Capital One® offers four cards earning Capital One Miles: Spark Miles for Business, Spark Miles Select for Business, Venture® Rewards, and VentureOne® Rewards.
See our best credit card bonuses here.
Every so often, one of these cards would offer a limited-time 200,000-mile welcome bonus. We want to examine what is the best way you can take advantage of these generous bonuses when it becomes available. Find out below.
Capital One also offers great sign-up bonuses for their Checking/Savings accounts.
| Personal credit cards | Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card Capital One® VentureOne® Rewards Credit Card |
| Business credit cards | Capital One Spark Miles for Business Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business |
| Redemption Options | Travel purchases via Capital One Travel statement credits Gift cards Transfers to airline partners |
| Average Mile Value | $0.014 |
Earning Capital One Miles
As mentioned before, Capital One offers four cards that earn Capital One miles. Spark cards are geared toward small businesses, while Venture cards are for personal use.
CAPITAL ONE® VENTURE® REWARDS CREDIT CARD
The Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card currently earns 100,000 bonus miles when you spend $20,000 on purchases in the first 12 months from account opening. Or if are unable to meet the $20k spending requirement, you can still earn 50,000 bonus miles for spending $3,000 in the first 3 months. These bonus miles are equal to $1000 or $500, respectively, in travel and are easy to redeem as a statement credit towards the cost of your travel purchases. Take advantage of Capital One’s travel partners and these up to 100k miles can be worth around $1400 in value.
This card will earn an ongoing 2 miles for every dollar you spend on all purchases. 100 miles is equal to $1 in travel rewards. If you don’t redeem towards travel purchases, your miles will have less value.
The annual fee is $95.
CAPITAL ONE® VENTUREONE® REWARDS CREDIT CARD
The Capital One® VentureOne® Rewards Credit Card has an offer for 20,000 bonus miles after you spend $500 on purchases within 3 months. We value these 20k bonus miles at around $280.
This card has no annual fee. The annual fee version of this card is the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card, with better features.
The VentureOne Rewards card offers unlimited 1.25X miles on all purchases. You can redeem for statement credits for travel and gift cards. Another option is to transfer miles to airline partners. Read more on this here.
CAPITAL ONE SPARK MILES FOR BUSINESS
The Capital One Spark Miles for Business card offers a 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
Earn 5X miles on hotel and rental car bookings through Capital One TravelSM using this card. Capital One has 10+ transfer partners, potentially making your miles worth even more. Using the strategy of transferring your miles to these travel partners, we estimate 50k miles to be worth around $700.
This card earns unlimited 2X miles all purchases. Another benefit is one credit, up to $100, for a Global Entry or TSA Pre✓ application fee.
The annual fee is waived for the first year and is $95 after that.
CAPITAL ONE SPARK MILES SELECT FOR BUSINESS
The Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business has an offer for 20,000 bonus miles when you spend $3,000 within the first 3 months. We value these 20k miles to be worth around $280 when you use Capital One’s transfer partners.
This card earns 1.5 miles per $1 on all purchases.
Earn 5X miles on hotel and rental car bookings through Capital One TravelSM using this card. You can get more flexibility with your miles with Capital One’s 10+ transfer partners. Read more about this here.
Pay no annual fee or foreign transaction fees with this card.
There are plenty of other ways to earn Capital One miles. For more details, click here.
Redeeming Capital One Miles
The value of your Capital One miles varies and depends on how you use them:
| Redeem For… | Value Per Mile | 200k-Mile Value |
| Travel booked via Capital One | $0.01 | $2,000 |
| Travel statement credits | $0.01 | $2,000 |
| Gift cards | $0.01 | $2,000 |
| Cash back | $0.005 | $1,000 |
| Transfers to airline partners | $0.014* | $2,800* |
*More or less.
The easiest option is to redeem for travel statement credits. With “Purchase Eraser,” you’ll get a flat rate of $0.01 per mile, and you don’t have to worry about any blackout dates. Please note, only travel spending in the previous 90 days qualify for statement credit.
The worst way to use your miles is for cash back in the form of account credits or checks by mail. We recommend avoiding this option because it will devalue your miles by an average 50%.
But if you want the best value for your miles, transfer them to a partner airline and take the time to strategize your award travel. If you put in the legwork to search through booking scenarios with different airlines, you could get great value for your Capital One miles.
Capital One partner airlines include:
Best Ways to Redeem 200k Capital One Miles
If you want the most value for your Capital One miles, transfer them to an airline partner. Most convert at a 2:1.5 ratio (except Emirates, JetBlue and Singapore Airlines). That means with 200,000 Capital One miles in your account, you’ll get 150,000 miles from most partner frequent flyer programs.
Please note, we collected the information below from independent sources and while it is accurate at the time of publishing, it is subject to change without notice.
Without further ado, here are our favorite ways to spend 200k Capital One miles (150k airline miles):
Within Air Canada Aeroplan, certain partner airlines offer award tickets with little to no fuel surcharges. You’ll be able to find great deals with low fees, like:
But you might also come across award tickets with high fees, like:
To avoid high fees, book with the following partner airlines:
- Aegean Airlines
- Air China
- Air India
- Air New Zealand
- Avianca
- Brussels Airlines
- Copa Airlines
- Croatia Airlines
- EgyptAir
- Ethiopian Airlines
- EVA Air
- SAS
If you travel between two continents, Aeroplan allows either two stopovers or one stopover and one open jaw at the country of origin or destination. This means you can go on a low-key “round-the-world” itinerary for the cost of just one roundtrip award. For example:
Because Avianca does not pass on fuel surcharges for any partner airline, you can book a Lufthansa first-class, one-way award from the United States to Europe for just 87,000 miles and only $5.60 in fees.
Other notable sweet spots include:
| Route | Class | Mileage |
| United States to the Middle East | One Way | Business | 78,000 |
| United States to North Asia | One Way | First | 90,000 |
| United States to Brazil | Roundtrip | Business | 100,000 |
| United States to Other S. American Countries | Roundtrip | Business | 120,000 |
| United States to Europe | Roundtrip | Business | 126,000 |
Dig deep underneath its complex rules, and you’ll find that Cathay Pacific Asia Miles offers incredible award opportunities. Keep in mind:
- You’re allowed 1 stopover on one-way standard awards (except Air China and Iberia).
- You’re allowed 2 stopovers and 1 open jaw on roundtrip standard awards.
- You’re allowed 5 stopovers and 2 open jaws on Oneworld awards.
- You save several hundred of dollars in fuel surcharges for British Airways-operated award flights.
Here’s what we recommend:
| Route | Class | Mileage |
| United States to Oceania (stopover in Asia) | One Way | Business | 85,000 |
| United States to Europe (stopover in Asia) | One Way | Business | 85,000 |
| United States to Europe (stopover in Australia) | One Way | Business | 90,000 |
| United States (West Coast) to Australia | Roundtrip | Business | 150,000 |
| United States to the Middle East | Roundtrip | Business | 150,000 |
| United States to Asia | Roundtrip | First | 150,000 |
Etihad’s award chart for travel on American Airlines is, in general, much better than AA’s own award chart. The following are all great deals:
| Route | Class | Mileage |
| United States to Europe | Roundtrip | First | 125,000 |
| United States to Asia 1 | Roundtrip (Japan/Korea/Mongolia) | First | 125,000 |
| United States to Asia 2 | Roundtrip (China/Thailand/Singapore/etc.) | First | 135,000 |
| United States to the South Pacific | Roundtrip (Australia/New Zealand/Fiji/etc.) | First | 135,000 |
Bottom Line
Each Capital One mile is easily worth $0.01. Simply use the Purchase Eraser for your travel expenses within the last 90 days. You’ll get one cent per mile every single time with no blackout dates to worry about.
But if you’re looking for the most valuable redemption, transfer your miles to a partner frequent flyer program. This option is much more complicated, but you can get an average of $0.014 each mile this way.
READ MORE: SEE THE BEST BANK BONUSES HERE AND THE BEST INVESTING BONUSES HERE.
