My husband died with 878,000 Capital One miles. What happened to them?

13.12.2024 - 18:21 / thepointsguy.com

Thomas Barone squirreled away his rewards points for years so he could take his entire family on a luxurious Italian vacation in 2024 using Capital One miles earned with his Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. Sadly, he unexpectedly died before he could fulfill that dream, leaving behind 878,000 Capital One miles.

His wife, Linda Barone, hoped to redeem the points and take the family on that trip in his memory. However, after informing Capital One of her husband's death, she got an unpleasant surprise. The credit card issuer closed his account and explained to Linda that the points were no longer available to her.

When she pursued trying to transfer the points to herself instead, Capital One pointed her to the terms and conditions of its rewards program. That policy states that a member's account will be locked and precluded from any further transactions once the bank is informed of their death.

Multiple attempts to get access to her husband's miles left Linda frustrated and empty-handed, so she gave up.

That is, until she read about another widow's struggle to reclaim lost airline miles left behind by her spouse. TPG came to the rescue in that situation, and Linda hoped we could do the same for her.

But what actually happened to those Capital One miles after Thomas died? That's what TPG aimed to find out.

For years, Linda and Thomas Barone fantasized about the vacation to Italy they wanted to take with their two children.

"We had enough points and the pandemic was over," Barone explained to TPG, saying that 2024 was when the couple had their eye on traveling. "So I think this would have been the time to take that adventure we'd talked about for so long."

In reality, the Barones had long ago accrued enough miles many times over to take that dream vacation. But other things got in the way, and suddenly, without warning, time ran out. Before the couple could begin their planning in earnest, Thomas passed away.

"We thought we had time," Linda sadly told TPG. "It [her husband's death] was so unexpected."

After the initial shock wore off, Barone began the difficult process of getting her husband's estate in order. Within three months of Thomas' death, Linda asked Capital One to make her the primary holder of his Venture X Rewards Credit Card. She had previously been an authorized user on the account.

Much to her surprise, Capital One customer service estate specialists told her the card would need to be canceled. It could not be transferred into Linda's name. Not only that, but the 878,000 reward miles in the account were not hers to claim.

Linda refused to believe that all the miles she and Thomas had so proudly accrued could just evaporate. So, for the next year, she continued to call and email