Capital One transfers to Virgin miles will receive a 30% bonus during the month of March. This applies to transfers for Venture X, Venture, VentureOne, Venture X Business and Spark Miles cardholders.

Sadly this comes just after the 30% discount for booking Virgin Airlines travel, so isn’t stackable.

However Chase, Capital One, Citibank, American Express and Bilt points all transfer to Virgin so it’s easy to use this bonus and then top off from other accounts if you need to. This offer overlaps a similar 30% bonus on Citi transfers to Virgin which runs through March 18.

Capital One miles now transfer 1:1 to:

• Star Alliance: Air Canada Aeroplan, Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles, Avianca LifeMiles, TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go
  
• oneworld: British Airways Executive Club, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Finnair Plus, Qantas Frequent Flyer
  
• SkyTeam: Air France KLM Flying Blue, Aeromexico Club Premier
  
• Non-alliance: Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Virgin Red
  
• Hotels: Wyndham Rewards, Choice Privileges

Capital One miles also transfer at 2-to-1.5 into EVA Air Infinity MileageLands. And they transfer 2-to-1 into ALL Accor Live Limitless.

Normally my preference for best transfer partners includes Aeroplan (for most Star Alliance); Turkish (huge value but annoying to deal with); Singapore (for Singapore’s own flights); Cathay Pacific (for lower surcharges on BA awards); Air France KLM (as the only decent loyalty program in SkyTeam, and decent availability on Air France).

However there are some great opportunities with the Virgin program, including redeeming for travel in business class on Delta for a fraction of the miles that Delta SkyMiles charges, plus:

• The single best use of Virgin Atlantic miles is business and first class redemptions on Japanese carrier ANA. It’s so good I expect this will not last, presumably once their current contract is up.
  • 90,000 miles for business class West Coast – Japan, or 95,000 miles from the Midwest and East Coast. This is roundtrip. And when there are fuel surcharges on Japan routes they are de minimis.

  • 110,000 miles for first class West Coast – Japan, or 120,000 miles from the Midwest and East Coast. This is roundrip. And when there are fuel surcharges on Japan routes they are de minimis.

• Air New Zealand is 62,500 miles in business class between the U.S. and New Zealand. You’ll almost never find award space, but when you do this is a great value.

• Intra-Asia business class on Singapore Airlines. They didn’t used to allow one-way bookings on Singapore, but now that they do that’s really helpful. Long haul business class award space is not available to Virgin’s program. But one-way prices intra-Asia are decent, for instance:
  • 17,500 miles Singapore – Indonesia
    
  • 20,000 miles Singapore – Thailand
    
  • 35,000 miles Singapore – Beijing, Shanghai (50,000 for first class)

Bear in mind also that Virgin Atlantic gives elite status miles for award trips on their own flights. However Virgin’s status isn’t worth much by U.S. standards, and since you’re paying exorbitant fuel surcharges their awards are like a paid ticket anyway. It’s a way to fly business class for the price of non-discounted coach and still earn qualifying miles…

You can spend points with Air France and KLM as well, but fuel surcharges make this not a great deal much of the time, although it can be nice for intra-European travel.