Final Days: Get a 20% Bonus When Transferring Capital One Miles to Qantas

Australia’s Qantas Frequent Flyer might not be many travelers’ go-to airline mileage program. But anyone with Capital One miles from cards like the *capital one venture card* or the souped-up *venture x* should give it a hard look right now, whether you want to get to Australia … or book some short flights here in the U.S. … or even book a business class flight on Emirates. 

Capital One kicked off May with a brand-new transfer bonus, giving cardholders a 20% boost when transferring miles to Qantas. But time is running out to take advantage: This boost ends Sunday, May 31! 

Not sure where to start? Read our complete guide to Capital One transfer partners!

Transferring your miles to one of nearly 20 Capital One transfer partners is often the best way to redeem them for more value – especially with a big bonus like this. Think of it as a way to get some free miles: Transfer 50,000 Capital One miles to Qantas, and you’ll wind up with 60,000 Qantas points.

Still, it’s rarely a good idea to transfer points speculatively without a specific plan – you’ll want to have a redemption mapped out before sending your Capital One miles to Qantas. 

Lucky for you, there are plenty of solid options. 

Book Flights to Australia for Less

Of course, Qantas can get you to the Land Down Under. This 20% transfer bonus means you’ll need fewer miles to pull it off. 

Qantas uses a distance-based award chart for redeeming miles: The longer the flight, the more points you’ll need to book. That means flights from the West Coast down to Australia will be cheapest. 

For example, flights from Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), or Vancouver (YVR) over to cities like Sydney (SYD), Melbourne (MEL), or Brisbane (BNE) all clock in at under 8,000 miles each way. That means an economy seat will cost you a hair over 48,000 Qantas points each way – just 40,200 Capital One miles with this 20% transfer bonus! 

But maybe you want a lie-flat seat for the ultra-long-haul flight to Australia or back home. No matter how many miles it costs, booking business class seats to Australia is typically tough: Finding the award availability to book an award seat is a serious challenge…

… until lately: Business class award space down to Australia is heating up. We’ve sent Thrifty Traveler Premium Qantas business class members a slew of award alerts to book for as low as 131,000 points each way. Factor in this 20% transfer bonus, and it could be yours with 108,500 Capital One miles.

One thing that stands out about Capital One miles is that the bank allows you to fine-tune your transfers in increments of 100 – most other banks require you to send points to transfer partners by the 1,000s. That means you can really dial in exactly how many miles you want to transfer rather than wind up with hundreds of points orphaned in a Qantas account. 

Book Short American Airlines Flights … Or Biz Class to Europe

Hopping around the good ol’ U.S. of A. could cost you even fewer miles with this transfer bonus, too. 

No, Qantas doesn’t fly domestically here … but American Airlines does. And Qantas charges reasonable rates to book partner award flights on American – so long as it’s relatively short. 

American Airlines-operated flights that clock in under 600 miles each way will cost you just 9,200 Qantas points. So you could transfer just 7,700 Capital One miles over to Qantas and book a flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Chicago-O’Hare (ORD).

Not sure how long your flight is? Plug it in at GCmap.com!

There are thousands – literally, thousands – of American Airlines flights under 600 miles. The possibilities for booking domestic flights for 7,700 Capital One miles each way are practically endless. 

Heading across the pond? Qantas also charges reasonable rates for the shortest transatlantic routes under 3,600: Think the East Coast to London-Heathrow (LHR), Dublin, 0r maybe even Madrid (MAD). At 68,400 Qantas points each way in business class, it’s not bad … and even better with that 20% transfer bonus: Just 57,000 Capital One miles!

If you’ve had your sights set on pulling off a trip to Europe this year (in style), your timing is impeccable. We recently sent Thrifty Traveler Premium members an alert with some wide-open American Airlines business class availability to London-Heathrow (LHR) this August! You could book many of those dates through Qantas for just 57,000 Capital One miles. 

Emirates Biz to Europe … Or Colombia!? 

Emirates’ fifth-freedom routes from New York City (JFK) to Milan (MXP) and Newark (EWR) to Athens (ATH) offer some of the coolest ways to get to Europe. This transfer bonus makes Qantas a relatively good way to book them – especially if you’re looking for a one-way in business class.

The route to Milan is shorter, so that’s the cheapest of the pair: Just 90,000 Qantas points in business class. With that 20% transfer bonus, it comes out to 75,000 Capital One miles for Emirates business class.

Unfortunately, Qantas dropped the hammer on booking Emirate’s first class awards earlier this year, restricting access to Qantas Frequent Flyers (21 years and older) with status. They also hiked award rates to 147,800 points on the shorter flight from New York to Milan. 

But if you check the right boxes and want to book Emirates First Class for fewer points, check out the airline’s even quirkier fifth-freedom route from Miami (MIA) to Bogota (BOG). At just 78,400 Qantas points, you could transfer just 65,400 Capital One miles and book it. 

Sadly, Emirates doesn’t fly one of its signature Airbus A380s on that route to South America, so you won’t get the full Emirates experience with a shower onboard.

Bottom Line

Capital One is out with a new 20% bonus when sending miles over to Qantas Frequent Flyer.

Qantas’s mileage program doesn’t get nearly enough attention, but this bonus should change that. Give it a look and make use of this bonus before it ends on Sunday, May 31.