I've been saving up/sitting on some capital one points for the last couple years, and I'd like to spend them on something cool. Anybody been in a similar situation and done something awesome? I'd love to get some ideas.

No suggestion, just a wow. I won't let my balance get above about 100k before I'm cashing it in for a $1000 travel credit on my bill.

That's the easiest/least hassle way for me to use my points (I hate the Capital One travel portal and haven't found that it offers very good deals).

Few Questions:

- where do you want to go? Europe, Africa, S America, SE Asia?
- do you want to burn them all on one big trip or use for a couple trips?


Cap 1 doesn't have the best hotel transfer partners, outside of Accor for luxe properties, so I'd probably try and do a few business/first class flights with the points but hard to say without know where you want to go.

We know what's in your wallet…….dang.

I have a dream of taking my family to Australia. So we are hoarding points and miles for that. I want a lay flat. 1.3 M should get you a lay flat on Qantas, DFW to SYD non-stop. (1:1 transfer from Capital One).

arrow said:

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I have a dream of taking my family to Australia. So we are hoarding points and miles for that. I want a lay flat. 1.3 M should get you a lay flat on Qantas, DFW to SYD non-stop. (1:1 transfer from Capital One).

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Primarily due to American business travel policies where if the flight is longer than 10 hours, you get to fly Business Class, Qantas Business Class flights between the US and Australia are some of the most expensive flights in the world.

Also, due to the fact that for years, it was a closed route that was only allowed to be flown by Qantas and PanAm (later United), caused the high fares to become an institution.

During my 12 years in Australia, I got to fly Business Class between Australia and the USA a few times on Qantas, United, Delta, American and Air New Zealand.

The fares fluctuated between $6,000 to $13,000.

Also, flights between the USA and Australia are very seasonal with December and January being the most expensive times to travel. It's also expensive during School Holidays in late June / early July.

Well worth the trip in my opinion and the Qantas A380 is definitely the aircraft you want. Just don't stay for 12 years LOL.

Whats your home airport? Where do you want to go to? Answer those two questions first.

Capital one transfers to lifemiles and air canada, which are partners with United. So you can book United flights with their miles. Same goes with British Airways and Qantas being partners with American Airlines.

Looking to go Nov. 28 for my daughter's sweet 16.
Currently, I've seen good redemptions via BNE with American Airlines. Yes, Qantas to SYD are outrageous. But I do very much want a ride on their A380. I'm hoping it's not retired by then. Best bet for us right now is one way to BNE via AA and then home out of SYD via Qantas. The kids might not get lay flats!

Honestly, if you want to give the kids a premium experience for a discounted rate, I'd go with one of the Gulf carriers, or one of the Asian carriers.

Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, Singapore, Cathay Pacific, etc.

And a wildcard that would be budget friendly if you're not concerned with alcohol would be Saudia.

Emirates and Qantas are two airlines that invested heavily in the A380 so they'll have them in the fleet for a while.

It was a sad time in 2019 when I took my final 747 ride on Qantas from Perth to Sydney and then followed that up shortly thereafter with a ride from Melbourne to Sydney on a brand new 787. After the scamdemic, a lot of the big planes are gone, replaced by smaller and more fuel efficient 787s and A350s.

For my money, if it's 16 year old girls, I'd make them watch Crazy Rich Asians a few times and then take them on Singapore Airlines to Singapore and let them run loose for 3 days or so while you chill out in the Marina Bay Sands swimming pool. And if you're a Call of Duty player, I'd play the MWII level with the Supertrees in Singapore before going.

If you spend any time in Brisbane, the Breakfast Creek Hotel is a must.

Obviously there is a ton to do in Sydney and myself or bthotugigem05 (who lives there now) could give you some pointers.

While I'm thinking about it, during the years that my daughters were in College, flying them back to Australia during their winter and summer breaks, I would sometimes use a mixture of points and pay and break up the flights into different segments.

One of the tricks I discovered was that I could buy cheap fares between Sydney and Honolulu and then use points between HNL and IAH (for my daughter who went to A&M) or IAD (for my daughter who went to VMI).

And with dad being super cheap, I did make each of them do an RTW trip because it was the most economical.

• A&M daughter went Houston to Moscow (refuel stop) to Singapore to Sydney
• VMI daughter went Washington Dulles to Dubai to Sydney

Another time, I also leveraged routes from LAX to Tokyo enroute to Sydney.

• A&M daughter went LAX to Tokyo to Singapore to Sydney
• VMI daughter went Sydney to Tokyo Haneda, transferred to Tokyo Narita and then on to Washington Dulles. She did that at age 18 and I was on pins and needles about her making the connection in Tokyo.

Best way to maximize the value of Capital One miles is to make sure you've got a premium card such as the Venture X. Once you have that in place, book your trip, both air and hotel through the portal. The portal offers price protection and price matching. Once you've done that, pay for the trip with your Venture X card. You will earn 5X miles on flights and 10X miles on hotel/rental. Then use the purchase eraser to remove the travel charges.
You'll pay for your trip and have miles added back to your program right away.

m.stat said:

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Best way to maximize the value of Capital One miles is to make sure you've got a premium card such as the Venture X. Once you have that in place, book your trip, both air and hotel through the portal. The portal offers price protection and price matching. Once you've done that, pay for the trip with your Venture X card. You will earn 5X miles on flights and 10X miles on hotel/rental. Then use the purchase eraser to remove the travel charges.
You'll pay for your trip and have miles added back to your program right away.

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This is typically not true, especially for international flights. Its almost always a better value to transfer credit card points directly to the airlines and then book with airline miles. The only time this isnt true is when theres a ridiculously cheap domestic cash flight and youre better off paying cash versus using miles.