Capital One Venture is adding JetBlue as a transfer partner

Capital One is strengthening its credit card rewards program by adding a popular United States-based airline to its growing roster of transfer partners: JetBlue.

Users of Capital One credit cards, such as the Capital One Venture Rewards credit card and the Capital One Spark Miles for a Business credit card can now transfer points to JetBlue’s TrueBlue rewards program.

Who are the 15 Capital One Venture Airline Transfer Partners?

This marks the 15th airline to be added to Capital One’s network of transfer partners. Prior to JetBlue, the other 14 airlines in the network were international carriers, such as Aeromexico, Air Canada, Air France, Avianca, Alitalia, Cathay Pacific, Etihad Airways, Emirates, EVA Air, Finnair, Hainan Airlines, Qantas and Singapore Airlines. JetBlue is the sole U.S. carrier in the network, at least for right now.

How to Get 50% Transfer Bonus from Capital One Venture

With Capital One transfers, many of the partners follow a 2:1.5 point ratio. That means 10,000 Capital One points translates to 7,500 miles with the airline. Or 1,000 Capital One points equates to 750 miles with the airline.

But with the JetBlue transfer, the ratio is less attractive than some of Capital One’s other airline transfer partners. The ratio drops to 2:1 with JetBlue. That means 10,000 Capital One points only equates to 5,000 JetBlue miles. Or 1,000 Capital One points translates to 500 JetBlue points.

To encourage users to transfer Capital One points to JetBlue, the company is offering a promotional 50% bonus for points transferred until May 31. That increases the ratio to 2:1.5.

Keep in mind, the Capital One Venture card already offers 2x miles for every dollar spent on the card. That means $1,000 charged on the card equates to 2,000 airline miles.

While at first sight, you would need to transfer more to get JetBlue miles, Capital One’s earning of 2 miles for every dollar spent evens this out.

Capital One Venture Credit Card vs. Chase Sapphire Prefered

Now that we’ve covered the ins and outs of the transfer program, let’s take a look at the nearest competitor – Chase Sapphire Preferred and see how it stacks up.

The Capital One Venture and Chase Sapphire Preferred cards are giving out impressive point bonuses for new customers. Capital One Venture offers 50,000 points initially. The points are added to the account upon spending $3,000 on purchases within the first three months of opening the Capital One card.

With Chase, users will earn 60,000 points, but there’s a catch. Users must spend a greater $4,000 within the first three months. For Chase, those 60,000 points equate to $750 worth of airfare or hotel value when redeemed through Chase’s rewards points platform.

However, Capital One Venture offers a $100 credit towards TSA Precheck and Global Entry. These programs allow travelers to pass through airport security at a faster pace. Both cards charge annual fees of $95, but Capital One’s is waived for the first year.

As we mentioned earlier, users will earn 2 airline miles for every dollar spent on the Capital One Venture card. Chase Sapphire Preferred offers 1x points for every dollar spent.

This means the Capital One Ventures card gives you a better chance of amassing a higher number of points.

Depending on your spending habits, the wider variety of point accumulation with Capital One may outweigh Chase’s more favorable point transfer ratio to JetBlue. When selecting a credit card, it’s important to view the entire picture instead of one single perk that a card may offer.

Value of JetBlue Points

There are a few ways to make the most of your JetBlue Points. One option is to simply purchase a JetBlue ticket using your Capital One Venture card and use the Capital One points towards that purchase – instead of transferring Capital One points to JetBlue TrueBlue points.

Say you wanted to fly from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Boston’s Logan International Airport. A direct round-trip flight could cost about $166 plus another $41 in taxes and fees for a total of roughly $207. If you pay for the flight using the Capital One Venture card, you could cover this $207 cost by redeeming 20,700 Capital One Venture points.

This is known as the eraser function. You can use Capital One points to literally erase this JetBlue expense from your credit card statement. Simply head to the rewards point section in your Capital One portal and select the purchase on your credit card statement. The system will take care of the rest.

If you were to book this same flight through JetBlue using TrueBlue points, it would cost 13,800 points plus roughly $11 in taxes and fees. To receive 13,800 TrueBlue points, you would need to transfer 18,400 Capital One Venture points. This is with the promotional bonus Capital One is offering — a 2:1.5 ratio.

So in this case, it’s more cost-effective, or should we say points-effective, to transfer the points from Capital One to JetBlue’s TrueBlue program.

But without the bonus, under a 2:1 transfer, you would need to transfer 27,600 Capital One points in order to be awarded the 13,800 TrueBlue points that are needed to purchase the round trip ticket between New York and Boston. That’s more than the 20,700 Capital One points in the initial example.

Bottom Line

To sum up, Capital One is taking an important step by incorporating a major United States carrier into their growing roster of transfer partners. JetBlue is currently undertaking a significant expansion and plans to open up new routes between the United States and Europe. The airline has previously never flown transatlantic routes.

The promotional bonus that runs through May 31 when transferring Capital One points to JetBlue’s TrueBlue program is attractive. However, it makes sense to run the numbers to see if you are better off paying for your JetBlue ticket using your Capital One credit card (and not JetBlue TrueBlue points) and covering that ticket with Capital One miles instead. You may find this route is more cost effective when the JetBlue/Capital One promotional bonus ends.