No Hassle Miles Ultra Mastercard from Capital One Review

Start of a great era for travel rewards - When Capital One first introduced the Go Miles, they introduced a new way to redeem reward points for travel. Previously, you had to book your travel with the credit card's reward program and it came with a bunch of restrictions. The Go Miles card liberated consumers as they could now use whichever travel agent they chose (online or offline). When the Go Miles was introduced, they also introduced another card called the Go Miles Ultra, which had a slightly higher fee. They justified it by letting cardholders earn double miles on travel expenses but for only one year. I slammed the card for this because after one year, you were back to earning single miles but having to pay a higher annual fee.

Both the Go Miles and Go Miles Ultra were discontinued eventually. The Go Miles was replaced by an even better card called the No Hassle Miles which had no annual fee and allowed you to earn 1.25 miles per dollar. The Go Miles Ultra was replaced by this card. And this card is a definite improvement over the old Go Miles Ultra.

Improvements in No Hassle Miles Ultra - Here are the improvements in this card over the old Go Miles Ultra. Firstly, cardholders earn two miles for each dollar spent on all purchases. Miles never expire, and there is no limit to the amount of miles that you can earn. Plus, miles are redeemable on any airline, anytime, with no blackout dates or seat restrictions. The price for the ability to earn double miles was an annual fee of $39. Cardholders are also eligible to receive exclusive savings: up to 40% on featured deals and 10% on everything else on Capital One® Saving ZoneSM on Yahoo!Shopping.

Aside from using your "miles" for travel, Capital One also developed the No Hassle Miles reward program that had merchandise and gift card rewards. In that sense, this card was an all-round rewards card which allowed you to effectively earn 2% back.

Back to the future - When this card was introduced, there wasn't any card that was really like that. Hence comparisons are hard to make. But Discover eventually introduced the Escape Card which was really identical to this card. It was the higher end version of the Mile Card. Like this card, the Discover Escape also allowed to earn "double miles" for every dollar that you spent on the card. And like Cap One, you could book your travel items with anyone you choose.

Perhaps the only other card that gave this card a run for the money was the Citi PremierPass Elite Card only because you could also earn points based on the miles you fly and not just from the amount you spend on the card.


Great Card - Paving the way for the Venture Rewards - The Capital One No Hassle Miles Ultra was a great card when it was around because along with the Discover Escape, was one of two cards that allowed you to earn double miles for every dollar that you spent on the card. Furthermore, back then, the flexibility of the rewards program for travel redemption was a novelty. This cards will be eventually discontinued and be rebranded with the Venture One Rewards (which really had the same features as this card).