Domestic sweet spots with points

Goooooooood morning, beautiful people.

I have a SUPER fun, super useful newsletter for you today. And I worked really hard on it, so I hope you enjoy.

Here it is:

• 🌎 How I booked a $30,000 trip with points

• ✈️ How to book domestic flights with Capital One miles

• 🚗 Delta/Uber stacking opportunity

🌎 How I booked a $30,000 trip with points

So I did a thing the other day…

I sat down and booked a $30,000 trip around the world using points and miles, which will take me to places like London, New York City, India, Tanzania, Scandinavia, and more.

The trip includes dozens of nights in luxury hotels, along with ONLY business-class flights, including:

• Air India’s new business suites

• Air France’s business suites

• British Airways business suites

• Qatar Airways “Qsuites lite”

• Finnair business class

• Singapore Airlines business class

I used some pretty unique points and miles tricks, transfers, credits, free night awards, and more – so I think there’s a little something for everyone to learn.

Check out the full article I wrote that breaks down the whole trip in detail:

✈️ How to book domestic flights with Capital One miles

Okay, so here’s the weird truth:

Capital One doesn’t directly partner with the big U.S. airlines. And at first glance, that seems like a deal-breaker if you care about domestic flights.

But – and this is where it gets fun – Capital One is a transfer partner of a whole bunch of foreign loyalty programs.

If you play your cards right (pun VERY intended), you can use those programs to book domestic U.S. flights for fewer miles and better value.

Getting Capital One miles is easy right now

And just to zoom out for a second…

This whole conversation matters a lot right now because the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is offering 100,000 bonus miles after spending $10,000 in the first six months.

Factor in the points you earn on that spend, and you’re walking away with at least 120,000 miles to play with.

That’s a massive head start if you want to book domestic flights through these partner sweet spots.

How it works

Capital One lets you transfer miles from your card to 20+ airline and hotel loyalty programs — mostly at a 1:1 ratio.

Once your points are in those programs, you can book flights on U.S. carriers.

That means you get the flexibility of a transferable currency plus the coverage of major U.S. airlines — without needing direct Capital One/U.S. airline ties.

Here are some of the best domestic redemption options:

1. Etihad Guest for JetBlue or American Airlines

Capital One transfers to Etihad at 1:1. Etihad’s distance-based award chart  can make short-haul U.S. flights go for as little as 6,000 Etihad miles on both American Airlines and JetBlue:

Boom, domestic for cheap. With the Venture X welcome offer, you could book TWENTY short hops like this.

2. Avianca LifeMiles or Air Canada Aeroplan for United Airlines

Capital One transfers 1:1 to both Avianca LifeMiles and Aeroplan. 

That gets you access to United Airlines award seats via the Star Alliance network, even though Capital One doesn’t directly transfer to United.

Short-haul flights will run you 10,000 Avianca LifeMiles (sometimes even less), where flights from the West Coast to Hawaii can run as few as 12,500 Aeroplan points.

Either way, you’re almost guaranteed to get these flights for fewer overall miles than what United itself would charge.

3. Avios for Alaska Airlines

That’s right – you can use Avios (the points program for British Airways, Qatar, and more) to book Alaska Airlines flights, giving you access to yet another beloved U.S. airline.

For example, short-haul flights can cost fewer than 10,000 Avios one way in economy, or 20,000 in business. 👇

This is not as good a deal as using Atmos Rewards points, but Atmos only transfers from Bilt Rewards, so it’s not normally an accessible option anyway.

Plus, Capital One often has transfer bonuses to British Airways, making this deal even better if you get the timing right.

4. Air France-KLM Flying Blue for Delta flights

This is one of my favorites…

KLM/Air France Flying Blue – another 1:1 transfer partner of Capital One – lets you book Delta flights for as few as 5,000 miles one-way in economy, or 15,000 in business. 👇

That is a deal and a half, especially considering Capital One also offers semi-regular transfer bonuses to Flying Blue.

Longer flights will cost more, but this method is still a fantastic option if you’re a Delta loyalist.

The Venture X welcome offer alone could book you as many as 24 short Delta flights like this… not bad for a single credit card, eh?

5. Or just skip transfers completely and redeem for cash value

If you don’t want the hassle of search-and-transfer games, Capital One miles can be redeemed for travel at a fixed 1 cent per mile, which actually makes sense if you’re booking a cheap cash flight on an airline like Spirit or Frontier.

For example, this flight from Denver to Las Vegas costs $29.

You could simply use your Capital One card to purchase the flight, then use 2,900 miles to offset the purchase – no additional taxes and fees required.

Why this is the move

Many airlines (especially U.S. airlines) price their flights dynamically when using their own points programs.

With partner programs, you get access to fixed-price award charts. 

So even if Capital One did have U.S. airlines as partners, it often makes more sense to book through the programs I talked about today.

What to watch out for

• Award availability: partner programs have fewer seats or dynamic pricing on some routes (especially in premium cabins), so you might need flexibility.

• Transfer time: some transfers are instant, many happen quickly, but a few may take 24–36 hours. Don’t wait until the last minute to transfer (speaking from experience 😅).

The bottom line

Capital One, despite not having many domestic transfer partners, is actually a great program for booking domestic flights. You just need to know where to look. 😉

Don’t forget about the 100k offer on the Venture X either. As you have seen, this single card offer could book you well over a dozen domestic flights.

🚗 Delta/Uber stacking opportunity

Speaking of Delta… A not life-changing (but still valuable) little deal has just popped up for Delta loyalists.

Here’s the gist:

If you buy $300 in Delta gift cards, you get a $25 Uber voucher.

That’s it. That’s the whole deal. No puzzles, no hoops, no “call your cousin in Iowa to transfer points at midnight under a full moon.” Just a straight $25 ride credit.

If you fly Delta even once a year, you will almost definitely spend $300 with them at some point. Prepaying isn’t glamorous, but a free airport Uber is a free airport Uber.

But wait…

Some people (myself included) have been targeted for an offer to earn up to 5x bonus miles on Delta gift cards when you use a Delta co-branded card.

Since you can stack these two offers, here’s what the winnings look like:

• Spend $300

• Earn up to 1,500 bonus Delta SkyMiles from the merchant offer

• Get a free $25 Uber voucher

• And keep the $300 Delta balance for future flights

If you know you’ll spend money with Delta anyway, this is basically paying yourself in advance and getting rewarded for it.

The Uber credit alone is almost like getting 8% back, before counting the miles from the merchant offer.

The Delta gift card promo runs until January 5th, 2026 (or until 50,000 people grab it). So that part isn’t panicky… yet.

But my merchant offer expires in three days, so I’d hop on this sooner rather than later.

So yeah. Not a headline-shaking deal. But still cool.

That’s it, amigos! I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into booking domestic flights for less, and make sure you tune in tomorrow to finish off the week.

Love you,

6.9175° S, 107.6191° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt