Tag Archives for capital one.
Last year, when relatively few people were going out, Capital One offered to send cardmembers Michelin-starred dinners. Then over the summer they offered a series of Michelin restaurant experiences worth flying to in San Francisco, Brooklyn, and Northern Virginia.
For the winter they’re back with another three Michelin restaurant experiences as part of their “Capital One x MICHELIN Guide Destination Dinner Series.”
The Points Guy gave out an award for ‘best new credit card of 2021’. I happen to think choosing the new Capital One Venture X is a reasonable pick. But how they dismiss the best competition is interesting.
I had the opportunity to visit the very first Capital One airport lounge at Dallas – Fort Worth on Wednesday, a couple of weeks before opening. This is a great space, really thoughtfully designed with a lot of details built-in. They’ve invested a lot, and what impressed me most was the food which wasn’t just ‘good for an airport lounge’ but genuinely good. I’m hoping it scales and is sustainable, because you’re going to want to check it out.
Capital One made a $170 million investment in Hopper, the online booking service which uses machine learning to guide customers on when it’s the best time to buy a plane ticket. And they’re partnered with Hopper to roll out their new online travel tool which will layer Hopper’s prediction analytics with guarantees for the traveler. They’re offering the most guarantees of any places customers might book online – all while letting them use their points to pay for travel if they wish.
Capital One is discontinuing the highly popular Spark Cash card for new business cardmembers, and instead segmenting their market into two different products. They seem to want to reward high spenders more, while getting out of the financing game for those businesses, and seeking more revolve from lower-spend businesses.
Wow. This is a pretty cool opportunity for those who jump on it. It’s not cheap, price the price is reasonable I think for what you’re likely to get. Capital One is offering a Summer Dining Series with the Michelin Guide at Michelin-starred restaurants in San Francisco, Brooklyn, and Northern Virginia.
Capital One is building out a lounge network. The first lounge will be at Dallas – Fort Worth opening this year. Washington Dulles has been announced for 2022. And now they’ve announced plans for a Denver lounge, as well as two mileage transfer bonus promotions.
Capital One has done more than any other issuer, I think, to improve the benefits across several cards but most especially the Venture card which has a 100,000 mile initial bonus offer right now. On top of other new benefits, Capital One introduced transfer of its miles to several airline programs at the end of 2018.
Now Capital One has introduced new airline transfer partners and improved the rate that mileage transfers to some of those programs, and provided new details on its forthcoming network of airline lounges and new travel booking portal.
The Hopper app is a flight and hotel booking tool that helps you find the best prices, including making predictions about when to buy to get the best deal. Capital One is leading a $170 million funding round for Hopper, and partnering with them to launch a new travel portal for cardmembers.
Here’s what’s wrong with most online booking tools, and how Capital One and Hopper could beat them.
I have to give a lot of credit to Capital One for owning up to this, and in the process teaching me something about their debit cards I didn’t know before.
An African American passenger, checking in for an American Airlines flight at a kiosk in Charlotte, got hit with what they saw on their statement as an ‘African American service charge’ for their checked bags. It was an awkward coincidence involving data matching and good intentions.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
