WHY I LOVE THE CAPITAL ONE VENTURE X REWARDS CARD // A MINI REVIEW
Updated September 2024
A couple of years ago the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card burst on the scene with an unbelievable welcome offer putting this card on everyone’s radar and even had us reconsidering 5/24 all together. Now, this is my favorite travel rewards card and one that I think deserves a spot in your top five.
Here’s what I love about the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and why it deserves a spot in your wallet:
Flexible miles that can be transferred to over 15 airlines and hotels
Priority Pass lounge access for you and two guests (and anyone you add as an authorized used) Premium Plaza and access to Capital One Lounges (DFW, DEN, IAD)
Get Reimbursed! - you can get reimbursed when you make a travel related purchase like rental cars, train tickets, hotels and even Disney tickets
ANNUAL FEE $395
The annual fee is high because this is a Premium card with a lot of perks and lounge access. It also has the lowest annual fee of any premium card with lounge access. Don’t click away yet, it comes with many credits that offset that annual fee, like:
Receive an annual $300 credit for bookings through Capital One Travel. Last year we used the credit to book lodging in Cinque Terre and this year we used the credit to book lodging in Verona, Italy.
Receive up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®. This means if you use your card to purchase global entry or TSA PreCheck for yourself (or anyone) you’ll receive the $100 credit.
Get 10,000 bonus miles (equal to $100 towards travel) every year, starting on your first anniversary
Source: Capital One
HIGHLIGHTS/REWARD EARN RATES
Earn unlimited 10X miles per on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and 5X miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel
Earn unlimited 2X miles on all other purchases (other travel credit cards earn 1x points on non-travel related purchases)
Unlimited complimentary access for you and two guests to 1,400+ lounges with Priority Pass Membership, including Capital One Lounges and Partner Lounge Network Plaza Premium Lounges. There are now Capital One Lounges in DFW, Dulles and Denver.
Use your Venture X miles to easily cover travel expenses, including flights, hotels, rental cars and more.
Transfer miles to your choice of 15+ travel loyalty programs, including Air Canada, British Airways, KLM/Flying Blue and hotels like Choice and Wyndham
HOW I WOULD USE
Lounge Access - This card not only comes with lounge access for you and two guests with a Priority Pass Membership, but it also gives you (and two guests) access to the Capital One Lounge in DFW, Denver and Dulles airports. In addition, anyone you add as an authorized user also gets free lounge access for themselves plus two people. This is a great perk to add adult kids, family members and trusted friends and the only card with lounge access to offer FREE lounge access to authorized users.
Get Reimbursed/Travel Credit - You can use your miles when you make any purchase that is travel related. That includes stays at an Airbnb and even Disney tickets. If you and your partner both got the Capital One card, you would have almost $1,580 to use for a travel purchase. (For the Disney tickets to code as travel they must be purchased from a third-party site like UndercoverTourist.com, this is very important) We used our miles to purchase train tickets across Europe for our family of six as well as paying for multiple intra-Europe flights for six and rental cars.
Flights: I transferred 60k Venture miles to Air Canada to book a one way business class flight on Singapore Airlines. My favorite travel transfer partners are Flying Blue, Avianca and Air Canada. With award flights on Flying Blue starting at just 15k points to Europe, you can book 2-3 round trip flights to Europe with one sign up bonus. Business class flights to Europe on Air France starts at just 50k points each way. Or you can book Star Alliance partners on Air Canada and Avianca. I would even use miles to book short distance AA flights on British Airways or book my favorite business class seat on Emirates.
Fly to Hawaii with Turkish miles - Say what? Turkish Airlines is part of Star Alliance which means that you can transfer miles to Turkish Airlines to book flights to Hawaii on United Airlines. Once you start learning about airline alliances and learning the ‘sweet spots” you’ll see that your miles can go a long way.
Turkish Airlines award chart is region based and just happened to include Hawaii with North America. That means that for just 7500 miles each way in coach or 12,500 miles each way in Business, you can fly to Hawaii. After earning the sign up bonus, you’ll have enough miles to fly five people to Hawaii round trip in coach. Now this is a more advanced redemption and does take a bit of time to find but the rewards is sweet for those that take the time.
Vacation Home Rentals - You can transfer miles to Wyndham to book rental homes through Vacasa. Award pricing is a fixed rate based on number of rooms and cash rate, so you can book a one bedroom for 15k miles a night that books for under $250 a night or rent a two bedroom for 30k miles a night that books for under $500 a night. Although Vacasa doesn’t have properties everywhere like VRBO, good deals are to be found. There are many one bedroom homes/condos that fit 4-6 people. For just 15k miles a night, that’s a great deal.
Choice Hotels - While redeeming points for flights remain the best value for your points, we were able to book four nights at a Choice property hotel on the Amalfi Coast this summer for just 52k miles we transferred to Choice from our Venture X.
In addition to all the great benefits and perks, the Capital One Venture X also comes with no foreign transaction fees and cell phone protection (pay for your phone bill with the card and if it gets damaged/stolen you get up to $800 reimbursed)
Happy Travels!
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Editorial Note: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
