Even though I don t like capital one points, I still think using points on car rentals is a bad valu

I first read about cheap car rentals via Capital One on Rapid Travel Chai .  In my experience, rentals weren t always cheaper on the Capital One travel portal, but they were sometimes cheaper than the Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi Thank You portals.
The BIG advantage of the Capital One No Hassle Rewards travel portal is that you can book one-way car rentals (where you rent the car in one city, but drop it off in another boston cheap hotels city) and pick-ups boston cheap hotels at non-airport locations.  You can t book these type of rentals with Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi Thank You points.
You can also pay with any credit card , so you could use a non-Capital-One boston cheap hotels credit boston cheap hotels card to pay for the rental if it has primary car insurance.  But you need a Capital One travel rewards credit card or a checking account to access the portal.  There is also NO cancellation fee if you cancel a booking made with a credit card , though there is no refund if you don t pick up the rental and don t cancel beforehand.
In my tests for the rental car series post, the Capital One portal wasn t as low as the Chase Ultimate Rewards or Citi Thank You portal, but I ve seen the Capital One portal with occasionally lower rates than elsewhere.  But the rates were still cheaper than Hotwire or Costco Travel!
You need a Capital One checking account or credit card which earns No Hassle Rewards points to access the travel portal. boston cheap hotels Cards which earn cash rewards points may have access to different cash rates.
This link to CreditCards.com has 2 Capital One cards , one with an annual fee and one without an annual fee.  Note that the cards have only a 10,000 point sign up bonus and that Capital One usually pulls your credit from all 3 credit bureaus.
My oldest credit card is a no-fee Capital One credit card which I got in college with a $200 limit, which was enough for breadsticks at the Pizza Express across form my dorm.  I gradually increased the credit line and financed my 1st car using a 0% APR offer (a 6 year old Ford Escort) in my junior year when I needed a car for an internship.  And I probably used the card for a few dates with Emily!
The credit card prices were the same regardless of accessing the portal with a Capital One Venture card or a regular no-fee Capital One Platinum card which both earned No Hassle Rewards.   The points rates varies depending on which card I used to log into the portal, but the credit card rate was the same.
[Note that price comparisons between rental agencies were made on the same day, but posted later.  The credit card prices were the same regardless of accessing the portal with a Capital One Venture card or a regular no-fee Capital One Platinum card which both earned "No Hassle Rewards."  The points rates varies depending on which card you have.]
However, if you make a booking using Capital One rewards points , you can only make ONE change, so you re better off cancelling the reservation and making another reservation so that you don t lose flexibility if you need to cancel in the future.
No monetary refund will be given for cancellation of a reservation booked using rewards. An equivalent amount of Rewards, minus any cancellation or change fees, will be credited back to your Rewards account boston cheap hotels if changes to your rewards reservation result in a refund.
I haven’t made enough reservations to see if I can add an airline or car rental frequent traveler number and earn miles/points for the reservation.  I suspect that I won’t be able to earn miles/points for the reservation.
However, you can sometimes earn airline miles for short reservations, like say this offer for 1,500 US Air miles for a 2 day or longer rental (targeted to US Air Preferred boston cheap hotels members, but works for most). boston cheap hotels In some cases, particularly for short rentals, it make sense to forgo the lower credit card price from the Capital One portal and earn miles for the rental.  But do the math for yourself!
I’m also not sure if you can add your rental car number to the reservation so that you can skip checking in at the rental car counter and go straight to the car.  I tried calling boston cheap hotels Avis to add my number to a reservation, but was told I couldn’t do it because the rate would increase if they associated my Avis number with the reservation.
The Capital One portal is not always boston cheap hotels the cheapest, but it is worth checking if you have access to the Capital One portal.  And it is definitely worth checking out if you re looking for 1-way rentals or non-airport locations.
In my experience, the Chase Ultimate Rewards Citi Thank You portal often have the lowest price on car rentals.  But sometimes boston cheap hotels the Capital One No Hassle Rewards portal has better rates so it doesn t hurt to check!  And especially for 1-way and non-airport boston cheap hotels location rentals since the Chase and Citi portals don t have this option.
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The cash rate shown on the Capital boston cheap hotels One portal apparently varies depending boston cheap hotels on what kind of credit card you have. I have the Capital One Venture One card and when I access the portal, the points are based on 100 points per dollar, so if the rate is $192.46 the points needed will be 19,246.
Even though I don t like capital one points, boston cheap hotels I still think using points on car rentals is a bad value. It is so easy to get a cheap rental car I never think it is worth the points. I interested to see where you comparisons lead, but so far I haven t seen anything that beats Priceline s name your own price.
@Alfred E. Neuman I logged in using a no-fee and an annual fee card and the cash rate was the same, but the points rate changed. But there are lots of different Capital boston cheap hotels One cards available, so this could be ymmv.
Just curious if anyone has use the travel portal and booked a vehicle for a family member rather than yourself? We are traveling with extended family and looks like these are the best rates. I d like to book a vehicle for ourselves and one for my in-laws but hope I can book theirs in their name to avoid paying the additional driver fees.
Just wanted to say thanks for this! I was able to save HUNDREDS of dollars on a one-way through the Capital One site for a trip next month. I booked this rental several months ago but just today decided to see if I could add my Dollar Express number to the reservation. boston cheap hotels I called Dollar and they said I would need to call Capital One. I spoke with a wonderful agent at Capital One she put me on hold and came back and told me she was able to add our Express number! So, no waiting in line for us! She did say that some agencies will allow it and others won t. She was going to start making a list for herself as she is asked this often and couldn t remember which ones would do it.
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