It’s more than just the inability to transfer Capital One points to airline and hotel partners over the last week that is the problem…it’s Capital One’s utter failure to communicate what is going on to the consumers it says that it values.
Capital One Transfer Problem Reflects Very Poorly On Capital One
One week ago, on September 23, 2022, all point transfers to air and hotel partners suddenly become “unavailable.” When you logged into your account, every partner was “down for Maintenance,” with cardholders told to “please check back later.”
And for a day, maybe even two or three, this would have been acceptable, albeit not ideal.
But here we are a week later and the problem still has not been resolved and Capital One has remained tight-lipped about what is going on. This shows no respect to its clients; quite the opposite, it shows disdain.
Yesterday, Capital One finally released a one-sentence statement on the matter after being contacted by Live and Let’s Fly and many others from the media.
“We are currently making system improvements to some of our rewards platforms, and because of that they are temporarily offline.”
No further details were offered on background and no follow-up questions were answered.
I know many readers have been frustrated to be unable to book trips due to this “maintenance” issue and now we really have to wonder what is going on.
Hacking? Data breach? Ransomware? An entire backend collapse that could not be reversed? Such speculation is not helpful, but it is natural when the company has remained so tight-lipped. It would not surprise me if the Capital One legal team is trying to prevent the dissemination of information that may remotely open the company to liability.
Even if the ability to transfer points is turned back on before this story goes live (I wrote it last night), I’m still deeply disappointed at the way in which CapitalOne handled this.
CONCLUSION
At least as of press time, the Capital One transfer problem remains. As each day goes by, the problem becomes more concerning, not just relating to the ability to use miles, but from a communication perspective. Capital One must do a better job of communicating what is going on, even if the news is grim.
Maybe too many points transfers for September budgeting and just waiting for the next month?
Not just end of month but end of quarter – could even be the end of their fiscal year. That could explain their reticence to say much of anything.
Geez, one sentence after a week and media inquiries?
Matthew, did the statement even include the perfunctory introduction of “We apologize for the inconvenience, but….?”
Nope.
When you lie down with dogs, expect to get fleas. This is not a top-level company, as evidenced by this behavior.
Still no lounge at IAD 1.5 years after the announcement. At least there is some activity in the space now.
Looks like the Delta One Lounge at JFK (announced today) will open before the Capital One IAD Lounge announced on April 19, 2021.
Unacceptable. Makes this retired IT auditor wonder about the reliability and hardiness of their banking system.
Never trusted Capital One.
Don’t worry. The U.S. Congress will protect you.
Too bad… I was planning a complete shift from Amex and Chase to Capital One as annual fees rolled in. I’m glad I learned in time that I can’t count on CapOne transfers happening promptly when I see a unicorn. This means no matter how attractive the headline offers, their miles are not as good as their competitors’. I guess I stay with Chase and Amex.
I would continue to diversify.
Willing to bet that a minor patch/update/upgrade caused some major issues and now they’re scrambling to undo the damage.
If there was a real, substantive improvement, they would have sent out a notice that the system was not available for X time period. They probably thought it was some minor thing that didn’t require notification, and then afterwards, found out there were far more problems. IT probably is running around with their heads cut off, while not able to give definitive time frame to get this fixed.
I am experiencing the same silly thing. Upon calling in the Customer security representative seemed more confused than me
Too bad, because I’ve had the card since the beginning of 2022 and it had been flawless thus far. Now, I was going to transfer the points for a trip… and I suddenly can’t do it. This is a big problem, and the company’s failure to explain the situation is unacceptable. It’s all too bad because the card had been nothing but a pleasure to use thus far.
This extended and unexplained inability to access Capital One Rewards points (for 9 days now) is costing Capital One Venture card holders real money. It going to cost me over $3000. I have over 220,000 points and have been trying to book 3 nonstop round trip flights on Virgin Atlantic to London next March since September 23. All I needed was $1300 + 90,000 rewards points for all three flights. Booking through Capital One (or with the airline without the points) would cost me over $1400 per ticket (totaling around $4300). I was not able to access the 90,000 points and get them transferred to Virgin Red, and on Sept 30 the $1300 + 90,000 point fare is no longer available so I will likely end up paying over $4000 for these flights. I called Capital One every day, and I asked for some manual workaround to an electronic reward transfer (which must exist) but no one can help or knows anything.
This is going on again, exactly one year later.
More details please. Sorry to hear! I will investigate.
Same issue now (noticed yesterday, November 30, 2023); not sure if ongoing since September 29, 2023. I might miss a great deal on a flight to Europe because of the inability to transfer points. Completely unacceptable and very frustrating.