If you have a Capital One miles-earning card, you have access to the Capital One Travel portal. This is one of my favorite bank travel portals because it helps you know when to book flights, is super easy to use, and there are multiple cards that offer credits you can use with it. While I often recommend transferring points to travel partners, travel portals can be a great way to easily book flights and hotels, and sometimes it ends up being fewer points.

Here’s everything you need to know about how Capital One Travel works.

What Is Capital One Travel?

Capital One Travel is Capital One’s built-in travel booking site that lets you book flights, hotels, rental cars, vacation packages, and activities. When you pay with an eligible Capital One card, you’ll earn bonus miles on your purchase — anywhere from 5–10X depending on your card. You can also use your miles to pay at checkout, though I don’t recommend it, which I’ll explain in a bit.

The portal is available to all Capital One cardholders.

Additionally, Capital One Travel recently launched an app that makes it super easy to navigate all of the portal’s features. It’s also a convenient way to find airport lounges and join the Capital One lounge waitlist while you’re traveling.

Booking Flights

You can get to the portal in a few ways. First, through your Capital One account online. Go to your account, then navigate to your rewards and click “travel”.

You can also get there by going directly to capitalonetravel.com.

When searching for flights, one of my favorite features is the color-coded calendar. Each date is color-coded from green (cheapest) to red (most expensive), so you can instantly see the best days to fly. If your dates are flexible, this can save you a significant amount of money.

Once you select your dates, you can filter results by fare class, number of stops, airline, and more. You can also see all of the specific details about the flight and what’s included in the fare class.

Furthermore, at the top of the search results, Capital One will tell you whether now is a good time to book based on price trends for your route. If it says to wait, you can set up a free price watch to get alerted when prices drop. I’ve found these predictions to be very accurate, and the price watch is so helpful.

If it says to book now, you’ll automatically be enrolled in price match, which means if the price drops within 10 days of booking, you can get up to $50 back as a Capital One Travel credit.

Booking Hotels and Rental Cars

Booking hotels and rental cars through Capital One Travel works like most other travel portals. You enter your destination and dates, filter and sort the results, choose the one you want to book, and check out. There are no color-coded calendars or “wait to book” indicators.

Note: hotel nights booked through the portal typically won’t count toward hotel elite status, so if that matters to you, it may be worth booking directly with the property instead.

Capital One Travel also has two hotel collections. These are curated groups of hotel recommendations, and each group comes with its own set of benefits.

Premier Collection — Luxury properties with daily breakfast for two, a $100 resort credit, complimentary Wi-Fi, and room upgrades and late checkout when available.

Lifestyle Collection — A mid-tier group or properties with benefits that include complimentary Wi-Fi, room upgrades when available, and a $50 experience credit.

Booking Activities

Capital One Travel partners with TripAdvisor and offers an activities tab where you can book tours, skip-the-line tickets, cooking classes, food tastings, shows, and more. If you have the Venture X (personal or business), you’ll earn 5X miles on activities booked through the portal.

I’ve never booked activities this way because I usually go through Viator via Rakuten to earn extra points on activities. But I love that this is an easy way to book things without having to go through multiple steps.

Why You Shouldn’t Redeem Your Miles in through Capital One Travel

As you go through the checkout process in Capital One Travel, you’ll see the option to pay with miles. But don’t do this! Here’s why: when you pay with your card, you earn bonus miles on the purchase (5–10X depending on your card). You can then apply your miles as a statement credit after the fact. That way, you’re still using your miles to cover the cost, but you’re also getting all those bonus miles from your booking.

Click “Do not apply my rewards”.

Using Capital One Travel Credits

There are multiple Capital One credit cards that come with travel credits which can be used in the travel portal. These are applied like a coupon during the checkout process. You do not have to use your available credits unless you want to. You also do not have to use all of your available credit at one time.

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Capital One Venture X Business cards both come with an annual $300 annual travel credit. The Capital One Venture Business card comes with an annual $50 travel credit.

Earning Capital One Miles

There are a variety of cards that earn Capital One miles and give you access to the Capital One travel portal.

They are:

• Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card – a good card for those with lower credit or no credit history.
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card – an excellent beginner card.
• Capital One Venture Business – very similar to the personal version but includes an annual $50 Capital One Travel credit.
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card – a great premium card with a lower price tag than other premium cards on the market.
• Capital One Venture X Business – the business version is nearly identical to the personal version, but it has a much higher welcome offer and a higher spending requirement.

All of the above cards earn 2X on all spending, except the VentureOne, which earns 1.25. This is great because you don’t have to worry about specific bonus categories. Instead, you know you’re getting a solid return on all purchases.

Bottom Line

Overall, Capital One Travel is one of the best travel portals out there. The price prediction tools, color-coded calendar, and easy layout make it genuinely useful. Plus, you can earn bonus miles on your purchases, then if you want, turn around and use those miles to help cover the cost of your trip.