Capital One No Hassle Rewards Catalog
The main Capital One Rewards program is called No Hassle Rewards. This is to indicate that unlike other programs theirs is easy. Is it? Yes, depending on who you compare it to of course.
Compared to airline rewards credit cards and the Capital One Rewards for travel, the NoHassle Miles program is easier. The best part about the program is the ability to actually book your travel using your rewards miles (points) by yourself online. If you login to the NoHassle Rewards site, one of the options is book my travel online. This is wonderful if you are booking only rewards tickets. It has some hang ups if not. For example, on my last trip, I cashed in enough miles to get my ticket, but I had to buy my wife’s ticket. By calling an using a live human being, they were able to buy both tickets for me at the same time ensuring that we get to set together on the plane. With the online system, you need to buy your (or your spouse’s) ticket first, and then go back and buy the other ticket. This makes it harder to get seats together particularly if you happen to be booking one of the increasing number of flights that does not allow you to choose your own seat (see agent at gate for seat assignment). Airlines know that people who bought their tickets together want to sit together. If you buy your ticket on one transaction and your companion’s on another even if they are just minutes apart, you can end up in seat 12A while they end up in seat 22E. So, keep that in mind when using the program.
With no further ado, here is the relevant Capital One No Hassle Rewards reward structure:
Travel
Instead of points per miles, the Capital One program works via points per dollar. This is great if you are hunting down a cheap fare (probably because you are paying out of pocket for companion tickets). Another card that uses miles instead of dollars might be more advantageous when you are flying short but expensive routes like New York to Washington, D.C.
| Cost of Ticket | Number of Points |
| < $150.00 | 15,000 |
| $150.01 to $350.00 | 35,000 |
| $350.01 to $600.00 | 60,000 |
| > $600.01 | Cost x 100 |
As you can see there is some analysis to be done here. If your ticket is barely in the next tier ($373.00 for example) you can be wasting a lot of points, so make sure and do your homework first.
Gift Cards
This program is TERRIBLE for gift cards. The going rate is 200 miles per dollar instead of the common 100 miles per dollar at better programs. So a $50 gift card will cost you 10,000 miles! Yikes. This is not the program for you if you like to use gift cards. They do have plenty of good cards availible, it is just that the conversion rate is so bad.
Retailers of note available:
- Amazon
- Best Buy
- Home Depot
- Lowe’s
- Toys R Us / Babies R Us
- Pier 1
- Lands’ End
- Eddie Bauer
- Macy’s
- Barnes & Noble
- Bath & Body Works
- Gap
- Sears
- Linens & Things
- JCPenny
- Pottery Barn
- L.L. Bean
- Foot Locker
Cash / Statement Credit
The Capital One No Hassle Miles program does have the option to get cash either in the form of a check or a statement credit. Either way, the going rate is 200 miles per dollar, so a $100 check or statement credit will cost you 20,000 miles.
Summary
| Reward | Miles Per Dollar | Rating |
| Travel | 100 * | Good |
| Gift Cards | 200 | Poor |
| Cash / Statement Credit | 200 | Average |
* See tiers above for actual cost below $600.
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26 Comments
November 15th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
What is the Reservation Rewards charge on my bill? Is there a minimum amount of charges I must make each month?
November 21st, 2008 at 10:17 am
Mary,
I’ve never seen a Reservation Rewards charge and the term does not appear in my Agreement. Check your cards’ account agreement and see if you can find the term. If not, call Capital One and ask what the charge is and what it is for. If it doesn’t sound right, ask them to show you where in the account agreement such a charge is authorized.
November 26th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I attempted to obtain the capitalone.com/RewardsCatalog as instructed on your flyer enclosed with my statement. Your website is too confusing and I think it stinks. How can I log on to the rewards catalog to see what is available??????
for my points????????
November 26th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
What credit card would you advise for gift cards?
December 1st, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Is the Rewards catalog from Capitol One on-line so that I can order from it? If so, could you send me the link?
January 15th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
[...] Holiday Specials Good Until January 31 Jan.15, 2009 in Credit Cards Got an email from the Capital One No Hassle Miles Rewards program. They are extending the specials in the Capital One Rewards Catalog Holiday 2008 edition [...]
January 27th, 2009 at 3:04 am
Hi,
The Reservation Rewards program is fun and easy to use. With Reservations Rewards, you can save money while shopping, enjoying attractions and dining out. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks
Sofia.
September 1st, 2009 at 8:07 pm
I have not been able to retrieve a Rewards Catalog from your website. Could you please just e-mail the the appropriate link or e-mail me the catalog directly?
September 9th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
if i have an airline ticket for $510 and i have 73,000 miles on my account can i use my miles. i spoke to someone today and was told that the second “tier” was up to 500 and for a ticket between 500 and 600 it would take another 25,000 miles over the 50,000 i have. is that true? how do i notify the company i want to use my miles to pay for the ticket?
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I came online to find out more info on an item in your catalog hello where’s the link and if I can’t find a link how can I get any merchandise and is it what you advertise..prices are a little high but I’ve got lots of credits..get it together
November 30th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Edie,
Please follow one of the links to Capital One’s website. This is a personal finance website that analyzes credit card rewards programs (among other things) including the Capital One Rewards program. We do not have any official relationship with Capital One or the No Hassle Miles Program.
Thanks,
Finance Gourmet
January 10th, 2010 at 11:35 pm
Interesting and informative. I would often visit this site.
March 23rd, 2010 at 10:22 am
I have this card. It’s true…the conversion rate is terrible. I have had the card for almost 3 years now and I haven’t and cannot use my points for anything.
March 24th, 2010 at 10:37 am
Stella,
If that is the case, you might want to look around at other good rewards credit cards and see if there is one that fist you better. Unfortunately, the new credit card law has issuers running scared and they are cutting back on programs until they know how the bottom line is going to look. However, there still might be a better one out there for you.
In the meantime, consider redeeming your points for a statement credit or cash back. Yeah, the conversion is bad, but its better than just letting a bunch of points sit on a card doing nothing. Once you’ve used up all your points, pay off the card and throw it in your safe or lockbox. Then start using your new card that has better reward points for you.
March 30th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
What constitutes a “ticket”?
Let’s say I fly from NY to Florida round trip with one stop each way. Is this One ticket, two tickets, or (unlikely) 4 tickets?
Fred
March 31st, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Since Capital One has switched to rewards based on the price of the fare, it really just depends on what kind of trip you book. If you booked a round trip ticket then that ticket would cost a certain number of miles based on the total fare. You could theoretically redeem two rewards for two one-way tickets if you so chose. Occasionally, this can actually be cheaper, but thanks to automation and computers, it is not nearly as common as it once was, unless you change airports or something of that nature.
In any context, stops never count as a separate ticket or separate fare. Traditionally, they are known as segments. A segment is each time a plane takes off and lands. Pricing is never done on segments for points or cash payment.
April 13th, 2010 at 9:04 am
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May 24th, 2010 at 8:26 am
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June 6th, 2010 at 9:53 am
HER IS MY QUESTION LETS USE THE 350.00 THRESHOLD FOR EXAMPLE. IF A TICKET IS 149.00 PLUS TAXES AND FEES IS THE REDEMPTION COST FALL UNDER UP TO 150.00 OR DOES IT ROLL OVER TO 150.00 TO 350.00. ALSO SHOULD A ROUND TRIP LETS SAY IS 149.00 ONE WAY AND 179.OO RETURN CALL YOU USE POINTS FOR THE 149.00 WHILE SELF PAYING FOR THE 179.00 FOR A MOR EFFICIENT USE OF POINTS THNX
June 8th, 2010 at 10:48 am
Total ticket price including taxes and fees is used (so don’t pre-pay your baggage fees). In your example, that is the 150-350 category. Your second question depends on whether or not you can get both the 149 and 179 price as one-way tickets, because you would have to split them up that way. In other words, you can’t book a round-trip ticket but only use miles for the $149 part.
July 16th, 2010 at 11:56 am
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July 19th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
I purchased 2 ticket for a total cost of $352.40 each. I did not fully understand the redemption process and thought I could choose how many miles I wanted to use. I have a little over 70,000 miles and thought that I would be covered. Unfortunately, I need to use 60,000 for each ticket because I am over the threshold for 35,000 miles by $2.39. Has anyone successfully negotiated with Capitalone to work around this and be allowed to used the lower amount of miles and pay cash for the balance?
July 19th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
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July 19th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Yikes! Good question. One would think that good customer service would dictate that they would work with you on this. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the credit card company’s strong suit these days. Still, for what you are talking about, I think that they might be willing to work with you especially if you are a card holder in good standing and have a solid payment track record. Unfortunately, I have never actually heard of anyone doing this. Typically, it’s something you hope to catch up front
Please come back and let us know how it works out.
July 19th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
Thank you so much for your response. I am a long time customer and in very good standing. I pay my card off on time every month. I did speak to a supervisor and was told that there was absolutely nothing they could do. To make a customer unhappy over $4.78 seems silly to me. Customer service doesn’t really seem to be a priority with them. I contacted the airline and asked if I could go to a ticket counter and have them refund and the let me re purchase the tickets and pay the amount over $350.00 in cash so that only that amount would show on my credit card and they said they had to mechanism to split a payment like that. That seemed kind of odd to me in that Trader Joe’s does that all the time as well as Target and other establishments I frequent. The airline did tell me to check back 7 days prior to my travel date and if the fare has gone down, they will refund me the difference. If in fact the fare does go down, it will be interesting to see how Capital One handles that in that the refund will show up on a different month than when I purchased the tickets. Thanks again. Sharon
July 19th, 2010 at 9:24 pm
That is too bad that they wouldn’t work with you on that at all. I agree that it is not in the company’s best long-term interest to put a customer out like that over less than $5, although technically from their point of view, it is a lot more since you have used up those miles. Even so, that is very short-term thinking and it will cost them in the long run. Customers are not going to be as interested in every credit card offer that comes their way anymore, so finding new card holders won’t be so easy and loyal customers will be at a premium. Too bad for Capital One that you won’t be one of theirs.