Because I didn't know you could...

THANKS! This is a easy solution.

I just bought a Canon t3i SLR camera with my Cap1 points. Cashed in 75,000 miles for $750 in Best Buy gift cards. Worked very slick. 3 $250 cards arrived in my mailbox within 10 days and I headed straight to Best Buy.

380,000 Cap1 Points between my wife and me. Combined all into one account. Just used a $500 credit for the romantic night out my wife and I had at the nicest hotel in Portland, ME. Have enough Cap1 points to pay for our entire 8-day all-inclusive vacation (including non-stop flights BOS-CUN on JetBlue) to the Riviera Maya for my family of 4 this October.

$3,800 of bliss paid for by Cap1 and their generous miles match offer :cool:

I still have about 900K points in various FF and Hotel programs for future travel....All thanks to FT!

US miles + MARIN hybrid bicycle
 

used my moms points (yeah..i used her AA miles to get the 100K miles)....to top off my US AIR Miles to 180K miles for myself and my wife........and used the 37K remaining to buy a MARIN bicycle.......the agents are so cool...I just told them im using it for 'travel' and they applied the points towards the bike shop charges.....

You can buy almost ANYTHING using these points.......u just have to call and know what to say to them.

If you decide to cash in your "miles" for a flight or car rental rez. through their travel site be careful of the T&C. A car rental using "miles", through Budget, was a GREAT deal but you are only allowed ONE change (modification or cancellation). They had a mid-SUV for two weeks in Hawaii for only $411, AI. One half everyone else.

From the Cap1 Travel Policies: "Due to program restrictions, reservations booked using rewards can be changed only ONCE. After a reservation booked using rewards is modified once, it CANNOT be changed or cancelled again."


I saw that restriction about only one Change or Cancellation (tho' not sure how something can be cancelled more than once!) -- but it sounds like that applies if paying for the rental/flight with Cap1 miles rather than a credit card.

For that reason and to earn more miles, it makes sense to me to use the Cap1 VISA to pay for the reservation, earning add'l Cap1 miles on the charge, and then pay my VISA bill w/Cap1 miles.

I did cancel a car rental reservation made thru the Cap1 rewards (the great rate went even lower!) and the charge was credited back to my VISA, the add'l points earned on the charge were reversed (as expected) and the points used to pay the charge were not reversed but rather stayed applied to my VISA balance. So it seems to have worked out very well.

How about the CDW on the rental car booked with reward miles?
 

My biggest concern of using reward miles to book rental car is about the CDW coverage that normally provided by CC when using CC to pay FULL rental cost.

To me this benefit is rather important especially when your card provides PRIMARY coverage.

Not sure the cash saving via using reward but losing CDW coverage is worth it because we have to invoke such benefit before - totally due to weather, not any accident - we were hit by hail storm in Yellowstone NP, causing nearly 2500 repair bill which was paid by MC.

I booked a hotel for August through Travelocity using my Cap1 Venture card. I then redeemed my Cap1 miles for it, so the hotel became free after the reimbursement. Now, I need to cancel it. Will Cap1 redeposit the redeemed miles or will I have a credit balance in my account?

I'd be surprised if the CDW coverage offered by a credit card is applicable if the car rental is paid for directly w/Cap1 miles. Another reason to not pay directly w/Cap1 miles but rather use the Cap1 VISA.

But I also wondered if the credit card CDW coverage applies when using a credit card to book the car rental thru the Cap1 Travel partner (Travelocity). The description of the charge on my Cap1 Statement shows CAPITAL ONE CAR RES 800-256-9089 TX rather than the car rental company. I guess this may be the case with any travel agency.

The price difference for a 2 week rental between the Cap1 travel and car rental companies directly is more than enough to cover my deductible -- so it seems like a reasonable risk to me. But I'd be interested to hear if someone knows for certain how the CDW coverage works when not renting directly from the car company.

Question about Perk Central (not sure if this is the best place to put it):

I made a very large purchase on my Venture card using the Perk Central shopping portal. I should earn about 212,000 points for this purchase. However, when I go into "Perk Central Activity," it doesn't show this purchase listed. I just made it on Weds 7/14; do these purchases typically take a few days to show up?? I'm just worried because my click-through doesn't even show up, which on other websites like Ebates et al, it always appears immediately after your click-through.

I have, however, already earned the points for the actual purchase.

Redeemed for a new MacBook Air today. I'd called in advance to be certain I could redeem it as a travel expense. Yes, I will travel with it. Happy use of my first 120,000 points.

Good experience. No fuss at all. Very nice CSR

My bonus points (12 pts per dollar) still haven't posted, and I'm getting nervous because it still doesn't show anything in my Perk Central activity for the last 30 days. Trying to find a customer service link for Perk Central is a nightmare. Anyone know where/how I might be able to email them to find out about my missing points?

Having been successful with 3 c1 cards (one is biz, one personal for self, one personal for wife) and our combined 333,000 miles plus about 150k more we earned and burned, we are now considering canceling one out.

Since coins are no longer an option to earn mega points and we have earned and burned 500k miles but do not see ways to get mega miles in the future, the question is, SHOULD I cancel one out, and if so, when and which one?

-should it be one of the personal or the business card? (both my biz and personal have same CC limit)

-should I wait since no annual fee is due for X months?

-any reason to keep a c1 card open if you have 3 and you now have a total of like 850 points?

Trying to close out some cards here and just wondering if I should include one of these in my 'budget cuts' :D

:)MM

I believe that the business credit cards typically do not show up on your credit report (other than the initial pull for the application). Therefore, if that is true for the C1 business card (I cannot confirm), then closing it out would have the least effect on your credit in terms of average card history, utilization, etc. It's probably not a big deal either way if you have good credit, but at least it gives you a reason to close one and not the other.

The business card is the only one with a tax deductible fee, assuming you have business income to offset the fee.