Spark Miles Value Calculator: How Much Are They Worth?

How to earn Spark miles

Capital One Spark miles can be earned through welcome bonuses and everyday spending across Spark Rewards credit cards. These cards are a great fit for any business looking to earn flexible rewards at a flat rate across all purchases.

You can earn Spark miles using the following credit cards:

Credit Card	Highlights	Annual Fee
Capital One Spark Miles for Business Card Best Business Card For Unlimited 2X Miles Card Value & Miles Calculator	Intro Bonus: 50,000 Bonus Miles Earn unlimited 2X miles on every card purchase Up to $100 towards a Global Entry or TSA Precheck application fee	$0 the first year, then $95
Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business Card Best For 1.5X Miles At No Annual Fee Card Value & Rewards Calculator	Intro Bonus: 20,000 miles Earn unlimited 1.5X miles on every card purchase No annual fee	$0

Spark miles value

Spark miles have a base value of 1 cent per mile when redeemed for travel through Capital One. That's the easiest value you can obtain without any effort.

Redeeming Spark miles for travel

Spark miles will have a value of 1 cent each when redeemed towards travel through Capital One and as much as 2 cents in value when transferring to airline and hotel partners.

Capital One Travel Portal

Spark miles can be redeemed for flights, car rentals, and hotel reservations at a fixed value of 1 cent per mile through Capital One Travel. This means that $100 in travel booked through the portal would cost you 10,000 Spark miles.

Redeem Miles Towards Purchases

Spark Miles can be used to wipe away recent travel purchases made to a Spark Rewards credit card at a value of 1 cent per mile. Eligible purchases include:

• Airlines
• Hotels
• Rail lines
• Car rental agencies
• Limousine services
• Bus lines
• Cruise lines
• Taxi cabs
• Travel agents
• Time shares
• Anything else coded as travel by the merchant

While redeeming your Spark miles using this method will give you the same value as redeeming them directly through the Capital One Travel Portal, this method is typically the better route for several reasons:

You can book direct and still redeem miles

Since you're using your using miles to wipe away travel purchases made to your card, you can book your flight or hotel direct. This will earn you airline miles or hotel rewards points as well as credit towards any kind of status you may have with another loyalty program.

Once your flight, hotel, or other form of eligible travel posts to your account, you can use your Spark miles to wipe out the travel charges at a value of 1 cent per point.

You can earn additional miles

When you use your card to make travel purchases, you'll earn Spark miles. You can then turn around and redeem your miles towards any travel purchases you made.

If you book directly thought Capital One Travel, you will not earn those initial miles you would normally get when booking the travel.

You can use cash back portal to double and triple dip

Cash back and shopping portals allow you to earn additional cash back, points, and miles on top of the rewards you normally earn. It's a great way to rake in additional rewards.

Use cash back portals like Rakuten Rewards to earn additional rewards at over 2,500 stores which also includes many travel sites.

Capital One transfer partners

Capital One's transfer partners is the key to getting the most value of your Spark miles. Miles can be transferred to over 15 travel partners with all partners except two being a 1:1 ratio.

While there are Capital One transfer partners that are better than others, transferring your miles to most of these partners will give you higher value than the fixed rate you'll get redeeming Spark miles directly with Capital One. This is because miles earned with most of these airlines have an average value of more than 1 cent each.

When it comes to squeezing value out of your point transfers, the best options are:

• Air Canada Aeroplan - for flights between mainland U.S. and Canada
• Air France-KLM Flying Blue - great redemptions between U.S. and Europe
• British Airways Executive Club - exceptional value when used for short-haul trips with American Airlines and Alaska Airlines
• Singapore KrisFlyer - redeem points for their first class in-air suites or booking first class between U.S destinations and Asia/Europe

You can also get great value booking premium cabins, First, and Business with most of the other airline partners as well.

Example for transferring miles

Let's say that you're trying to get to Sydney, Australia from San Francisco. One of the best airlines for this would be Qantas, which is Australia's flagship airline.

Looking at the Qantas website for flights in the fall, the lowest cash price I found was $1,188. During the same week, the lowest cost for an award flight is 83,000 Qantas Points.

This would be a prime time to transfer miles. You would transfer 83,800 Spark miles to your Qantas Frequent Flyer account and redeem them for the flight to Sydney.

This means you'll end up redeeming 83,800 Spark miles for a $1,188 flight which comes out to an excellent value of 1.4 cents per mile.

If you were to make the purchase through your Spark credit card and use your miles to cover the charge, it would have cost you 118,800 Spark miles at a value of 1 cent each.

So you've not only saved yourself 35,000 Spark miles, you've also redeem your miles for higher value.

Great redemption value requires research

Finding redemptions that give your Spark miles high value through point transfers can take some research and can be challenging at times. If you can't find a solid redemption through point transfers, redeeming your miles to cover travel charges or to book travel through Capital One Travel are still great options.

Other ways to redeem Spark miles

Spark miles can be redeemed for gift cards and cash back. These will give your miles lower value.

Gift cards

Capital One Spark miles can be redeemed for gift cards at a rate of 0.5 to 1 cent per mile. While this is not a bad redemption, gift cards can usually be found for less than their face value or on sale from online retailers like Amazon or Ebay.

If you're big on gift cards, you'll probably want to coast over to Capital One's cash back credit cards as they will offer more value.

Cash back

Capital One Spark miles can be redeemed for cash back at a value of 0.5 cents per mile. This is a redemption I recommend avoiding as you'll be cutting the value of your miles in half when compared to redeeming them for travel through Capital One.

How to convert Spark miles to dollars

Use the Spark Miles Value Calculator to determine the cash value of Spark miles. This will give you an idea of how much your miles are worth on average.