portal offers just that. If you prefer convenience over value, booking with the Capital One Travel portal is a smart move. But if you're willing to put in the legwork for a high-value redemption, transferring Capital One miles to an airline or hotel program is the best option.
Using the Capital One Travel Portal is straightforward. Simply head to travel.capitalone.com and log into your account. From here, you can select between a flight, hotel, or rental car tab. Enter your destination and travel dates, then browse through the available options.
You can filter results by price, airline, hotel type, and more to find the best deal. Once you've made your selection, you can book directly with Capital One and either pay with your eligible Capital One card or use miles to pay for all or part of your trip.
Before booking anything, check out the travel offers section underneath the tabs mentioned above. Here, you'll find travel credits in select target markets. If you make a qualifying booking, you'll get a travel credit that's applicable toward future bookings.
You can book flights with both domestic and international airlines through the Capital One travel portal. On the Capital One Travel homepage, select the "Flights" tab and enter the number of travelers, departure city, destination, and travel dates. You can book both one-way and round-trip flights.
When you select your travel dates, a color-coded calendar will show the cheapest and most expensive travel dates. This is great when your travel dates are flexible and you just want to find the lowest fare.
Choose your outbound and return dates on the calendar and select "done." Next, select the blue "search flights" button to generate your search results. On the results page, you can sort by price, departure time, arrival time, number of stops, and duration. You can also filter results by fare class, stops, airline, time, and price.
Capital One offers a price predictor tool at the top of the page, recommending whether it's a good time to book a particular price. You'll also get the option to freeze a specific price and book it later, though this feature isn't reliable in my experience. If you're not ready to book, you can select "watch this trip" to receive alerts when fares drop.
You'll also get the option to purchase cancel for any reason insurance (CFAR travel insurance) during the flight booking process. And, if Capital One Travel recommends you buy a specific flight now, it will apply free price drop protection to that flight for 10 days. If the price drops within that time period, Capital One will credit you the difference in fare, up to a maximum of $50.
Booking hotels through Capital One Travel is similar to booking flights. On the top of the Capital One Travel page, select the "Hotels" tab. Enter your destination, travel dates, number of travelers, and rooms, then select "Search Hotels."
Unlike the flight search tool, there is no calendar function displaying the lowest rates. However, the hotel search tool does have a city map to help you narrow down your options and find the cheapest rates. Hotel search results can also be filtered by star rating, amenities, price, and amenities. You can also sort results by price and star rating.
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Once you select your room and rate, you'll be directed to the checkout page to see your total amount due in miles or cash. You can choose to pay either the cash rate or redeem miles. Note that some hotels charge additional service fees at check-in. These will be displayed on the checkout page, but you won't pay them until you get to the hotel.
To book a rental car, select the "Rental Cars" tab on the Capital One Travel portal and enter your pick-up and drop-off location, rental dates, pick-up and drop-off time, and driver age. Drivers under the age of 25 may be subject to additional fees. Click "Search Cars" to be redirected to the results page.
You can filter results by vehicle type, price per day, rental car company, cancellation policy, and other factors. As with flights and hotel bookings, Capital One displays both the total cash rate and mileage redemption rate (including taxes and fees). Once you've selected your vehicle, you'll get to a booking page displaying your total. During booking, you'll pay the rental cost minus taxes. The taxes will be collected at pick-up.
The Capital One Premier Collection is a curated list of luxury hotels and resorts worldwide that eligible cardholders can access via the Capital One Travel portal. Each property offers special benefits and includes bonus points and money-saving extras, including daily breakfast for two, experience credits, and room upgrades when available.
In addition to earning bonus points, eligible cardholders can also redeem Capital One miles toward their Premier Collection bookings. That's a huge plus, considering some of the properties in the collection are quite pricey. For example, Montage Hotels often have room rates of $1,000 per night or higher. Being able to redeem miles for these stays is a great way to save on upscale hotel bookings.
Some Premier Collection hotels are operated by major hotel chains, while others are independent. Regardless of the hotel's affiliation, booking through the Premier Collection can help you secure added benefits typically reserved for elite members or those willing to pay extra for them.
There are currently seven major hotel chains represented in the collection. They include upscale brands like 1 Hotels, Design Hotels, Leading Hotels of the World, Montage, Preferred Hotels & Resorts, Small Luxury Hotels of the World, and Viceroy Hotels.
Some of these names may be more familiar than others. They include high-end hotels like the Montage Laguna Beach, Viceroy Los Cabos, Hotel Cafe Royal London, and the Wittmore in Barcelona.
The only Capital One credit cards that have access to the Premier Collection are the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Capital One Venture X Business Card†. Both of these are premium cards with high annual fees; for example, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card costs $395 per year () but comes with an annual $300 travel credit you can apply toward Premier Collection bookings. In addition to all the hotel-specific benefits, cardholders who book a Premier Collection stay will earn 10 miles per dollar spent — the highest travel booking payout of any transferable points card.
The Capital One Venture X Business Card was previously known as the Capital One Spark Travel Elite, and it's very similar to the Venture X. It has the same $395 annual fee, $300 travel credit, and 10,000 annual bonus miles.
Both cards are great for travel enthusiasts and those looking to earn generous rewards on their daily spending. While the Premier Collection access is not enough reason to get a Venture X card (the list of participating hotels is limited), it is an excellent addition to the various other benefits these cards offer.
Booking through Premier Collection provides travelers with various perks, including special amenities and bonus miles. The following benefits are available at Premier Collection properties worldwide:
The experience credit will vary by property, but you'll need to charge the qualifying expense to your room to receive it. The hotel will then apply the credit to your folio upon checkout.
The daily breakfast can be especially valuable in high-priced destinations like the Maldives, where the remote setting often translates to breakfast charges of $50 or more per person. Having breakfast included in the cost of your stay, along with $100 toward some of the most expensive spa treatments in the world, is an excellent value in exchange for booking a stay through Capital One's Premier Collection.
You don't necessarily need a high-priced travel credit card to use the Capital One Travel portal. The platform is open to many Capital One cardholders, including those who carry a student credit card or small-business credit card issued by Capital One.
Over a dozen options are available, ranging from no-annual-fee credit cards like the Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card to the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, a premium credit card:
At 10 miles per dollar spent on hotels and rental cars and 5x on flights booked through the portal, Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card cardholders will earn the most rewards on Capital One Travel bookings. The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card includes $300 per year in credits toward Capital One Travel bookings, which helps offset much of the card's $395 annual fee.
Capital One miles are worth 1 cent each in the Capital One Travel Portal. This is pretty generous, considering miles are earned at a rate of 2 to 5 per dollar spent with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and 2 to 10 miles per dollar on the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.
However, it's possible to get more value from your miles by skipping the portal and instead transferring rewards to Capital One's transfer partners. You can transfer miles to 18 airline and hotel loyalty programs to book award travel.
Business Insider's points and miles valuations peg the value of Capital One miles at 1.7 cents each, because it's possible to get outsized value from transferring miles to partners and booking award flights or stays. Be sure to read Insider's guide on how to earn and redeem Capital One miles to find out more about maximizing your rewards.
Yes, the Capital One Travel Portal allows you to book a wide range of airlines and hotels, offering the flexibility to use your miles without blackout dates or restrictions.
Yes, you can earn Capital One miles on bookings made through the portal, further increasing your rewards.
The portal provides tools to predict price trends for flights and flexible booking options that allow you to filter searches based on free cancellation policies, offering you peace of mind and potential savings.
Yes, Capital One offers the flexibility to pay with a combination of cash and miles, giving you more options to utilize your rewards.
For changes or cancellations, you can either manage your booking directly through the portal or contact Capital One's customer support for assistance.