I spent 64000 points booking a flight from New York to Cincinnati with Qantas points on American Airlines. It may seem like a lot of points to waste for a domestic trip, but I figured it was worth it.
When I was researching, it seemed like it would be cheaper for me to use Capital One points through transfer partners rather than buying a flight directly with cash.
Keep reading to find out my strategy for this trip and detailed research methods. If you’re a beginner to the world of miles and points, you might find it helpful.
IN THIS POST
The Research
When I was preparing for this trip, a friend told me there would be a $75 one-way ticket, which I couldn’t find. United out of Newark Airport was the cheapest choice for the date I chose. However, I would have to pay between $120-$150 to park my car at the airport since I live in New York.
And I was not about to do that.
In my Capital One account, I had 100,000 miles from Venture X’s intro bonus and I intended to use them for an aspirational international trip. I quickly hopped on AwardHacker, and searched how many points it would cost for a round trip. I needed 4 tickets as I was flying with my family.
As you can see, Alaska miles was the cheapest, but it was not a transfer partner. Next, I checked how much it would cost to purchase the ticket directly with American Airlines. Oh boy, that’s a hefty price for 4 tickets.
Let’s get more data to validate the use of points. According to Upgrade Points, Qantas points are worth about 1.4 cents per point in value for economy class redemptions. If I punch in that number to Cash vs. Miles calculator, I get the following results.
I would save $276 on four tickets if I used points. Now, let’s go ahead and book these tickets.
Transferring the Points
Transferring points from Capital One to Qantas’s account was a breeze. The first thing I did was to log onto Capital One’s website and clicked on the “Rewards Miles” tab. Once I was in the Miles/Rewards dashboard, I clicked on the “Convert Rewards” tab. Next, I scrolled down until I saw “Qantas Frequent Flyer” on this page. After that, I clicked on the “Transfer Miles” link.
A pop-up opened where I entered my Qantas membership number and clicked on the Next button. On the following screen, it asked me how many points I wanted to transfer and I entered 64,000 and hit submit. Point transfers usually take a day, so Capital One displayed a message that it might take a day.
The same steps apply to all of Capital One’s transfer partners.
Within a few minutes, I received an email confirming that my miles had been transferred. I am ready to book the flights now.
Booking the Tickets
To start the booking process, I logged in to the Qantas website and specified my travel details. Toogeld the “Use Points” option.
After clicking on Search Flights, I was redirected to a new page where I had to confirm my date again. Once I selected my dates and seat class, it showed I needed 16000 points per passenger for the round trip. It also showed that the flight would be operated by American Airlines.
I confirmed my passenger details and confirmed the booking. I had to pay $44.00 in fees. This will be my first time flying on American Airlines domestically and I’m looking forward to it.
You can use this post as a guide if this is your first time transferring points from Capital One to a partner airline. In addition, this is how you would use Qantas points on American Airlines flights booking.
Featured image via @nonameofficial/ Unsplash
