It feels like it’s transferable points currency week. We’ve had Citi launching three new bonuses – 50% to Turkish Miles & Smiles, 30% to Virgin Atlantic, and 25% to LifeMiles – when transferring ThankYou points, as well as Rove launching a 20% transfer bonus to both Finnair and Air France/KLM Flying Blue.
As if that wasn’t enough, Capital One announced today that they have three new transfer partners for customers who have credit cards earning Capital One miles. Those new partners are Japan Airlines (JAL), Qatar Airways and Preferred Hotels.
These new transfer partners aren’t created equal though because the transfer ratio is different for each one:
- Japan Airlines – 2:1.5
- Qatar Airways – 1:1
- Preferred Hotels – 1:2
Japan Airlines
To celebrate this development, Capital One is also offering a 30% transfer bonus to Japan Airlines through October 22, 2025. We’ll be publishing a separate post about that later this morning, but it means that the ratio for the first month of the partnership will improve to 2:1.95, so virtually a 1:1 basis.
That’s fantastic news because Japan Airlines is currently only a transfer partner of Bilt (1:1) and Marriott (3:1), both currencies where it’s not always easy to rack up a substantial number of points. Although it’s a shame that the ongoing transfer ratio from Capital One will be 2:1.5 rather than 1:1, having more options for obtaining JAL miles is certainly better than fewer.
Due to the difficulty in earning JAL miles, its loyalty program tends to fly under the radar. Nick will be doing a deeper dive later today to share some sweet spots. One potentially intriguing option is that JAL apparently has an award chart of sorts for booking round-the-world tickets. Following ANA’s axing of its round-the-world redemptions, having easier access to a redemption option such as this will be a welcome development for people interested and willing to book these more complicated type of awards.
Something important to be aware of is that new JAL Mileage Bank accounts will have to wait seven days before miles can be redeemed. It’s therefore worth setting up a JAL account ASAP if you don’t already have one in case you find an award you want to book in the future, only to have to wait a week after transferring miles in.
Qatar Airways
The addition of Qatar Airways certainly isn’t a game changer, but it will make Qatar transfers a little more convenient. You could already transfer Capital One miles to Qatar Airways indirectly by first transferring to British Airways and then on to Qatar. However, being able to transfer directly will cut out that step, something that will be particularly appreciated by anyone who’s had trouble connecting their British Airways and Qatar accounts for one reason or another.
Preferred Hotels
The third new transfer partner is the Preferred Hotels I Prefer loyalty program. The transfer ratio for this partnership is on a 1:2 basis which initially sounds enticing. However, outside of a potential transfer bonus in the future, this is a partner that will, for the most part, be ignorable, especially if you also have a stash of Citi ThankYou points.
We have the Reasonable Redemption Value of I Prefer points pegged at 0.51 cents per point. That means that if transferring Capital One miles on a 1:2 basis, you could reasonably expect to get 1.02 cents per point of value which isn’t particularly great.
There are some outliers though. For example, the last time we calculated the Reasonable Redemption Value for Preferred Hotels, the maximum point value found was 1.16 cents per point. If you found a redemption like that, transferring miles on a 1:2 basis would mean you’d be getting 2.32 cents per point of value which is much better.
For those who also earn Citi ThankYou points though, it’ll be hard to summon up much enthusiasm to transfer Capital One miles on a 1:2 basis. That’s because Citi ThankYou points also transfer to Preferred Hotels, but on a twice-as-good 1:4 basis.
Still, similar to what I said earlier in reference to the JAL partnership, having more transfer partner options for Preferred Hotels is better than having fewer.
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Always nice to see new transfer partners, but boy does C1 seem intent on mediocrity. I’ve used the Venture X as my everywhere else card for a while, but keep thinking it’s time to get a Citi Double Cash.
Citi also has a Qatar Avios transfer bonus up to 40%. It’s on the Qatar side so Citi did not published it. Ends October 15th.
It can’t be emphasized enough that JAL points have a *hard* expiration date.
Qatar point expiration has numerous workarounds.
https://www121.jal.co.jp/JmbWeb/AR/EnrollProposal_en.do
Enrollment link
idk about ya’ll but I had a hell of a time finding this on my phone
Can someone confirm is JAL miles can be used to book JetBlue Mint and for how much?
Also try Flyer Talk forums.
Even with the bad transfer rate, JAL is still going to be compelling for people looking to fly BA to Europe. It is 42k miles up to 4000 miles (56k C1 miles), and 60k (80k C1 miles) up to 6000 miles. JAL, last I looked, did not pass on fuel surcharges, so as long as you are not departing from the UK, the pricing is quite reasonable (something like $200 in fees). BTW, from the east coast, you can get to Tbilisi in under 6000 miles each way through London.
Capital One needs to hire a better negotiator. How are they giving only half as many points as Citi does for Preferred and Choice?
This is consequence of 2x everywhere with no cap. Citi does it with the double cash, but they advertise it as a cashback card and sell the gift card thing really hard. There’s a reason they only put 1.5x on the Strata Elite. Given that most people only have one or 2 cards, they figure most won’t do all the TYP combining and maximize everything.
I thought JAL award pricing used to be 55k and now I see 100k per award ticket biz class??
It’s distance based.
Right. One of the shortest routes hnd-sea is 100k. So I after researching more, they have limited tickets at 55k. Be aware all tickets are not the 55k for biz.
JAL is a nice addition… Preferred 1:2 sucks & Qatar already existed though Avios.
1) “Preferred 1:2 sucks” – I’ll disagree with you there. Citi having 1: 4 to to I Prefer is awesome. But 1:2 can still be very good! Obviously, if you’re in the Citi ecosystem, you’ll prefer using Citi points. But if you’re not in the citi ecosystem, you can still get some very good value. I’ve recently found some great deals on I prefer properties that are still going to be good at 1:2.
Qatar was indeed already available via Avios, but perhaps this will still be a long-term advantage. We sometimes see Qatar offer a transfer bonus on the Qatar side (such as they are right now). Only direct transfer partners (like Citi) get included when they offer that. I obviously don’t know that Capital One will be included in the future, but they definitely couldn’t be without being partners with Qatar, so this at least gives us some hope!
Probably should add the following statement to the “Something important to be aware of is that new JAL Mileage Bank accounts…”
“In accordance with the JMB Rules and Conditions, mileage for awards may not be redeemed for a maximum of 60 days from your JAL Mileage Bank enrollment date.”
I just signed up for a JAL account and on first login saw that message; likely not a big deal given the time it would take to fly enough miles to earn an award but I suppose there might be a hardcore P&M fan somewhere who gets it done. I suppose this could apply to a points transfer as well.
I belong to quite a few loyalty programs and have never seen a hoop like that before.
That appears to be the case ordinarily. However, when Bilt added JAL as a transfer partner, they were able to obtain a 7 day carveout. It therefore looks like Capital One has obtained the same carveout as the press release specifically listed the 7 day wait rather than 60 days.
It’s a lot easier to rack up capital one Venture miles than Citi points tho through capital one offers.
How so? C1 seems the hardest to churn with their two C1 cards only rule and their picky approval requirements
Card-linked offers not SUBs. Like Amex Offers — spending incentives.
Don’t forget to add on Simply Miles and Rakuten if possible.
You earn from Capital One Offers – they have a shopping portal with earning rates that often beat out Rakuten and occasional outlandish earn rates that can be moneymakers.
Citi bests them on everyday spending and now has an equal to slightly better opportunity to earn points from SUBs with the addition of the Strate Elite card.
Citi TYP are easier than any other transferrable currency if you have the Sears card. Even when accounting for SUBs, the targeted offers on the Sears card beats everyone. A lot of us have the Sears card.
And AT&T AM card too. This is one of my most used cards.