Kent Wang

I have a Capital One card. The problem with redeeming the rewards is described on FatWallet. In short:

"...you will need the expense to be *exactly* a $150 charge (for 15k miles.) Not one cent higher. (Alternatively, $350 works for 35k miles, or anything >= $600 works.) Finding a travel deal costing one of these exact amounts may prove to be more trouble than it's worth! ...

I had 30k Capital One miles. I could have redeemed for a $150 statement credit, but opted instead to redeem for travel as follows: I found a cooperative hotel (which I did stay at in a "weekend getaway") who were helpful in splitting my > $300 bill into three charges:
two separate $150 charges on my Capital One miles card, and a third charge being the remainder amount."

I rarely stay in hotels, airfare being the only travel expense I ever make. Are there any airlines that can do this?

u2fan

Airlines have no problems splitting charges: for example you could put $150 on Cap 1 and the balance on Chase. I am not sure if their system allows $150 on Cap1, another $150 on Cap 1 and the balance on someone else

Kent Wang

I'm fine with charging $150 to the Cap 1 and the rest to another card, but I don't think I've ever seen this option when buying tickets online through airline websites. Which ones let you do this?

cepheid

I'm very curious as to why you want to jump through hoops to find a travel charge worth $150 when you can just take a $150 statement credit... either way, you're saving $150. Aren't they exactly equivalent monetarily, with the latter requiring far less effort?

merrickdb

If I understand the OP, a $150 statement credit is 30K Capital One miles whereas a $150 travel credit is 15K Capital One miles.

I was about to remark on the ridiculous crapload of effort Capital One is requiring the OP to go through to redeem miles when I realized the effort some of us have to go through to redeem regular miles isn't any easier.

Kent Wang

Correct.

cepheid

Ahh. That makes much more sense, then. As to the OP, I don't know of any airline that allows splitting of costs between cards.

jackal

How about booking through a travel agent (the brick-and-mortar kind)? They may have more flexible payment arrangements, especially if they act as an intermediary (they pay the airline directly and charge you separately, versus punching your CC number into the airline CRS and having the airline charge you--having never used a travel agent, I'm not sure how that works).

sbm12

I've never seen it as an option online for airlines but any of them should be able to do it for you on the phone.

u2fan

I really did not catch if you had status and paid ticketing fees and I could have been clearer in my previous post but at a ATO, United can easily do this: all they are doing is splitting a form of payment. Passengers often split payments between a voucher and cc: this is basically the same. I have done it with credit cards.
I am not certain but I would think other carriers, rez agents and travel agents could do the same.

ferrarixp

Yes. For me, AirBerlin and Delta come to mind, as I experienced a similar issue with both airlines when trying to purchase tickets via my debit card.

The representative at Airberlin stated his supervisor/company did not like representatives splitting the charges, as they have had bad experiences. (In my case, I needed to wait about 3 hours for a bank transfer to complete, although they didn't know this.).

The representative at Delta however, was more than happy to split the charge and book my flight.

It occurs to me though: Make sure that Capital One doesn't charge a fee for redemption, because this might throw the charge slightly over $150, even if the airline bills $150. In other words: Airline bills $150, Capital One charges 10% redemption fee, Total: 151.50.

Hope this helps.

Oxb

I have split charges on Expedia in the past.

beckoa

@:-) ...another idea... can you purchase a $150 airline gift card and then use the gift card?

Kent Wang

That just might work! I'll let you know next time I need to buy a flight.