How to Use the Capital One Travel Portal

The Capital One travel portal allows eligible cardholders to book a variety of travel, including hotels, flights, and rental cars. While you won’t get the same value from redeeming your points within the Capital One travel portal, its ease of use and the ability to earn tons of Capital One miles from your bookings can make it a good option for some. 

Let’s take a look at how to use the Capital One travel portal, plus when it’s a good idea to do so. 

Overview of the Capital One travel portal

Pros of the Capital One travel portal

There are times when booking travel through the Capital One travel portal can make sense. For example, those who hold the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card will earn 10 Capital One miles per $1 spent on hotels and rental cars booked through the portal. 

The Capital One travel portal also gives eligible cardholders access to the Lifestyle Collection and the Premier Collection, both of which are luxury hotel programs. These mimic the benefits of elite status by providing room upgrades and property credits, among other benefits.

Finally, booking through the Capital One travel portal is an easy way to redeem your Capital One miles. This isn’t their best use and only nets you one cent per mile in value, but saves you the hassle of needing to transfer your rewards.

Cons of the Capital One travel portal

The Capital One travel portal may be simple to use, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best. Capital One miles are an extremely valuable flexible point currency and can be transferred to numerous hotel and airline partners. Doing so will nearly always get you a better value for your points than redeeming them within the portal. 

Plus, when you book travel through the Capital One travel portal, you book through a third party. This means that things can get messy if you have any issues with your booking since you won’t be able to coordinate directly with your travel provider to make changes.

Finally, both hotels and rental cars have strict limitations when it comes to third-party bookings. Neither will give you elite status credit or benefits if you’ve booked through the Capital One travel portal.

Who has access to the Capital One travel portal?

Anyone with a U.S.-based Capital One credit card can use the Capital One travel portal. These include:

• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

• Capital One Savor Rewards Credit Card

• Capital One Quicksilver Credit Card 

• Capital One SparkMiles Credit Card 

Which airlines can you book with the Capital One travel portal?

The Capital One travel portal doesn’t restrict you when it comes to which airlines can be booked. If there’s an available flight, you can book it, no matter which airline it is. 

How to use the Capital One travel portal

To use the Capital One travel portal, you’ll first want to navigate to the Capital One travel portal website. From there, you’ll need to log in to your Capital One account.

After you log in, you’ll be taken to the home page.

You can then search and book different types of travel.

How to book flights with the Capital One travel portal

The Capital One travel portal works well for booking flights, thanks to its partnership with Hopper. To book flights through Capital One Travel, you first need to toggle over to the flight section on the home page. 

You’ll then put in all your information and select your travel dates. Excitingly, the Capital One travel portal shows you upfront estimated pricing for when you’re traveling.

After you’ve hit “search flights,” you’ll be taken to the results page.

Here you can select the flight you’d like to book. Capital One also gives you lots of additional information, including whether you should book now or later. Plus, if you’re not quite ready to book, you can choose to freeze the fare, which gives you protection in the event airfare increases.

Aside from this information, you can also choose to filter your results by fare class, stops, airline, duration, departure time, and price. 

Once you’ve selected the flight you’d like to book, you can either choose to pay with your Capital One card or redeem miles. 

How to book hotels with the Capital One travel portal

Booking hotels with the Capital One travel portal is similar. You’ll need to toggle to the hotel section on the home page.

Once you’ve entered your search information, you’ll be brought to an interactive map.

From here, you can filter by rating, amenities, and cancellation policies, among other options. When you click on a property, you’ll be given more information, including available room types.

After you’ve selected the hotel you’d like to book, you can choose to pay with Capital One miles or your credit card. 

How to book car rentals with the Capital One travel portal

Just like with hotels and flights, you’ll search for your rental car from the home page.

After you’ve put in your search details and hit “search cars,” you’ll be taken to the results page, which includes rental car options from multiple companies.

From here, you’ll be able to see the price, vehicle type, how many passengers the vehicle can seat, the rental car company, how much luggage will fit, whether you need a shuttle, whether the vehicle is automatic or manual, and whether it provides air conditioning. 

You can also filter by all these options, plus cancellation policies.

Other things to consider when using the Capital One travel portal 

While the Capital One travel portal has its uses, you’ll want to be careful when redeeming your miles for bookings. For example, here’s a one-way business class flight from Washington, D.C. (IAD) to Paris (CDG) with Air France.

To book this flight through the Capital One travel portal, you’d need to spend over 785,000 miles.

However, Flying Blue, which is Air France’s loyalty program, is a transfer partner of Capital One. This means you can transfer your Capital One miles to Flying Blue at a 1:1 ratio, unlocking award redemptions such as this:

By transferring your Capital One miles, that same flight costs just 50,000 miles one-way. 

Summary

The Capital One travel portal allows Capital One cardholders to book flights, hotels, and rental cars. While it can be a good way to earn extra rewards, you’ll want to be wary of redeeming your miles within the portal. Instead, transfer out your miles to score a much better value for those hard-earned rewards.