Capital One Spark Miles 200,000 Mile Bonus. How Should You Spend It?

Note: I don’t earn any referral credit on any credit card applications.  I generally only talk about cards that are in my wallet or I’m thinking about adding.

Capital One hasn’t traditionally been a powerhouse when it comes to credit card rewards.  As a small business owner, I’m fortunate to have a decent amount of spending through the business that earns me miles and points.  I’m always thoughtful about where to put that spending.  There’s a chance that I had a Capital One credit card back when I was in college.  Outside of that, I’ve never had one in my wallet.

200,000 “Mile” Sign-Up Bonus

Why did I add the Capital One Spark Miles card recently?  Well, a 200,000 mile sign-up bonus sounded awful compelling.  But, not all miles are created equally.  And, when credit card companies call their currency “miles” when they’re not actually “miles”, it gets really confusing. My father-in-law has some cards that earn a currency called miles.  He doesn’t travel enough to spend a ton of time figuring out the value of those various miles like I do.

In this situation, 200,000 Capital One Spark Miles isn’t really 200,000 airline miles.  But, it’s still a lot.  And, if you can spend $50,000 on a credit card over the course of 6 months (not easy, but easier than you think for a small business), this sign-up bonus may be worth it for you.

Since all of your spending on the card earns at least 2 Spark Miles per dollar, you’ll have at least 300,000 Spark Miles if you hit the sign-up bonus (100,000 Spark Miles from $50,000 in spending and 200,000 Spark Miles for the sign-up bonus).  

Capital One Transfer Partners

Late 2018, Capital One announced that they would add airline transfer partners to their list of benefits.  For folks like me who love to travel internationally, that was music to my ears.  However, until the sign-up bonus jumped up again to 200,000 miles, these cards were off my radar.  

Here’s a list of Capital One airline partners and the transfer ratios:

I’ll admit, I didn’t have much of a plan beyond signing up for the card and putting a bunch of spending on it that wouldn’t otherwise earn me a bonus somewhere else.  I didn’t have a solid plan for the best way to use the points, or if I would keep spending on the card long-term.  So, I called on a friend who’s a bit more of an expert on Spark Miles than I am. 

Richard Kerr is an editor for The Points Guy and an all-around smart miles and points nerd.  I met up with him in Las Vegas recently to get his opinion on Capital One’s transfer partners.  I hope you enjoy the video:

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