Capital One improves the frequent flyer miles transfer feature for Venture Card & Spark Miles && Venture Card is now #3 best credit card on our list!

Capital One has surprised us again with the improvement brought to its Capital One (C1) Miles rewards program.  The transfer ratio of the following six airline partners has been improved:

• Air Canada Aeroplan (1000:750) -> (1000:1000)
• British Airways Executive Club (1000:750)  -> (1000:1000)
• Emirates Skywards (1000:500)  -> (1000:1000)
• Flying Blue by Air France & KLM (1000:750)  -> (1000:1000)
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (1000:500)  -> (1000:1000)
• Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles (1000:750)  -> (1000:1000)

So in total there are 15 partners that have the industry-standard 1:1 transfer ratio and there are only 2 partners with a transfer ratio worse than that (EVA with 1000:750 and Accor with 1000:500).  In addition, JetBlue TrueBlue still has the old 1000:750 ratio but will leave C1 Miles program as of 10/24/21.  We have updated our featured review comparing five rewards programs offering flexible miles/points transfer feature.  Capital One has come a long way in terms of improving its program.  Before 2018, we considered C1 Miles as "fake miles" as they can only be redeemed up to a fixed value of 1 cent per point for various options including travel rewards.  In 2018, the frequent traveler miles/points transfer feature was introduced with 12 partners, most of which had a sub-standard ratio of 1000:750 so our valuation for C1 Miles was 1.1 cents per point.  In April 2021, the transfer feature was enhanced by adding a few new partners as well as making transfer ratio 1000:1000 for more than half of the partners and we started valuing C1 Miles at 1.3 cents per point.  Now with this new enhancement, we finally feel that C1 Miles are as valuable as the big three programs offered by credit card issuers: Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou and our current valuation for all four programs is the same at 1.5 cents per point.

Obviously, with this increased valuation, Venture Card and Spark Miles Business Card, both offering 2x Miles (=3% travel rewards) on everything with a $95 annual fee, are becoming better than ever before.  Venture Card now takes the top spot from Citi Premier as the Best Credit Card for Rewards and also jumps from #6 to #3 on our Top 10 Best Credit Cards list.  On the other hand, Spark Miles is considered the best business card for spending, alongside with Amex Blue Business Plus.  Below is the before/after comparison of our Top 10 list.