Chase Ultimate Rewards Points or Capital One Mile: Which camp are you in? Each transferable currency offers a wide range of transfer partners and impressive travel portal rates, thus providing great value.
Competition is close, according to TPG’s September 2025 valuation, with Chase Ultimate Rewards points worth 2.05 cents and capital of 1.85 cents.
Travel reward credit cards associated with each currency are equally impressive. Although I’m leaning towards chasing as a ten-year client, Capital One and its rewards program are everything I can’t ignore lately.
Let’s check their differences in detail to help you determine which currency is the best for you.
Comparison of the Capital Mile vs. Chase Ultimate Reward Points
| Capital One | Chase | |
|---|---|---|
| Bonus Earning Category* |
Choose Capital One Travel Buy: Up to 10 miles per dollar All other purchases: Up to 2 miles per dollar |
Chase Travel℠Purchase: Up to 8 points per dollar
Direct airline and hotel purchase: Up to 4 points per dollar All other trips: Up to 3 points per dollar Dining: Up to 3 points per dollar Online grocery store purchase: Up to 3 points per dollar Lyft: Up to 5 points per dollar (as of September 30, 2027) Select business expenses: Up to 3 points per dollar Select Stream Service: Up to 3 points per dollar |
| Travel portal redemption | 1 cent per mile | Up to 2 cents per point |
| Number of cards to earn transferable rewards | seven | Four |
| Transfer Partners | More than 15 | 14 (reduced to 13 on October 16) |
*Selecting a category may be subject to a spending cap, depending on the card. Check out your card’s benefits guide for more information.
Which currency is the best transfer partner?
One mile in the capital
One mile transfer to over 15 airlines and hotel plans. Unfortunately, not all transfers are at a 1:1 ratio.
Current Capital One Airline transfer partners include:
Capital One’s hotel transfer partners include:
Reward your inbox with TPG Daily Newsletter
Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG experts
Chase the ultimate reward
Chase Ultimate Rewards Point Transfer 1:1 to 11 Airline Plan:
Chase also partnered with three hotel plans at a 1:1 ratio.
You must determine which issuers’ plans are appealing to you based on your travel habits and your favorite airline or hotel loyalty programs.
While Capital One may have more transfer partners, some loyalty programs, such as Aerome tocixo Rewards and Eva Air Infinity Mileagelands, are harder to use.
Chase and Capital One, on the other hand, have some overlapping partners, which means you can’t go wrong if you’re one of the shared programs.
For example, if you fly United Airlines frequently, you can transfer any currency to Air Canada and book a United flight. However, Manchester United’s own Mileage Poole plan has only partners that work with Chase instead of Capital One. As a result, United Loyalists may prefer to win the Chase Ultimate Reward Points.
Some of my favorite loyalty programs among the two issuers include Air Canada, France-KLM Flight Blue, JetBlue TrueBlue and Singapore Airlines Krisflyer.
Chase is a clear winner for fans of big hotel brands, especially among Hyatt’s transfer partners, with impressive awards and growing portfolio. With partners like Select Privileges and Wyndham Rewards and like their Dessert Redemption, the Cards from Capital Onier-Miles-Miles-Miles are very useful for budget travelers.
TPG chief writer Katie Genter prefers to redeem her Wyndham points for a price of 7,500 (although she paid only 6,750 after the Wyndham licensee discount). She recently redeemed 6,750 minutes a night to deliver to Tryp at Wyndham Sao Paulo Paulista Paraiso in Brazil and Ramada Encore at Wyndham Busan Station in South Korea.
Now that we have broken down each issuer’s transfer partner, it’s time to see which currencies have the most compelling welcome quotes.
Related: How to redeem the biggest reward point for chasing the greatest value
Which currency has the best welcome offer?
One mile in the capital
Capital One offers many credit cards, but only the following earn bonus miles as part of a popular quote:
- Capital One Venture X Business: Earn 150,000 miles after spending $30,000 in the first three months after opening.
- Capital One Venture X Reward Credit Card: Earn 75,000 miles from the first three months of account opening after spending $4,000 in the first three months of purchase.
- Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card: Spend $4,000 in the first three months of opening an account and earned a bonus of 75,000 miles.
- Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card: Get a $100 Capital One Travel purchase credit for your first cardholder year. Plus, spend $500 within three months of opening to earn a bonus of 20,000 miles.
- Capital One Spark Miles for Business: Spend $4,500 in the first three months of opening an account and earn 50,000 bonus miles.
Capital One VentureOne rewards a good credit reward of a mile, but unfortunately, the new cardholder does not offer a welcome offer to the new cardholder.
Despite the high quotes for these welcomes, no one else except Venture X Business should break the typical 100,000-point reward threshold we have seen with other issuers lately.
Related: The best time to apply for a credit card for these popular capitals based on quote history
Chase the ultimate reward
Chase has four cards to earn transferable ultimate reward points, all with generous welcome bonuses:
The preferred information for ink business is collected independently by partners. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Your chances of approval depend on Chase’s 5/24 rule. If you are planning to apply for multiple cards, consider applying for a chase card first. Chase has historically offered higher welcome quotes more often than Capital One, an attractive option for those who want to earn a large number of final reward points.
Related: Chase Credit Cards: The best time to apply based on quote history
Which currency has the best bonus category?
Getting a welcome bonus is great, but how do you earn money for the long term. The easier you can get rewards, the more useful the program becomes. Here are the highlights of the bonus category you can find in each issuer:
If you have a one mile card that can transfer capital, you can convert cash from other cards to transferable miles. This is useful because it allows you to earn more bonus categories.
For example, if you also have a Capital One Exavor Cash Rewards credit card, you can get cash in the following other categories:
- Earn 8% cash on Capital One Entertainment purchase
- Earn 3% cash on catering, entertainment, grocery stores (excluding supermarkets like Walmart® and Target®) and popular streaming services
If you pair Chase’s Qualified Cash Card with the Ultimate Rewards Points Card, you can convert the cash rewards from that card into the final rewards points.
Excellent options for chasing cash cards that can enjoy this benefit include Chase for Freedom® (See rates and fees), Chase FreedomFlex® (See rates and fees) and Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (See rates and fees).
Related: Comparison of flat interest rates with bonus category cash backpack credit cards
Which currency has the best redemption option?
Transferring to a partner airline or hotel program is the key to earning a mile and chasing the greatest value of the final reward points.
By transferring my Chase Ultimate Rewards to the airline and booking business-grade flights, I can get up to 11 cents.
If transfer rewards feel like too much work, both issuers offer other redemption methods. Unfortunately, these other options have less value.
One mile in the capital
Redeem one mile at the following prices:
- Capital One’s travel booking site: 1 cent per mile
- Gift Card: 1 cent per mile
- Buy on Amazon or PayPal: 0.8 cents per mile
- Cash Back: 0.5 cents per mile
Designed to transfer miles to partners for best value; otherwise, the second best redemption option is to book a trip through Capital One’s travel booking website. Other redemption options are useful for some cardholders, but you abandon your hard-earned mileage at a sluggish pace.
TPG credit card writer Chris Nelson recently chose cash back with a statement credit of a Capital One card to help offset the travel expenses he incurred.
Chase the Ultimate Reward Points
Chase’s redemption choice is more profitable than Capital One’s redemption choice. In addition to redeeming gift cards, declaring credits or retailers like Apple, you can also redeeming points for a Chase Travel reservation.
The point lift feature on the featured card allows cardholders to redeem 2 cents per point through selected airlines and hotels via Chase Travel.
Qualified cards include:
| card | Value for existing cardholders applying before June 23 | Value of cardholder applied on or after June 23 |
|---|---|---|
| Sapphire Conservation Area
Commercial sapphire reserves |
Points Improvement: Selected airlines have up to 2 cents on hotels and flights
All other Chase Travel purchased 1.5 cents per point (points obtained by October 26, 2025 and redeemed to October 26, 2027, then 1% per point) |
Points Improvement: Selected airlines have up to 2 cents on hotels and flights
Other qualified chase tours buy 1 cent per point |
| Sapphire prefers
Ink business priority |
Point enhancement: Selected hotels up to 1.5 cents per point, up to 1.75 cents on selected airline flights
All other chase tours purchased 1.25 cents per point (points obtained by October 26, 2025 and redeemed to October 26, 2027 and then redeemed to 1 cent) |
Point enhancement: On the flight of the selected airline, up to 1.5 cents per point and up to 1.75 cents per point
Other qualified chase tours buy 1 cent per point |
Not all airlines are eligible for points, and cardholders of either sapphire reserve card can redeem 2 cents of Chase Ultimate Rewards points in all edits at Chase Travel Properties.
I recently redeemed 27,077 points and stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel Cairo in Plaza Nile for two nights, which gave me a huge value for the most important property.
If you are considering redemption outside the transfer point, the chase card is the obvious winner.
Related: Chase Boosts Sapphire Reserve Hotel Terks has new and improved credit
Bottom line
No issuer’s reward plan goes wrong. Both issuers offer travel cards of all levels to suit everyone’s needs, from infrequent travelers to global jets.
A mile is easy to get a mile as their card offers a simple money-making rate, including fan favorites that spend 2 miles on all non-Bonus spending.
In addition to transferring to airlines and hotel partners, Chase Ultimate Rewards also offers powerful redemption options through Chase Travel.
No matter which program you invest in, consider how to maximize the bonus category to earn faster and determine which transfer partner is best for your needs.
Ultimately, you can always open a card with two transferable currencies.
Related: AMEX Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards Points: Which is the best?
