In a move that could shake up the industry, Capital One announced this week that it was shutting down its legendary Price Predictor tool, an online tool that let you enter a budget and a departure date, and it could tell you a month in advance how much things would cost you. The move could cost the credit card company a lot of money.
After a long, boring wait, a new travel website has been launched by Capital One. It doesn’t have a “Ten Best”, but it does have predictions of current and upcoming hotel prices, and a list of hundreds of other topics.
Capital One has just announced a new travel website that should help travelers find cheap flights, hotels, and car rentals, while offering other information such as price predictions, car rentals, and more. The new website will be made available to current customers of Capital One Card and other Capital One accounts, and will also be made available to customers of Capital One’s credit cards, other Capital One products, and Capital One’s banking product.
CNN —
It’s a terrible sensation when you purchase an airplane ticket just to find out that the price has dropped significantly a week later. We’ve all been in that situation. Capital One is a financial services company based in is a financial services company based in, on the other hand, wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
The credit card company said this week that it would revamp its travel website with new features that will save consumers money when booking flights and provide additional safeguards that aren’t accessible anywhere else. The beta version will be sent out to groups of consumers who have Capital One miles-earning credit cards in the coming weeks.
Capital One is using Hopper’s price prediction technology to tell cardholders when the best time to purchase a ticket is. In addition, the new site will provide cardholders access to a variety of safeguards that will give them peace of mind that they are getting the best deal.
Capital One
Capital One Travel’s new booking platform.
We’re enthusiastic about the potential of the renovated Capital One Travel because of its features. The disclosed features are extensive and involve safeguards at every stage of the booking process, including planning, purchasing, and the days leading up to departure. According to the issuer, the website will contain the following features:
- Price forecasting and price tracking When you input your preferred itinerary, the predictor will show you when the best and worst times to book are. You may then decide whether to purchase or create an alert based on that information to notify you when the fare on your route decreases. Capital One will send you a notice to book your trip if the fare lowers.
- Protection against price drops. If Capital One advises purchasing a flight at the current price and the price decreases after you purchase, you will get a refund of the difference, up to $50.
- Price matching and a best-price guarantee are available. If you discover a cheaper airline, hotel, or rental vehicle within 24 hours of making a reservation with Capital One Travel, the issuer will reimburse the difference. You must discover the lower fare yourself in this instance; Capital One will not notify you if a cheaper alternative is available on another website.
- Any cause for cancellation. You may buy the opportunity to cancel your ticket for any reason for an extra fee — either in cash or Capital One miles — with no questions asked. Without having to submit a claim, you may cancel up to 24 hours before your planned departure and get 80% of the cost of your ticket back.
- The price of flights has been frozen. If you discover a flight but aren’t ready to book it yet, you may pay a charge to freeze the price and purchase it at that price later. Capital One will reimburse the difference if the flight price rises between when you freeze and when you book, but if the price falls, you will pay the new lower price.
In addition to all of these safeguards, the issuer will plant four trees for new reservations made via the Capital One travel website, allowing you to enjoy your trip guilt-free.
While we are excited about the possibilities of the new Capital One Travel, the proof will be in the pudding, as they say. We haven’t been able to test the new features since they aren’t currently available, so we haven’t been able to see how they work in practice (though rest assured, we will as soon as we can).
Furthermore, the service will not be accessible to everyone in the near future. The new benefits will be available to current Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card, Capital One® VentureOne® Rewards Credit Card, Capital One Spark Miles for Business, and Capital One® Walmart RewardsTM Card customers, but not to other Capital One credit cards.
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The Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card is a credit card offered by Capital One.
Even qualified cardholders will not all have access at the same time. Capital One is launching the service in beta mode as it tests and irons out any bugs, so cardholders will be able to sign up in batches over the next several weeks. However, it does not specify which eligible cardholders would have access or when they will have access.
It will also be fascinating to observe how the pricing prediction program performs during the epidemic. Hopper’s data on airfares has historically been among the finest, with the firm claiming 95 percent accuracy in forecasting future travel and hotel costs. The tourism business, like many other industries, has been thrown off by the epidemic. The cost of air travel has risen and fallen dramatically over the last 18 months, and it is expected to do so again as demand changes.
If Hopper is correct in its pricing predictions, it may save Capital One cardholders money – or earn them some additional cash back from Capital One. If it is incorrect in its post-pandemic forecasts, however, some cardholders may have to pay extra for their flying travel. (Of course, if you choose for price freeze protection, it doesn’t matter if the price rises after you purchase.)
Capital One
A look at the flight price prediction system used by Capital One Travel.
Keep in mind that Capital One Venture and VentureOne cardholders get 5 miles for every dollar spent on Capital One Travel hotel and car rental reservations. Unfortunately, the extra miles does not apply to flights booked via the site at the moment, but the issuer says that may change in the future.
Finally, we’re thrilled about the potential of the new Capital One Travel website, and we’re hoping it will deliver on its promises. We’ll dig in as soon as the service is more publicly accessible, and we’ll publish our findings in a comprehensive review here on CNN Underscored.
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While we’re still in the early days of mobile wallet adoption, Capital One’s new mobile app is a step in the right direction. If you’re tired of having to pull out your phone and launch a desktop (and more often than not, mobile-specific) website each time you’re looking to book a flight, look no further.. Read more about where is capital one platinum accepted and let us know what you think.
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