How to Use Capital One Spark Miles

Capital One made headlines last year by offering a welcome bonus of up to 200,000 miles for its Capital One Spark Miles for Business credit card. The current welcome bonus is not nearly as generous: Earn a one-time bonus of 50,000 miles – equal to $500 in travel – once you spend $4,500 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening.

But no matter how you start earning Capital One Spark Miles, when it’s time to redeem them, you’ll find that this popular rewards currency offers value and versatility.

» Learn more: Capital One Spark Miles review

Ways to use Capital One Spark Miles

There are many options to redeem rewards. You can:

• Transfer rewards.

• Book a trip.

• Get gift cards.

• Redeem for cash.

• Shop with rewards.

• Share rewards.

Transfer rewards

For most travel partners, 1,000 Capital One Spark Miles translate to 1,000 miles or points in the partner program, including:

• Aeromexico.

• Air Canada.

• Air France/KLM.

• Avianca.

• British Airways.

• Cathay Pacific.

• Choice Hotels.

• Emirates.

• Etihad.

• Finnair.

• Qantas.

• Singapore.

• TAP Air Portugal.

• Turkish Airlines.

• Wyndham.

EVA Air has a less-favorable 2:1.5 ratio and ALL - Accor Live Limitless is even worse at 2:1.

» Learn more: The best Capital One transfer partners — and ones to avoid

Book a trip

You can use Capital One Spark Miles to pay for trips booked through Capital One Travel at a value of 1 cent per mile. This option is particularly useful for cardholders who would like to apply their points to fly on an airline or stay at a hotel that isn’t a Capital One transfer partner (such as Delta or Hilton), and it's also useful if you can’t find award availability with a transfer partner.

Another soon-to-be-launched perk is the Cancel For Any Reason insurance coverage you'll get on all flights booked through the Capital One Travel portal. For a small upfront fee, you can cancel your flight up to 24 hours before departure for any reason at all and be refunded most of your fare.

Get gift cards

You can redeem Capital One Spark Miles for gift cards at a value of 0.8 cent per mile. There are a wide variety of gift card partners including Uber, Walmart, Amazon, American Airlines and Best Buy.

» Learn more: How to purchase theme park tickets with points

Redeem for cash

You can redeem them for cash by having the miles applied to your credit card bill or by having a check sent to you. You’ll get a value of 0.5 cent per mile using this redemption, so we recommend using another option that offers more value for your miles.

Shop with rewards

Capital One recently made it possible to redeem Capital One Spark Miles for purchases on Amazon.com You’ll receive a redemption value of 0.8 cent per mile using this option.

Share your rewards

Capital One cardholders can transfer points between accounts. This is helpful if you’re trying to pool points for a larger redemption or if you want to combine your Capital One Venture Miles and Spark Miles. Transferred miles can even make a great gift.

» Learn more: A guide to travel credit cards for beginners

If you want to use Capital One Spark Miles ...

There are a number of great ways to use your Capital One Spark Miles. Although the best way to maximize the value of miles is to transfer them to one of Capital One’s travel partners, you can still get good value by redeeming points directly for travel, shopping or gift cards.