Last year was a game-changer for Capital One miles transfer partners. The bank started off 2021 with a rather modest transferable points program; at the time, most Capital One transfer partners yielded 1.5 airline miles for every 2 Capital One miles transferred.

However, by the end of 2021, the Capital One program became a major contender by adding four new transfer partners and improving the transfer rates for 13 existing partners. Cardholders of eligible Capital One cards can now transfer Capital One Rewards miles to 15 airline and hotel loyalty programs at a 1:1 transfer rate. Only two partners remain at less than a 1:1 transfer ratio.

Here's a look at Capital One's standout year and what you can now book using Capital One Venture transfer partners.

Improvements to the Capital One transfer program in 2021

Most major transfer point programs don't change much year to year. At best, a program may add one or two new transfer partners. For example, in 2021, Chase partnered with Air Canada Aeroplan; Citi added Wyndham Rewards and Choice Privileges.

Comparatively, Capital One made massive improvements to its transfer point program in 2021. Here's how the changes rolled out.

Spring improvements

In April 2021, Capital One announced four new transfer partners and improved the transfer ratios on seven existing partners.

Capital One's four newly announced transfer partners were:

British Airways Executive Club - initially at a 4:3 transfer ratio.

Choice Privileges - 1:1 transfer ratio, although point transfers weren't available until early 2022.

TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go - 1:1 transfer ratio.

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles - initially at a 4:3 transfer ratio.

Seven existing transfer partners were improved from a 4:3 transfer ratio to a 1:1 transfer ratio. The list includes Aeromexico Club Premier, Avianca LifeMiles, Etihad Guest, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Finnair Plus, Qantas Frequent Flyer and hotel program Wyndham Rewards.

Fall improvements

Then, in October 2021, Capital One enhanced its transfer partner program once again. This time, Capital One improved the transfer ratio to 1:1 for six programs:

Air Canada Aeroplan.

Air France/KLM Flying Blue.

British Airways Executive Club.

Emirates Skywards.

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer.

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles.

Before this change, Capital One miles transferred to Emirates Skywards and Singapore KrisFlyer at a 2:1 rate. So this improvement effectively doubled the number of airline miles you'd get for the same Capital One miles transfer.

The other four airlines were previously 4:3 transfer partners, so transfers to each of these programs improved 33%.

That may not seem like much, but it means the difference between using 60,000 Capital One miles for a business class award to Europe to now using 45,000 Capital One miles for the same award. More about this sweet spot later on.

Other partnership changes

Capital One announced in April 2021 that Choice Privileges would become a transfer partner. However, Choice wasn't actually added as a transfer partner until early January 2022.

Unfortunately, there wasn't all good news for Capital One Rewards in 2021. After Oct. 24, 2021, Capital One Rewards dropped JetBlue TrueBlue as a transfer partner. Capital One didn't explain why this partnership ended, but it means that Capital One lost its only U.S.-based airline loyalty program.

In addition, Capital One dropped Alitalia MilleMiglia. This one was a lot more understandable considering Alitalia technically ceased to exist as an airline in 2021.

Capital One transfer partners and rates

After all of the recent changes, Capital One Venture transfer partners now include 17 airline and hotel loyalty programs. Of those 17, miles now transfer to 15 partners at a 1:1 ratio.

Full list of Capital One transfer partners

Airlines

Aeromexico (1:1 ratio).

Air Canada (1:1 ratio).

Air France-KLM (1:1 ratio).

Avianca (1:1 ratio).

British Airways (1:1 ratio).

Cathay Pacific (1:1 ratio).

Emirates (1:1 ratio).

Etihad (1:1 ratio).

EVA (2:1.5 ratio).

Finnair (1:1 ratio).

Qantas (1:1 ratio).

Singapore Airlines (1:1 ratio).

TAP Air Portugal (1:1 ratio).

Turkish Airlines (1:1 ratio).

Hotels

Accor (2:1 ratio).

Choice Privileges Hotels (1:1 ratio).

Wyndham Rewards (1:1 ratio).

Capital One transfers must be made in increments of 1,000 miles. Unfortunately, this means you can't top off an airline and hotel loyalty program account with just a few hundred miles or points.

What you can now do with Capital One miles

It can be hard to appreciate the difference between 2:1 or 4:3 transfer rates and the improved 1:1 transfer rates. So let's take a look at some examples to see how much better these rates make the Capital One Rewards program.

Emirates Skywards to Europe

One of the cheapest business class awards to Europe is using 90,000 Emirates Skywards miles to book a round-trip in Emirates business class. When Capital One miles transferred to Emirates Skywards at a 2:1, you'd need to transfer 180,000 Capital One miles to book this award.

Now that Emirates is a 1:1 transfer partner, you only need to transfer 90,000 Capital One miles to Emirates Skywards to book this incredible sweet spot:

Singapore Airlines

Singapore KrisFlyer is another transfer partner whose transfer rate doubled during 2021. This effectively cut in half the number of Capital One miles that you need to transfer to Singapore.