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If travel hacking was made easy, would you consider this hobby? If you’re new to this hobby or are looking into it, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the lingo and all of the possibilities you have with points and miles. Remembering where points can be transferred to, which airlines are partners, what alliance they belong to, who passes on fuel surcharges…. It can get pretty confusing. Some people don’t want to deal with jumping through all of these hoops to score free travel, which is fine. Yet, these same people may still want to lessen their travel costs by using credit card rewards.
In this article, we’ll discuss what I think is the best credit card for those type of travel hackers. This card is very easy to use and earns a flat 2x points per dollar on everything. If you use this card at Hotels.com, you earn 10x points per dollar! The card that I am referring to is the Capital One Venture card.
CAPITAL ONE MAKES TRAVEL HACKING EASY
Many of you have seen the commercials where you could earn unlimited 2x miles for every dollar spent on this card. The miles earned from the Capital One Venture card are very useful. To keep this simple, you can use your miles earned to wipe out any travel related charges at a value of $.01 per mile. So for example, if you had a $200 hotel charge on your card, you would need 20,000 miles to wipe out that charge. This will come in the form of a statement credit. This is why I say that this card is extremely convenient for those who do not want the hassle involved with this hobby.
However, if you did want to dip your toes into transferring miles to airline partners, the Capital One Venture card allows you to do this as well. The Venture card has 15 different airline partners, and miles transfer at a 2:1.5 ratio for most airlines. JetBlue, Emirates and Singapore Airlines transfer at a 2:1 ratio. The airline partners are
- Aeromexico
- Air Canada
- Air France/KLM
- Alitalia
- Avianca
- Emirates
- Finnair
- JetBlue
- Cathay Pacific
- Etihad
- EVA Air
- Hainan
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Singapore Airlines
This is great because it gives you options. However you should always crunch the numbers to see if it makes sense for you to transfer your Venture miles to airlines.
DOES IT MAKE SENSE TO TRANSFER VENTURE MILES
So, just because you can transfer Venture miles to airlines miles, does it make sense to do so? Well, it depends. You’ll need to do some math to see which how you should use your miles. Let’s use an example with Aeroplan:
Aeroplan is Air Canada’s loyalty program. According to their award chart, it would take 60,000 Aeroplan miles to fly roundtrip from the US to Western Europe. If you chose to transfer your Venture miles to Aeroplan, you would need 80,000 Venture miles to have 60,000 Aeroplan miles due to its 2:1.5 transfer ratio.
So now that we know how many Venture miles you need to cover an award flight with Aeroplan, let’s crunch some numbers. Those 80,000 Venture miles have a value of $800 if used as a statement credit. This is important to know so that you can determine how to use your miles.
If the cash value of the award flight you found on Aeroplan is $800 or less, you’re better off using your Venture miles as a statement credit.
If the cash value is more than $800, you’re better off transferring those Venture miles. Why is that? Let’s assume the cash value is $1500 for that award flight. To use Venture miles as a statement credit, you would need 150,000 to cover the cost of the flight. Meanwhile, you could transfer just 80,000 Venture miles to Aeroplan to cover the flight.
TRANSFER PARTNERS: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
While the Capital One Venture card has 15 different airline partners, not all of them are particularly useful. Some programs charge too many miles and don’t really offer a good deal. Others charge hefty fuel surcharges so it negates the value of the award. In my opinion, the best ones are Aeroplan, Avianca, and Qantas.
Singapore Airlines is ok, but with a transfer ratio of 2:1, you’d require more miles when transferring to them. Because of this you definitely want to do some math to make sure the value is there. Flying Blue (the loyalty program for Air France and KLM) can be a good one depending on the fuel surcharges.
With the rest of the airline partners, I wouldn’t even bother transferring miles to them. They either charge too many miles or there’s a better alternative. For a more detailed look into each of Capital One’s transfer partners, check out this article from Million Mile Secrets.
ANOTHER GOOD OPTION TO MAKE TRAVEL HACKING EASY
Another card that I have to mention is the Barclaycard Arrival Plus credit card. While you cannot transfer the miles earned on this card to airlines, you can use them to wipe out travel expenses at a value of $.01 per mile, much like the Capital One Venture card. This is my go to card for use in Europe. Many of the automated kiosks for train tickets, gas pumps, etc require cards with chip + pin capabilities, and this card is perfect for that.
CONCLUSION
While I consider the Capital One Venture card to be the best credit card for casual travel hackers, it also provides you with the flexibility to transfer your Venture miles to airline loyalty programs. You have the option of using your Venture miles as a statement credit for a value of $.01 each mile or get possibly more value if you find a good award flight deal. What do you think of the Venture card? Do you currently hold this card? Let me know what you think in the comments down below.
