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Update 5/10/24: June and July games have been added!
Update 2/29/24: As pointed out by Chris in the comments, April and May 2024 games are now available.
One of the best uses of Capital One miles is Capital One Cardholder Exclusives Major League Baseball tickets. I put that in bold because only the cardholder exclusives are a good deal. There are only 4 Cardholder Exclusive seats for each Major League Baseball game, but those four seats are typically within 5-15 rows of the field in highly desirable sections (in many cases they are club level sections) and they only cost 5,000 miles or $40 in Capital One cash back per seat. This post explains what these are and where to find them. See this post for some examples from my experience at a New York Mets game and some reader input.
Note: Some readers have been a bit confused because Capital One sells cardholder exclusive tickets, which are a great deal and are what this post is mostly about, but when they don’t have the cardholder exclusive tickets available they also sell general secondhand market tickets (which are typically an awful deal). See the heading below “How to find the good Capital One cardholder exclusive tickets” for more.
The Deal
- Capital One Entertainment is offering cardholder exclusive tickets to baseball games in April and May, with four seats available at 5,000 miles per seat (in excellent locations) for most of the games I checked
- Direct link to Capital One Entertainment
Quick Thoughts
Capital One sells sporting event tickets through a partnership with VividSeats. Most tickets yield an awful value of 0.6c per mile. However, Capital One has 4 Cardholder Exclusive tickets to every game that are typically a great value. They also sell seats powered by VividSeats that are an awful value. See the next section of this post for how to tell the difference.
The first game I looked up in New York when these seats launched was about $200 a ticket in the cardholder exclusives section. These are seats that I wouldn’t otherwise consider buying, but at 5,000 miles a seat, I enjoyed the great view shown above (and the Delta Club, where concessions had much shorter lines. We even ran into Mr. Met in the club!).
Cardholder Exclusive Seats are located very close to the field, though it varies a bit from one park to another. For example, Philadelphia has seats 5 rows behind the visiting team’s dugout, which my sister-in-law loved for a Phillies/Mets game as she got to sit right behind her beloved Mets.
Again, Capital One has many publicly-available VividSeats options at poorer value — you’re looking for the cardholder exclusive seats.
There were no additional fees for any of the tickets I’ve bought (in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Kansas City) beyond the 10K miles for two tickets or 20K for four tickets, though some parks have a couple of dollars in tax that must be paid with your card.
The tickets at Citi Field (where the Mets play) are in the Delta Club section, so you get access to better concessions and the seats are more padded. That type of thing will vary by park.
Personally, I’m not a huge baseball fan, but I enjoy cool experiences and I wouldn’t be very likely to buy tickets so close to the field otherwise, so bought tickets again this time around because it’s a fun experience for a reasonable price.
How to find the good Capital One Cardholder Exclusive tickets
One key thing has changed: In the past, if the cardholder exclusive seats were available, you would only see 4 seats for sale. Now, the cardholder exclusives are mixed in among nosebleed seats that yield terrible value. For instance, see this example from a New York Mets game — you’ll find the cardholder exclusive seats, which are in the Delta Club 11 section right near the field, for 5,000 miles per seat listed alongside seats in the 400’s and 500’s sections. You’ll only get 0.6c per point in value toward seats, but Capital One has those Delta Club 11 seats listed at a value of $40 per seat, which is well below the going price for those seats!
You’ll kind of need to know what you’re looking for — 2 or 4 seats for 5,000 miles per seat that are close to the field. Note that these are initially available for every game, but there are only four seats for each game — expect most of the desirable games to get snatched up quickly. In most parks, the seats cost just the 5,000 miles each with no cash outlay at all (I’ve bought tickets for games at both Yankee Stadium and Citi Field in New York as well as tickets to games in Boston, Philadelphia, and Kansas City and only paid 5,000 miles each in those cases). Some parks seem to have a small fee of a couple of dollars, which I assume is some sort of local tax.
To find tickets, just log in to Capital One Experiences and you’ll find MLB Single Game Tickets under the cardholder exclusives.
This link should take you directly to MLB tickets.
As shown above, Capital One is now mixing the cardholder exclusive seats in with all of the VividSeats tickets. That makes it kind of a pain to find the good seats.
Here’s the simple way to tell the difference: check the sections right next to the field. You’re looking for one that has tickets “From $40” (typically seats in these sections go over over $100 per seat or in cities like New York they would be over $200 per seat). Those cardholder exclusive seats will cost 5,000 miles each and you can only buy in sets of 2 or 4. When you select those seats, you’ll see that they are clearly marked “Cardholder Exclusive Tickets by Capital One” as shown here:
If you select a set of tickets that says “Tickets Powered by VividSeats”, those are not the cardholder exclusives and are offered at poor value! See this example from the next section over from the one shown above — tickets start at $103 and are available for 13,000 miles and are “powered by VividSeats”. Those aren’t the exclusives.
The “value” appears to be the same because Capital One is saying that the cardholder exclusives are “worth” $40 each, but in reality seats in that section would likely sell for north of $100 per ticket just like the nearby sections — Capital One is simply listing a below-face-value price for their cardholder exclusive seats.
When you click through on those seats, you’ll see they are Capital One cardholder exclusives.
The cardholder exclusive tickets have no additional fees — they are 5K miles per ticket, period. I bought tickets to both a Yankees game and a Phillies game (against the Mets) and paid 10K for two tickets to each game.
Again, Capital One also lists tickets in many different sections, those are not cardholder exclusives but are rather a selection of seats powered by VividSeats. The non-exclusive VividSeats tickets are not a good deal. You’ll only get 0.8c per point toward those tickets and there are a lot of add-on fees during the checkout process. Seats shown here are not cardholder exclusives.
Kind of interesting and weird is that Capital One labels the good “exclusive” seats as though they cost $40 even though the exclusives are near the field in otherwise much more expensive sections. Don’t be confused by this — the cardholder exclusives are labeled as $40 tickets, but you can’t actually buy them for $40.
In fact, when you’ve got the cardholder exclusive tickets, you don’t even get the option to use money to buy the seats — you couldn’t buy them for $40 each if you wanted to, it’s 5K miles per ticket during checkout with no option to use fewer miles and no additional fees (and you must buy either 2 or 4 tickets). If you are seeing different numbers of miles or additional fees, you’re not looking at the cardholder exclusive seats.
Also of note is that if you pick a team that isn’t in your local area, you’ll have to type in the city where you want to see them in the “Near” box. For instance, since I’m in New York State, it searched for Chicago Cubs tickets in New York City. I had to type in Chicago, IL to see games at Wrigley Field.
I was really happy to see that Capital One isn’t tacking any fees on during the checkout process — it’s literally just 5,000 miles per ticket (you have to buy tickets in blocks of 2).
Overall, it’s great to see Capital One offer interesting exclusives to cardholders. While baseball isn’t necessarily a direct path to my heart, I could see tickets to certain sold-out events or in great locations like these baseball tickets being an exciting cardholder perk. I thought the Final Four tickets were a cool idea. Offering something similar for other major events could become both a great use of miles and a great perk of being a cardholder.
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I JUST got Phillies game 1. There are 4 tickets to each game, game 2 and 5 out there now. Good luck
How much are they? Don’t have the computer in front of me right now
Not sure if my last message went through but they are 25k. Philly sold out but others available. Philly seemed to have 4 per game Dodgers have at least 20.
Missed the tickets at CBP by a few minutes, but grabbed tickets to Game 3 in New York. Thanks for the heads up!
The seats are not the same as the regular season, at least one level downgrade(more like 1.5 step downgrade) but cost 5x the points. Thanks, but Oof that hurts
I mean yeah bro it’s the playoffs. They’re still great value compared to what you’d need to pay to get them.
I hear you, but still it’s more expensive for downgraded seats. I did get some tickets for a game this weekend, but the other reward tickets are still sitting there unsold. Where are the seats for the Phillies during the regular season?
Find me the seat in any stadium in any sport that isn’t more expensive for the playoffs than the regular season. I never would have expected playoff seats to be the same price as regular season – those 5K seats are an amazing deal.
The regular season seats for the Phillies are 5 rows behind the visitor’s dugout.
Were the MLB playoff 25k tickets just for the Wild Card round or for the entire playoffs?
I have yet to see anything available for the division series and beyond, but I’m worried I missed the boat.
They were 12.5k for the wildcard and each (or at least most) games had 20 tickets. The Mets/Brewers game 3 had 16 tickets available as of like 2 hours before the game.
I have not seen any tickets for division / league championship / world series games for any teams. There was a note from someone that they say 50k tickets but I looked soon after they posted and didn’t see any. Last year I don’t think I ever saw exclusive tickets for those series other than a World Series “event” where you could watch batting practice as part of the game (and these sold out before the teams were determined).
I was hopeful given how many Wild Card tickets were available that there would be more for other series but it’s getting close now and I’m not very hopeful. I will post here if I see anything.
I bought NLDS tickets last year before the wild card series even started, they were only 15k each. But I also never saw LCS or WS tickets last year.
Do they offer these 5K tickets for the postseason games? If so, how has it worked in the past (how were you made aware they were released and ready for “purchase”)?
Do they become available before teams clinch a spot in the specific round? Any info you have I would appreciate!
Sincerely,
A hopeful Tigers fan that hasn’t seen meaningful baseball in 10 years
Tickets were released yesterday but instead of being 5,000 miles / ticket they increased to 25,000 miles per ticket.
Yeah, I saw that. Awful 🙁 Were they 5K in years past for playoffs?
No. They have frequently released ticket packages for things like the playoffs, NCAA Final Four, and even the Olympic closing ceremonies but at much higher point prices (though in some cases still pretty reasonable for what they are — I don’t follow the price of MLB playoff tickets, so I have no idea whether 25K is reasonable for those, but 100K for example for tickets to the Final Four seemed reasonable enough to me). The 5K seats are just a regular season MLB thing.
Yeah, I’ve taken advantage of the 5K seats probably 10 times already. So I was just being too hopeful! Thanks for being the first to post when they become available every other month, it has been great!
Just attended a game from the July tickets this week and wow this was an awesome pick up. Got to see the DBacks come from down 6 runs and beat the Nationals on a 2-run walk off homerun during an incredible 9th inning rally. The tickets practically put us right behind home plate and got access to the club areas for faster and better quality concessions (and restrooms). We were able to see the Gatorade bath and celebration right in front of us and the stadium going nuts. Had to be a top 5 sporting event experience and getting it for the equivalent of $50 a person if you were cashing out the miles is incredible.
Thank you readers and the FM team for putting out the notice on these ticket releases!
dying to get these for my husband when they come to LA. Dodgers v. Guardians but I don’t see any tickets for 5000 points. They must have sold out. Or am I missing something?
Tickets sold out basically instantly. Respect to the people who recheck every hour
I snagged 4 tix to the Yankees game in August! Thanks for the heads up!
Seems like There’s a better chance in annual daily getaways for Hyatt points than finding these tickets. Struck out in 4 games at end of August.
which team?
Tried yankees and nationals in NY and DC end of august.
Did I just miss Texas Rangers for Aug/September? I know they go quick but I was able to get a couple games in the June/July release….
Never mind, they are just not advertising them but they are there! Yay!
you guys are without a friggin doubt the best blog on Boardingarea.. the stuff you guys come up with is top top tier. I constantly get so much info/idea from you guys. Great stuff. Thank you so much
Thanks for the heads up. Just got some great tickets to Cardinals at Royals friday night game right behind home plate. Resellers currently selling tickets in those sections at $150+
Ugh man, tried my best for yankees tickets august 9th and 10th because my family and I will actually be in NYC that weekend. Not surprised the are gone but a bit bummed, would have been really cool to take the family
don’t worry, someone will be happy to resell them to you at 3x the cost on seatgeek/stubhub. >:(
Taking Dad to Wrigley, thanks guys!
Do y’all think this is available for every team? Whenever I check for SF giants there are no good seats for 5000 miles. 🙁
They probably sold out before you got there. Phillies tickets were gone within 10 minutes.
I wonder how folks figure out the time the tickets are released…
Keep looking.. But don’t believe the “Cardholder Exclusive.” Instead, hover around the field, at field level, behind the dugouts [screenshot in the article above]. You’ll eventually see a price that seems out of place – $40, instead something in the $100s. Click on it & you might still be in luck.
Ooh thanks for that tip!
I just bought the Phillies tickets now for Aug 18th. Were you only looking at a specific days?
Edit: Seeing them still available on some other days too
The home games were all removed from having the cardholder exclusive tags. Looks like some are popping back up now or aren’t tagged.
Figured out what was up with the Giants tickets. They are listed in the wrong section. Check a few sections up above where the tickets actually are and you’ll see 4 tickets for row O in lower box. I am confident they just put it in the wrong place, since row O does not exist in lower box and only exists in the Field Club where the tickets always are. Go go go!
Wow! OK! Looking now! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
I got four tix to Cards game last of the season. Section 124. keep trying
I looked at all the dates for home games in Aug/Sept that I am available, and there were no seats for 5000 points. I saw one game that had seats that were $40 when I hovered over the section, but the points for those seats were 7000-ish and nearby seats weren’t that much more expensive. I think the Cap One seats are just sold out for SF Giants. Another funny thing that I noticed is that in general, the tickets aren’t terribly expensive.I suppose that’s because the Giants aren’t doing too great right now.
The section for CapOne seats is ONLY 124. If it says $40, those are the Cap One seats most likely. But….yes….you gotta be fast. By now they are most likely all gone. FWIW, it has been section 124 for as long as they have been doing this. So…next year….assuming they continue this promo, you’ll know exactly where to look.
Cardholder exclusive tickets just got posted again for August and September.
Doing the lord’s work
Thank you so much! Got the two games I was wanting to go to!
Never mind… I just got an email saying the tickets are no longer available and they cancelled my order. This happen to anyone else?
happened to me during a drop last year. Super frustrating. Sorry you had it get to you
I actually just checked again for the heck of it and the ones that did not get confirmed were there and I tried again and received a confirmation email this time. Either really lucky or nervous something is wrong. If you have done this before, how early do you actually get your tickets sent to you? I want to make sure they are legit before I sell my other ones I bought.
The two games I’ve attended through Capital One didn’t send the tickets over until 2 or 3 days before. Made us nervous the first time but they came through close in with no issues.
Ditto