Capital One Spark Miles Select For Business review

Signing up for credit cards through partner links earns us a commission. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Here’s our full advertising policy: How we make money.

Update:   One or more card offers in this post are no longer available.  Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.

Although the Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business doesn’t make our list of the top business credit cards, it’s a solid choice for anyone looking for a no-annual-fee business card that earns flexible rewards.

You can earn 20,000 bonus miles after meeting the card’s minimum spending requirements, and that bonus is worth at least $200 in travel.

Let’s take a detailed look at the card’s benefits, bonus and how to make the most of the miles you earn.

The information for the Capital One Spark Miles Select has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

One of the best things about Capital One miles is their flexibility. You can use them for all sorts of travel redemptions, including stays at unique Airbnb properties. (Photo by Vladimirkarp/Shutterstock)

Capital One Spark Miles Select review

Current bonus

With the Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business card, you’ll earn 20,000 Spark miles after spending $3,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening. That’s a solid bonus for a card with no annual fee, and the low minimum spending requirement doesn’t hurt either.

The welcome offer alone is worth $200 in travel. But you also have the option of transferring your miles to airlines to potentially receive even more value. We’ll cover this below.

Main benefits and perks

Flat earning rate

With the Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business, you’ll earn an unlimited 1.5 Capital One miles per dollar on all purchases. There’s no confusing bonus categories, just a flat return rate.

(For more detailed information about Capital One rewards, check out our guide on how to earn Capital One miles.)

Purchase protection

If an eligible item you bought is lost or stolen, you can file a claim to replace, repair or be reimbursed for it within 90 days of purchase, at up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per cardholder.

Warranty protection

This benefit doubles a manufacturer’s warranty up to one extra year on eligible warranties of three years or less.

Rental car insurance

The Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business offers secondary car rental insurance coverage, which means your personal or business car insurance company pays first.

How to use Capital One miles

Capital One miles are worth one cent each toward travel. You can redeem your miles for nearly any purchase that codes as travel, like taxi rides, hotels, room service and flights. You don’t have to worry about searching for available award seats or hotel nights.

To redeem your miles for travel, buy travel as you normally would with your card. Then you have 90 days to sign in to your account, find the travel purchase and “erase” it with your miles.

You also have the option to pay for travel with your miles up front instead. You’ll find this option after signing into your account. If you use the portal, there is no minimum mileage requirement to book.

Whether you choose to use Capital One miles this way or erase your purchase later, you’ll get a value of one cent per mile. That makes the 20,000-mile bonus worth a minimum of $200.

Or, you can redeem your miles with Capital One airline transfer partners:

  • Aeromexico
  • Air Canada (Aeroplan)
  • Air France & KLM (Flying Blue)
  • Alitalia
  • Asia Miles
  • Avianca
  • Emirates
  • Etihad
  • EVA
  • Finnair
  • JetBlue
  • Qantas
  • Singapore Airlines

With most of these airlines, the transfer ratio is 2:1.5, so you’ll get 1.5 airline miles for every two Spark miles you transfer. The exceptions are Emirates, JetBlue and Singapore Airlines, which have a 2:1 transfer ratio.

Because you earn 1.5 miles per dollar spent with the Capital One Spark Miles for Business, it’s effectively like earning 1.125 airline miles per dollar if you transfer your miles (or one mile per dollar spent in the case of Emirates, JetBlue and Singapore Airlines). This is a promising way to receive a slightly higher value for your miles than just one cent each.

Read here for the best ways to use Capital One Miles.

Is the annual fee worth it?

There’s no annual fee on the Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business card, so you can keep it as long as you’d like without paying a dime for it.

Who is the Capital One Spark Miles for?

This is a small-business card, so you need a for-profit venture to open this card. However, many people don’t realize they’re actually eligible to apply. If you sell items on eBay, or if you’re a freelance writer or tutor, you can be eligible for a small-business credit card. Even independent contractors, like Uber and Lyft drivers, can qualify for a small-business credit card. You can simply use your own name as your business name on your application.

Read our post on how to complete a Capital One business card application.

Just note that Capital One will not process more than one application every six months. If you’ve opened another Capital One card recently, you’ll need to wait to apply for this one. Plus, Capital One pulls from all three main credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) when it processes your application, and it reports small-business cards to your personal credit reports.

If you’re new to miles and points or want to apply for a Chase card, applying for this card might not be worth it because of the Chase 5/24 rule.

Insider secret

Collecting Capital One miles is a good option if you’ve got an upcoming trip and no reservoir of credit card rewards to book free travel. That’s because you don’t need to earn the sign-up bonus before you book your travel — Capital One miles allow you to redeem your rewards for travel you’ve already booked because 0f the 90 day window to redeem your points for those travel transactions. You can finish earning the welcome bonus when you get home, and then apply the points retroactively.

Similar credit cards

Earning 1.5 Spark Miles per dollar is an average rate of return (at best) and you can likely do better with other no-annual-fee credit cards. For example, The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express has no annual fee (see rates and fees) and it earns 2x Amex Membership Rewards points on the first $50,000 spent per year, then 1x. (Terms apply.)

If you have another eligible Ultimate Rewards points earning card, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you can combine your points and transfer your Ultimate Rewards to 13 travel partners including Hyatt, United, Singapore Airlines and Flying Blue (Air France and KLM).

Bottom line

With the Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business card you can earn 20,000 Spark miles after meeting the minimum spending requirements. You can use the miles you earn toward nearly any type of travel purchase or transfer them to 17 travel partners such as Air Canada, Flying Blue and Singapore Airlines.

The intro bonus alone is worth at least $200 in travel — and with a $0 annual fee, you can keep it year after year without worry.

You can apply for the Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business here.

For rates and fees of the Blue Business Plus Card, please click here.

Meghan Hunter is an editor for Million Mile Secrets. She covers points, miles, credit cards, airlines, hotels and general travel. Her work has also appeared in The Points Guy.

Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)

Join the Discussion!

Comments are closed.