Capital One Shopping, the public shopping portal, only offers rewards redemption in the form of gift cards. Gift card redemption options change frequently, and we have just seen some new merchants added, including Marriott Bonvoy, Holland America Cruise Lines, Petco (returned for some users), Groupon, Zappos, and more. If you have Capital One Shopping Rewards, you would be wise to consider these new redemption options sooner rather than later.
The Deal
- Capital One Shopping has added many new gift card redemption options, including Marriott Bonvoy gift cards.
- Direct link to see your gift card redemption options
Key Terms
- Note that gift card redemption options vary by user, so you may not see the same options
- Minimum redemption amounts vary
Quick Thoughts
Capital One Shopping frequently offers incredible targeted rates of return that far exceed those offered by many other shopping portals. The “catch” is that the only way to redeem rewards is in exchange for gift cards. That probably wouldn’t be a drawback if the selection of gift cards remained static and appealing, but the selection is constantly dynamic, and we frequently see the best gift cards disappear relatively quickly after they launch. Some redemption options disappear and then come back again in the future; others have been briefly available and then haven’t returned. Recently, my own redemption options had been getting worse and worse.
This time around, a new set of gift card redemption options launched yesterday. Without a doubt, the best of the bunch for travelers is the ability to redeem Capital One shopping rewards for Marriott Bonvoy gift cards. Marriott Bonvoy gift cards can be used worldwide. I have personally used them at both legacy Marriott and legacy Starwood brands in multiple countries before, though I have often found that front desk staff are not familiar with how to redeem them. When I want to use a gift card, I always bring it to the front desk well ahead of checkout to give them plenty of time to figure out how to redeem it. Still, Marriott gift cards are very useful for me. I have plans to visit a particular property where we know we will spend money on dining on-property, and I’ll be glad to have used Capital One Shopping rewards to effectively cover those costs.
Many of my past favorite redemption options have been gone for a while and not returned, so when Stephen pointed out the fact that Marriott was added, I went ahead and redeemed most of my available rewards for a Marriott Bonvoy gift card.
As a pet owner, Stephen was glad to see the return of Petco. I see some other brands that will appeal to various travelers, like Holland America. And some other generally useful stuff like Groupon, Belk, and other stores are either back or now available.
Keep in mind that this is all subject to change, as we do frequently see Capital One launch and remove various gift card options. Also keep in mind that fulfillment of gift card redemptions is not always instant. While many of my more recent redemptions have been instant or within a few minutes, I ordered a Marriott gift card late last night, and it hasn’t yet been fulfilled. Terms say it can take 24 to 72 hours. I have occasionally had a redemption that took around 24 hours to be fulfilled.
If you’re sitting on Capital One Shopping rewards, and one of these redemption options appeals to you, and you have it available, I would highly, highly recommend striking while the iron is hot and making a redemption sooner rather than later. That goes contrary to most advice in this hobby; generally, it makes more sense to maintain flexibility. However, given Capital One Shopping’s propensity to remove gift card redemption options, I wouldn’t sleep on this.
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My gift card choices have been mostly dismal since this spring – fortunately I was able to get an REI card when it briefly reappeared. Ive learned that the higher my rewards balance, the worse the choices. I briefly had REI, Home Depot, Lowes, Gap brands then suddenly Yankee Candles and 1800 Flowers.
Has anyone had issues getting rewards credited? I have had to contact customer service multiple times, to the extent that they won’t make future adjustments. Most recently, I had to argue about $66 rewards from Best Buy – one of those “up to 30 percent ” and you gad to read the offer to make sure your purchase qualified. Mine did. They credited me 2.67 despite screenshots and a receipt. Finally after about 4 emails and 2 negative surveys did i get my rewards. I cashed out immediately and will do so again if 2 more expected rewards post, but I think I’m done.
“The higher my rewards balance, the worse my choices” – based on my experience, I think that’s just anecdotal / confidential. I’ve earned five figures back in rewards and have more or less constantly had four figures worth of rewards balance ready to redeem, and give card options have ebbed and flowed without any relation to my balance.
I did redeem for Marriott here, so now my rewards balance is low again for the first time in a long time, but I use so many of the big offers that it won’t be long before I have a decent balance again I imagine.
I was actually planning to redeem for REI when it was briefly available recently, but I waited to go to the store first to check bike sizes for the kids. But that day, it was gone. It wasn’t because they geolocated me in the store (another theory I’ve heard people float based on anecdotal/coincidental stuff like that) – everybody I know that had it lost it at about the same time.
The ebb and flow is definitely really annoying, but I don’t think it’s a sinister plan to make it hard to use, I just think it’s really poorly managed.
To your last point, given that it is Capital One, being poorly managed seems likely. But I also wonder if there are some underlying economics related to the supply and demand of gift cards and when it is advantageous to the participating vendors and to Capital One to include their cards. I say this because I’ve been buying climbing cams recently (which are expensive) and therefore I have been in the market for discounted REI gift cards. It is amazing how much the price fluctuates from one day to the next, almost like following a commodity market. Maybe a gift card expert like Stephen can explain this, but I see no pattern to it.
I have a related question: my last two C1 Shopping rewards for IHG are showing as “ineligible.” In the past, they have showed as “pending”. What is happening here? Have they blocked me from using it too much? One of these stays is tomorrow, so I guess we will find out soon enough if it will track. But I’m annoyed by this.
I have had to contact Capital One Shopping many times because rewards were not being credited. In my situation with best buy that i just posted, they said the base rate of 1.5 percent had been activated, despite my evidence and 1.5 percent of 219 is not 2.67. Keep after them, they are trying to avoid rewards payouts.
Somewhere in the terms or FAQs, it notes that travel related rewards may show up as “intelligible” until after travel has been completed. I wrote within a post at some point in August I think about how I had that happen on a Hilton stay and sure enough, shortly after the trip, all three rooms went from “intelligible” to showing the correct amount in rewards (30% in my case as it was a Hilton Garden Inn).
Customer service quoted to me that they have the right to refuse rewards.
Have Marriott on my account but wish Hotels.com would come back! 🙁
Well dang it, I was in the middle of buying some gear from REI and now REI has disappeared for me again. I mean I still have plenty of useful options, but they are driving me nuts.
I redeemed for REI yesterday and I still see it as an option today. As a data point my balance was under $100, though.
Hopefully it will come back. My trad rack is only 2/3 complete…
It’s an e gift card, wondering how we’ll use this
Print it out. You must present it at check out. You can’t use it during booking, which is unfortunate.
Unelectronically, ironically.
This is a welcome update. My wife’s account did not have hotels.com which I’ve been using but does have Marriott. Works out for an upcoming stay
Naturally after I just cashed out $1,000 on eBay GC when it returned for me, fearing we would see another drought of decent cards as we approach the holidays. Oh well.
A word of caution about using them worldwide: they are denominated in US Dollars and payment would be converted to the hotel’s home currency at the hotel’s own conversion rate, which is typically very disadvantageous.
Disadvantageous enough that you would redeem your rewards for a different Capital One shopping redemption?
The times when I’ve used them overseas, they’ve been worth about what I expected, but I admittedly haven’t tracked it closely. It probably does make sense to prioritize using them within the United States for maximum value, although, even if I only get 90% of face value out of them for overseas purchases that I was going to make anyway, I’ll be pretty happy with that.
In the US, certainly. The warning is not categorical against all non-US properties. It’s more of a buyer beware. Best to ask a specific property in advance about its conversion rate. Outside the US, there have been horror stories about specific properties with 15 to 20 percent spreads. And, because it is a “pricing” issue, Marriott HQ will not intercede.
This is incorrect. Unless the hotel processes the gift card wrong and converts the amount before entering it into the tool (which has only happened to me once in 50+ international stays using gift cards), the system will use Marriott’s conversion rate which is very fair – in many cases even slightly better than the spot rate at the time.
Maybe this explains why I’ve never noticed a problem with this! Very interesting.
Interesting. It might have been a matter of rogue owners . . . “unwittingly” doing it wrong. Thanks.