Update 5/10/24: June and July games have been added! Snag your summer games now. H/T to Thomas in the comments. Remember — there are only 4 cardholder exclusive seats for each game. Many of the highly desirable games will go quickly and then the other tickets are a very poor value.
Update 2/29/24: As pointed out by Chris in the comments, April and May 2024 games are now available. I just now snagged tickets to an afternoon game on Memorial Day weekend. One key thing has changed: In the past, if the cardholder exclusive seats were available, you would only see 4 seats for sale. Now, the cardholder exclusives are mixed in among nosebleed seats that yield terrible value. For instance, see this example from a New York Mets game — you’ll find the carholder exclusive seats, which are in the Delta Club 11 section right near the field, for 5,000 miles per seat listed alongside seats in the 400’s and 500’s sections. You’ll only get 0.6c per point in value toward seats, but Capital One has those Delta Club 11 seats listed at a value of $40 per seat, which is well below the going price for those seats!
You’ll kind of need to know what you’re looking for — 2 or 4 seats for 5,000 miles per seat that are close to the field. Note that these are initially available for every game, but there are only four seats for each game — expect most of the desirable games to get snatched up quickly. In most parks, the seats cost just the 5,000 miles each with no cash outlay at all (I’ve bought tickets for games at both Yankee Stadium and Citi Field in New York as well as tickets to games in Boston, Philadelphia, and Kansas City and only paid 5,000 miles each in those cases). Some parks seem to have a small fee of a couple of dollars, which I assume is some sort of local tax.
More detail within the republished post below.
Capital One Entertainment recently launched and I was lukewarm on it at launch, but if you are a baseball fan you have to check out the tickets they’ve loaded through the end of May. A reader alerted me to the fact that Capital One is selling cardholder exclusive tickets — in many cases fantastic seats near the field / in club level sections — for 5,000 miles per ticket. They appear to be offering 4 tickets per game on these and it is worth a look if you have Capital One miles and an affinity for baseball.
These tickets are a steal as the 5,000-mile seats are awesome in most parks when available. See this post for some examples from my experience at a New York Mets game and some reader input.
Note: Some readers have been a bit confused because Capital One sells cardholder exclusive tickets, which are a great deal and are what this post is mostly about, but when they don’t have the cardholder exclusive tickets available they also sell general secondhand market tickets (which are typically an awful deal). See the heading below “How to find the good Capital One cardholder exclusive tickets” for more.
The Deal
- Capital One Entertainment is offering cardholder exclusive tickets to baseball games in April and May, with four seats available at 5,000 miles per seat (in excellent locations) for most of the games I checked
- Direct link to Capital One Entertainment
Quick Thoughts
Capital One sells sporting event tickets through a partnership with VividSeats. Most tickets yield an awful value of 0.6c per mile. However, Capital One has 4 Cardholder Exclusive tickets to every game that are typically a great value. They also sell seats powered by VividSeats that are an awful value. See the next section of this post for how to tell the difference.
The first game I looked up in New York when these seats launched was about $200 a ticket in the cardholder exclusives section. These are seats that I wouldn’t otherwise consider buying, but at 5,000 miles a seat, I enjoyed the great view shown above (and the Delta Club, where concessions had much shorter lines. We even ran into Mr. Met in the club!).
Cardholder Exclusive Seats are located very close to the field, though it varies a bit from one park to another. For example, Philadelphia has seats 5 rows behind the visiting team’s dugout, which my sister-in-law loved for a Phillies/Mets game as she got to sit right behind her beloved Mets.
I checked a bunch of other teams and they had great seats in many cities for the same 5,000 miles per ticket for up to 4 tickets per game for all of the games loaded through the end of May (the last date I saw available for Mets tickets was June 1st). Again, Capital One has many publicly-available VividSeats options at poorer value — you’re looking for the cardholder exclusive seats.
I have now bought tickets to several games over the past couple of years at 5,000 miles each. The actual “cash value” of the seats depends on the team and game, but a couple of the games I attended had seats in the same section going for north of $200 a seat. I had tickets to a Baltimore Orioles game last year where they have a “crossover jersey” giveaway — it was Baltimore Orioles jerseys in Baltimore Ravens colors. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make that game and so I gave the seats to a friend, but I’d have enjoyed that giveaway! I checked out promo games in several cities. I might have gone for the hogwarts scarves giveaway game at Citi Field, but it’s a 4pm game on a Saturday in April — the weather and timing probably wouldn’t work out for us.
There were no additional fees for any of the tickets I’ve bought (in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Kansas City) beyond the 10K miles for two tickets.
The tickets at Citi Field (where the Mets play) are in the Delta Club section, so you get access to better concessions and the seats are more padded. That type of thing will vary by park.
Right now, April and May 2024 games are available. Each of the past couple of years, Capital One has offered two months at a time and released games in batches. I assume June and July will get released in a month or two.
Personally, I’m not a huge baseball fan, but I enjoy cool experiences and I wouldn’t be very likely to buy tickets so close to the field otherwise, so bought tickets again this time around because it’s a fun experience for a reasonable price.
How to find the good Capital One Cardholder Exclusive tickets
To find tickets, just log in to Capital One Experiences and you’ll find MLB Single Game Tickets under the cardholder exclusives.
This link should take you directly to MLB tickets.
As shown above, Capital One is now mixing the cardholder exclusive seats in with all of the VividSeats tickets. That makes it kind of a pain to find the good seats.
Here’s the simple way to tell the difference: check the sections right next to the field. You’re looking for one that has tickets “From $40” (typically seats in these sections go over over $100 per seat or in cities like New York they would be over $200 per seat). Those cardholder exclusive seats will cost 5,000 miles each and you can only buy in sets of 2 or 4. When you select those seats, you’ll see that they are clearly marked “Cardholder Exclusive Tickets by Capital One” as shown here:
If you select a set of tickets that says “Tickets Powered by VividSeats”, those are not the cardholder exclusives and are offered at poor value! See this example from the next section over from the one shown above — tickets start at $103 and are available for 13,000 miles and are “powered by VividSeats”. Those aren’t the exclusives.
The “value” appears to be the same because Capital One is saying that the cardholder exclusives are “worth” $40 each, but in reality seats in that section would likely sell for north of $100 per ticket just like the nearby sections — Capital One is simply listing a below-face-value price for their cardholder exclusive seats.
When you click through on those seats, you’ll see they are Capital One cardholder exclusives.
The cardholder exclusive tickets have no additional fees — they are 5K miles per ticket, period. I bought tickets to both a Yankees game and a Phillies game (against the Mets) and paid 10K for two tickets to each game.
Again, Capital One also lists tickets in many different sections, those are not cardholder exclusives but are rather a selection of seats powered by VividSeats. The non-exclusive VividSeats tickets are not a good deal. You’ll only get 0.8c per point toward those tickets and there are a lot of add-on fees during the checkout process. Seats shown here are not cardholder exclusives.
Kind of interesting and weird is that Capital One labels the good “exclusive” seats as though they cost $40 even though the exclusives are near the field in otherwise much more expensive sections. Don’t be confused by this — the cardholder exclusives are labeled as $40 tickets, but you can’t actually buy them for $40.
In fact, when you’ve got the cardholder exclusive tickets, you don’t even get the option to use money to buy the seats — you couldn’t buy them for $40 each if you wanted to, it’s 5K miles per ticket during checkout with no option to use fewer miles and no additional fees (and you must buy either 2 or 4 tickets). If you are seeing different numbers of miles or additional fees, you’re not looking at the cardholder exclusive seats.
Also of note is that if you pick a team that isn’t in your local area, you’ll have to type in the city where you want to see them in the “Near” box. For instance, since I’m in New York State, it searched for Chicago Cubs tickets in New York City. I had to type in Chicago, IL to see games at Wrigley Field.
I was really happy to see that Capital One isn’t tacking any fees on during the checkout process — it’s literally just 5,000 miles per ticket (you have to buy tickets in blocks of 2).
Overall, it’s great to see Capital One offer interesting exclusives to cardholders. While baseball isn’t necessarily a direct path to my heart, I could see tickets to certain sold-out events or in great locations like these baseball tickets being an exciting cardholder perk. I thought the Final Four tickets were a cool idea. Offering something similar for other major events could become both a great use of miles and a great perk of being a cardholder.
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We snagged tix to the Mets/Cubs at Wrigley 6/22. I can see they’re section 26 row 9, but am trying to figure out what the seat #’s are. Anyone been to Wrigley using these tix yet that could share that info? I called C1 entertainment line(“Moes Electrical Svc”, the number from the bottom of my confirmation email and he couldn’t tell me. We’re trying to find some other tix for the rest of our group & it’d be nice to know where exactly the seats are! Thanks in advance!
C1 has removed the ability to buy any seats that aren’t Cardholder Exclusives.
Hope they bring it back. I prefer when the good seats are harder to find…
awesome update – got 3 games!
Just bought some for a weekday Dodger game that is an afternoon start. I didn’t realize it when I purchased and I likely won’t be able to attend. I thought it was a night game and pulled the trigger too quickly before they got snapped up. Terms say you can’t sell but has anyone had luck trying to sell these?
Can’t list them for resale on Ticketmaster/StubHub (it blocks you from listing them — I know because I bought tickets to a game that I ended up being unable to attend) and they generally don’t get fulfilled until a few days before the game. That said, the tickets *can* be transferred to someone else. When I couldn’t go to a game, I gave my tickets away to a friend, transferring to them through the MLB Ballpark app — and I’ve also given away a couple of games as gifts like that.
I’ve flipped a bunch of these on Stubhub. You usually get them 2 days or so before the game which is enough time to upload them for the re-sale.
I tried listing on StubHub last year and there was no way to transfer the tickets there — it was like it was blocked for these tickets when they came in. I did try listing them when they came in because I couldn’t make the game, but they wouldn’t upload to StubHub. Weird — maybe I did something wrong?
Prob best to keep some things to ourselves to avoid attracting the wrong crowd… these are already tough to snag as is
Same thing happened to me. Looks like I’m going to try and figure out a way to get these offloaded…
Wondering the same thing as I just learned that I won’t be able to attend a NYM game I purchases for July as I will be away. Strange that there would be conflicting reports on whether or not these can be sold on Stub Hub once the tickets arrive a few days before the game. I suppose I could give them away but would prefer to sell and get my money back.
I just snagged 5th row behind the Yankees dugout against the Phillies in Philly for 5,000 each! Tickets online are going for 275+ each
We got tickets for a family member to see the Phillies and Mets a couple of years ago. She’s a big Mets fan and loved being 5 rows behind the dugout.
Amazing!
This is SO great!
We’re huge fans over here and I was able to secure four tickets on June 14th (Dodgers vs Royals) and four more on July 19th (Dodgers vs Red Sox).
I get to be a hero to my kids…
Nick (and friends)….thank you!!!
so appreciate this – snagged 2 tix for Braves vs. Phillies – woohoo!
Was hoping for the St. Louis series but was driving long distance when this came out. Look like I missed it..been looking every day for it over the last 2 weeks
Well was able to get 4 for Cincinnati series (Monday) – not quite the series I wanted but still happy to get the deal!
I was literally on the plane just before taking off when I checked some emails 9pm last night, scrolled to your post then quickly looked up what’s available for Redsox, only a few games during weekdays against meh teams, but happily grabbed 4 seats while I still had a 5G signal, and yes as I’m traveling I still like to read travel blogs…
Maybe late July they will release the last 2 months of the season?!? they do it in 8 week blocks
Got four seats behind the Dodgers dugout for an away game at the Rockies. Even though the Rockies suck and those seats go for $120 each, I’m getting 2.4 cents per point!
So glad I get all the emails from Frequent Miler. I thought it would be futile trying to get these tickets for Dodger Stadium, but thanks to the email I was able to get some before they sold out.
I don’t see “Single Game MLB Tickets” under C1 Exclusives. Searching by each game and each section – so not worth trying to look for the needles in the haystack.
Snagged all 4 for July 3 at Yankee Stadium! Same day I got last year!
Is it only for a select few teams? There’s no way Miami, Pittsburgh, and a few others would have sold out by now. I see Braves and Red Sox have some, but none showed up for Yankees or some other small market teams
Don’t go by it saying sold out. Just look up the games. I just now looked up the Pirates for Saturday June 8th (80s t-shirt giveaway day). Section is Dugout 10 — all four seats are available for that game. They’re out there!
Interestingly enough, when this was shared on Instagram, I went into CO to try and get tickets for the Mets at the Nationals and nothing was showing for the C1 exclusives for Nationals games. I was disappointed because for the last 2 years I’ve been able to snag tickets. Went in this morning and viola, they Nationals tickets were loaded and only one game was sold out. I was able to get the game I wanted! I checked multiple times last night so I’m wondering if the games don’t all load at the very same time. I checked this morning and Miami and Pittsburgh have games in the system now so check it out now.
PS- we went to see the Mets play at Pittsburgh last year and the seats were great. Close enough that one of the Mets tossed my son a ball!
Weird. See my comment above — though the commenter above me said that there were no Pittsburgh games loaded, I immediately found C1 exclusives for the first Pittsburgh game I tried immediately after his comment — so while he apparently thought those games weren’t loaded yesterday, they were. Weird about the Nationals. After the above comment, I checked multiple teams (including less major markets) and saw tickets for every one I checked. Weird if the Nationals games weren’t there. We had comments yesterday from people who got tickets for Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Rockies, Braves, Reds, and a bunch more I also checked Toronto and Boston and others. Weird if the Nationals tickets got held back!
I did actually get Dodgers Tix for when they play the Pirates before the Yanks series next month. Looks like 3rd row behind visitors (Dodgers) dugout. Maybe I just overlooked it the first time.
Hated missing out on Dodgers at Yankees on June 7, though.
You’re telling me — it was available when I looked at it, but we’re going to be off somewhere international on our Flying by the Seat of our Points challenge that weekend!
Ugh! Do you remember what time you noticed? I had a daily alarm/reminder set for 0900 EDT so I either just dismissed it or they weren’t loaded yet
I didn’t find these available — it was a reader who commented (the email came through at 4:59pm) and I immediately logged in and they did have the Yankees / Dodgers games at that point.
I actually think that they’ve released stuff around mid-day the last few times things got released. The day they had NCAA Final Four tickets I had looked between 10-11am and then someone commented later that afternoon saying that they had seen the Final Four games available around mid-day but when they commented around 3pm, those were sold out. There was another previous release also that I had surmised had been around mid-day. I don’t know if it’s noon or 1pm Eastern or even whether it’s predictable, but I guess you’ll want a twice-daily alarm next time.
Andddddd the Mets home tickets are gone
Sorry, I couldn’t resist Aloha Shirt Giveaway day.
If I get beat by anyone, I’m happy it’s you
I’m not even seeing “sold out” for Mets home games like other teams, though. Are all teams already on sale for June and July?
Yes, they all go on sale at the same time each time. The couple of teams I checked had tickets anyway.
If FM is writing about and you’re in NY, it’s too late
JUNE & JULY ARE UP! Snagged tickets for my wifes bday and 4th of july.
Thank you!
Not all heroes wear capes. Thank you.
Thanks for the comment here! I had checked this morning around the time I published my post about looking for event tickets and baseball wasn’t out, so it must have come out later in the day. Glad you commented!
Thanks Thomas for the June and July update. Thanks Nick for this page as a resource
What time did you see this? I looked about 6pm est and it wasnt up yet.
The comment came in at 4:59pm Eastern. I bought tickets for a game about 10 minutes later and posted this around 5:30pm Eastern.
Been stalking the site for last couple weeks for the June/July drop (got lucky last year and got a game at Yankee stadium). Based on the last drop or last couple years, I know we don’t know what day they’re released, but are these typically released at a certain time of day? Have they sometimes been released mid-day or is it usually first thing in AM on whatever day.
Me too. I’m shocked that they still haven’t appeared.