Capital One Miles are known for their flexibility – you can redeem them for almost any purchase. You can even use miles to cover the cost of a trip you book on any website without sacrificing their value.
But Capital One Travel cardholders have another option for booking their next vacation. Capital One is offering its own newly revamped travel portal, Capital One Travel.
Booking a trip through Capital One Travel has its pros and cons, but for some cardholders, it can be especially beneficial. For example, Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card offers up to $300 annual credit on trips you book with Capital One Travel; he also earns 10 times more miles for hotels and car rentals and 5 times more for flights you book through the portal. Some other eligible cards also offer additional rewards for certain portal bookings.
Read on to find out more about why booking through Capital One Travel may or may not be the best option for you.
What is Capital One Travel?
Capital One Travel is Capital One’s travel booking site. It now runs on the Hopper platform and offers qualifying cardholders the ability to book flights, hotels or rent a car. You can pay for these bookings with miles, cash, or a combination of the two.
You can use the Capital One Travel portal if you have:
These cards have also been added to access the portal:
How to book with Capital One Travel
To access the Capital One Travel Portal, log in to your card account online or on the mobile app and click View Rewards. You can select “book a trip” to be redirected to the travel portal.
Capital One Travel looks and works like most third-party booking sites, allowing cardholders to search for flights, hotels, or car rentals. You can pay for your trip with miles, cash, or a combination of the two.
Flight booking
To book a flight through the Capital One Travel portal, simply enter your travel dates, as well as your departure and arrival points. If you prefer a specific airline, you can also filter the results by carrier, price, number of stops, and more.
The portal now allows you to see if the time is right for booking or if you should wait for a better price. You can also set up price tracking to get alerts when Capital One Travel determines the best time to book.
Hotel booking
You can search for hotels on Capital One Travel by location and date. However, the search results page is slightly different from flights, as it includes the price per night, the total cost of the trip, and the TripAdvisor rating for that particular property.
Capital One Travel makes it easy to get a complete overview of hotels without having to search separately for reviews of available options. You can also filter properties with specific amenities, such as a bar or parking.
Car booking
Finally, Capital One Travel also offers a car rental booking service. Once you have entered your pickup and return information, you can view the results and filter them by car rental company, price, and more.
Price protection and flexible cancellation
The revamped Capital One Travel portal also offers valuable price protection tools as well as flexible cancellation options.
Price drop protection allows cardholders who buy flights on the recommendation of Capital One to receive a refund if the price drops after booking. There is also a price match guarantee that allows customers who find a better price for a flight, hotel or car rental on another site within 24 hours of booking to receive a refund of the difference.
In addition, customers can “freeze the price” of a flight if they find a good deal but are not ready to make a purchase. If the price rises after the freeze, Capital One will cover any increase up to the refund limit. And if the price falls, the buyer will pay a lower price.
For a small advance payment, the portal offers the opportunity to cancel flights for any reason up to 24 hours before the first scheduled departure and refund most of the airfare.
Disadvantages of booking with Capital One Travel
Booking through Capital One Travel is simple, but there are a few downsides to keep in mind.
No travel packages
Many similar issuer booking platforms, such as Wells Fargo Rewards, allow cardholders to book complete travel packages in addition to select flights and hotels. For some travelers, this eliminates the need to arrange several different bookings.
Capital One Travel is not in a position to book such packages. However, it allows you to group hotel, flight and car rental into an itinerary and pay for them together.
No elite hotel status
Capital One Travel is a third party booking site, which means you most likely won’t be able to take advantage of any elite hotel status you may have. For the most part, hotels require you to book directly with them in order to unlock high-end perks like free breakfast or room upgrades.
Is it worth booking with Capital One Travel?
In some cases, booking with Capital One Travel can be the easiest way to plan your next trip. In addition, all price prediction and protection tools will help you save on airfare. However, there are a few things to consider before deciding if this platform is the best for you.
Capital One Travel rates compared to other booking sites
For the most part, Capital One Travel offers competitive rates. We compared flights from Austin, Texas to London and found nearly the same prices on Capital One Travel and United.
| Capital One Travel | United |
|---|---|
| $736 | $737 |
However, we also found several instances where prices varied across different booking sites, with Capital One lagging behind. As you can see below, a four night UK hotel stay shows different prices on different websites and Capital One is not always the best price.
| Capital One | hotels.com | Booking.com | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holiday Inn Express | $1198 | $1047 | $1047 |
| Walford Hilton | $979 | $917 | $917 |
For this reason, we recommend that you always compare prices across multiple websites before booking through the portal.
Wasting miles
Capital One Miles are incredibly flexible and you can use them to cover the cost of a trip you book on any website for the same price. This means that it doesn’t make sense to choose one platform over another to try and get ahead.
Added rewards with Capital One credit cards
Previously, Capital One was only available to Venture and Spark Miles cardholders. However, the issuer has now increased the availability of its travel portal for most of its cashback cards, including Quicksilver, Savor, Spark Cash and Student cards.
To top it all off, cashback cards now give you unlimited 5% cash back on hotels and car rentals you book through Capital One Travel. Venture and Spark Miles cards still allow you to earn bonus miles for bookings you make on the travel portal.
When shopping on different booking sites, be sure to consider the price difference and the rewards you will earn if you use your Capital One credit card.
Tips for Maximizing Capital One Travel
- Take advantage of price protection and forecasting tools to make sure you get the best airfares.
- Pay a small cancellation fee when booking flights. You can cancel your booking for any reason up to 24 hours before departure and receive a refund of 70% to 90% of the ticket price. Not many other booking sites offer this level of flexibility.
- Compare prices on flights, hotels and car rentals with other booking sites to make sure you get the best deal. You can always use miles to pay for purchases outside the country.
- Combine miles and cash if you do not have enough rewards to cover the cost of the booking.
bottom line
The revamped Capital One Travel portal offers cardholders a simple process for booking and redeeming miles, as well as some incredibly useful tools for securing the best flight deals. However, before using it to book travel, especially hotels, compare prices across platforms to make sure you’re getting a good deal.
*All information about the Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business Credit Card and the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card* has been independently collected by CreditCards.com and has not been verified by the issuer.
Editorial disclaimer
The editorial content on this page is based solely on the objective judgment of our contributors and is not based on advertising. It was not provided or ordered by credit card issuers. However, we may receive compensation when you click on links to our partners’ products.
