If you have an airline miles credit card, Capital One is offering the chance for you to double your mileage balance on that card, up to 100,000 miles. The cash value of those 100,000 miles is $1,000, so this is currently one of the best credit card bonus deals available, if miles are important to you. The miles can be cashed in for almost any travel expense, including flights, hotel stays, and car rentals, at a rate of $1 per 100 miles.
Here is how this offer works. Apply for the Capital One Venture Card, one of my current picks for best overall credit cards, and submit proof of your mileage balance on another card with 45 days. Within 90 days of opening the account, spend a total of $1,000.
This amount to be matched is not your mileage balance at the airline; the amount of your matched miles comes from your accumulated points balance with a qualifying credit card. This could be a big drawback and it’s not entirely clear in Capital One’s promotion. Some mileage credit cards convert your credit card points to frequent flyer miles at the end of the month, so you don’t accumulate the credit card miles that would be matched. Thus, if you earn 2,000 miles on your credit card a month and have done so for the past ten months, you might have only 2,000 miles to match rather than 20,000. On the other hand, some cards accumulate the miles and move them to your frequent flyer program only when you instruct the issuer to do so.
These are the qualifying credit cards for which Capital One will match your miles on a one-to-one basis up to 100,000, and the company will match only one of these cards per customer.
- Alaska Airlines® Visa® Card
- American Airlines® Card
- Continental Airlines® Card
- Delta® SkyMiles® from American Express®
- Frontier Airlines® MasterCard®
- Hawaiian Airlines® Visa Card
- JetBlue® from American Express
- Spirit Airlines® Free SPIRIT™ MasterCard
- United Mileage Plus® Visa Card
- US Airways® Dividend Miles MasterCard
- Virgin America® Visa Card
You can receive a credit for two other cards, but not on a one-to-one basis. Those cards are AirTran Airways® A+ Visa Card (1,000 Venture miles per A+ Rewards® Credit) and Southwest Airlines® Rapid Rewards® Visa Card (1,200 Venture miles per Rapid Rewards® Credit).
In addition to the miles matching promotion, Capital One will also provide an additional 10,000 bonus miles. This promotion is ending once Capital One has doled out one billion miles, so if this is something you are interested in, keep in mind it will be available only for a limited time.
You may ask how the Capital One Venture Card stacks up among others. It is a Visa Signature card, so you have all the benefits that this level of ownership provides, such as concierge services and access to somewhat exclusive events. You earn two miles for every dollar you spend on the card. There is an annual fee of $59, but it is waived the first year. Almost all Visa Signature cards carry annual fees to offset some of the benefits. There is no 0% APR introductory period; once you carry a balance, you will need to pay between 11.9% and 19.9% APR depending on your credit quality. You’ll need excellent credit to qualify for the card.
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