When booking a trip on Capital One Travel, Capital One gives you the option to redeem your miles for one penny per point towards the travel purchase.

But here is why you should not use your miles but rather swipe your card.

Why lose up to 10X miles when using your card?

With the card_name, you earn:

• 10x miles on hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One Travel,
• 5x miles on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel,
• And unlimited 2x miles on all purchases.

With the card_name, you earn:

• Unlimited 5 miles on hotels, vacation rentals, and car rentals booked through Capital One Travel,
• And unlimited 2 miles on all purchases.

With the card_name, you earn:

• Unlimited 5 miles on hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One Travel,
• And unlimited 1.25 miles on all purchases.

With the card_name, you earn:

• 10 miles on hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One Travel,
• 5 miles on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel,
• And unlimited 2 miles on all purchases.

So why lose all those extra miles? Think of it as another 10% off your hotel stay with the Venture X,  etc.

But I do want to use miles because I don't want to pay

That’s the point I’m trying to get too.

You don’t need to pay with miles on the Capital One Travel portal in order to pay with miles. Rather, you can book the hotel using your credit card and later go and offset the travel charge with your milesfor the same 1 penny value. 

So, booking directly with points is basically just throwing out so many extra miles that you could have earned by first charging it to your Capital One credit card.