Capital One Miles are flexible currency earned with multiple Capital One credit cards, and Capital One’s program is similar to other banks’ flexible currency programs, such as American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards. A big advantage of flexible currency is that it provides multiple redemption options to cardholders.

One of the best ways to use flexible rewards is to transfer them to airline or hotel partners.

Capital One—like American Express, Chase and Citi—issues credit cards that offer either cash back or flexible currency rewards.

Capital One’s flexible currency, referred to as miles, can be used in different ways, such as buying gift cards, reimbursing previous travel purchases, purchasing travel through Capital One's travel booking site or transferring miles to partners.

Let’s look at Capital One’s flexible currency and ways to use it.

Capital One Miles

For many people in the points and miles community, Capital One Miles have become more relevant and valuable in recent years as Capital One improved its rewards program.

All information about the American Express® Green Card and the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by MileValue.

Given generous welcome bonuses and valuable benefits associated with premium credit cards, these cards have become increasingly popular with points and miles enthusiasts. 

It’s not unusual in our community for an individual or household to have credit cards with annual fees totaling over $1,000 (and sometimes significantly more). That’s not bad if you have the disposable income and realize more benefits from your credit cards than the annual fees.

While most of us don’t like paying taxes, the silver lining is that paying taxes through credit cards that earn rewards—in the form of cash back, points or miles—can be profitable compared to paying taxes from bank accounts using checks or electronic payments. Despite the processing fees associated with paying taxes with credit cards, the value of the rewards earned often exceeds the fees.

Tax Payment Basics

Before getting into the details of earning points and miles by paying taxes with credit cards, let’s review some basics about paying taxes, specifically individual (personal), federal income taxes.

American Airlines currently isn’t a transfer partner with any of the major flexible currency programs, so unless you collect AAdvantage miles or transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to the AAdvantage program at a 3:1 ratio, you need to use other loyalty programs to book American Airlines flights using points.

If you have Ultimate Rewards points—the flexible currency earned through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program—or other flexible currency, it’s possible to use these points to book American Airlines flights.

There are two basic ways you can book American Airlines flights using Ultimate Rewards points:

Through Chase Travel℠, which functions like a

Hyatt hotels and the World of Hyatt loyalty program are favorites among many travelers and points and miles enthusiasts.

One factor that differentiates the World of Hyatt program is that it’s the only major United States-based hotel loyalty program that assigns properties into categories and has award charts with fixed rates based on hotel category, room type and date.

ThankYou® Points are the currency of the Citi ThankYou® Rewards program, which is one of the major flexible rewards programs in the United States. With the Citi ThankYou® Rewards program, cardholders can use points in several ways, such as redeeming for cash back or statement credits, making purchases at select retailers, buying gift cards, booking travel through Citi Travel℠ or transferring points to partner loyalty programs.

The primary way to earn ThankYou® Points is through welcome bonuses and spending on select Citi credit cards.

Note: All information about the American Express® Green Card, Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card and The Amex EveryDay® Card has been collected independently by MileValue.

American Airlines currently isn’t a transfer partner with any of the major flexible currency programs, so unless you collect AAdvantage miles or transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to American Airlines at a 3:1 ratio, you need to use other programs to book American Airlines flights with points.

If you have Membership Rewards points—the flexible currency earned through the American Express Membership Rewards program—or other flexible currency, it’s possible to use these points to book

Whether you’re just getting started earning points and miles or are looking for opportunities to earn more flexible currency, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card are valuable credit cards that you might want to add to your wallet.

Similarities between the two cards include:

Both cards earn flexible currency that can be transferred to airline and hotel partners and used in other ways, including cash back and gift card redemptions.

Both cards have a $95 annual fee.

Neither card has foreign transaction fees, making the cards good choices for international use.

These credit cards

Editor's note: In late October 2024, Finnair dramatically increased award prices for flights within the continental U.S. and Canada. Economy award rates increased from 11,000 Avios to 16,500 Avios, and first-class rates increased from 30,000 Avios to 40,000 Avios.