Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card Review

If you’ve been looking for a premium travel rewards credit card with a moderate annual fee, rejoice! Capital One has the card just like that – the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. This card can outshine premium travel cards from Chase and Amex and become your loyal travel companion.

The Venture X Rewards card is not a co-branded credit card and does not offer brand-specific perks, like free checked bag or priority boarding. However, it’s full of other travel perks that can make your travel comfortable and gives you the flexibility of a general rewards credit card in terms of rewards earning and using.

What are the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card benefits?

Like any travel credit card, the Venture X card comes with a good sign-up bonus offer and a bunch of travel perks. Current sign-up bonus is 75,000 bonus miles for spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening. The minimum value of the bonus is $750 when redeemed for travel. But if you use the Capital One Travel portal to redeem, you can make your miles worth even more.

While the sign-up bonus is a one-time benefit, that’s annual benefits that make the card’s annual fee worthwhile. The Venture X’s perks offset the card’s $395 annual fee with minimum effort.

Firstly, the card allows you to receive up to $300 back as statement credits for bookings through Capital One Travel. That includes hotel bookings, car rentals and airfare. This benefit is a bit restrictive as it does not give you the flexibility to book through other portals or directly from hotels or airlines. However, Capital One Travel offers such customer-friendly features as free price drop protection and best-price guarantee to make travel booking experience as positive as possible.

Secondly, the Venture X card has an anniversary bonus. Starting your first card account anniversary, you will receive 10,000 bonus miles each year. That translates into $100 towards travel purchases, or maybe more if you transfer them to partners.

Together, these two benefits make $400 in value each year. That’s enough to offset the card’s $395 annual fee.

Overview of the Venture X’s main benefits and perks:

– Up to $300 Annual Travel Credit: Receive up to $300 back as statement credits for bookings through Capital One Travel, where you’ll get our best prices on thousands of options.

– 10,000 Miles Anniversary Bonus: Get 10,000 bonus miles (equal to $100 towards travel) every year, starting on your first anniversary.

– $100 Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® Credit: Receive up to a $100 credit on Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®.

– Capital One Lounges: Unlimited complimentary access for you and 2 guests per visit.

– Partner Lounge Access: Unlimited access for you and 2 guests to 1,300+ lounges worldwide from Priority Pass™ and Plaza Premium Group.

– Upgraded Rental Car Status: Receive complimentary Hertz President’s Circle® status.

– Free Additional Cardholders: Add up to four authorized users at no charge. They can enjoy benefits and you will earn rewards on every dollar they spend.

– Cell Phone Protection: Use your Venture X card to pay your bill to protect your cell phone if it’s stolen or damaged. You’re eligible for up to $800 in coverage per claim (maximum of two claims and $1,600 per 12-month period, plus, a $50 deductible per occurrence).

Those who get a Visa Infinite version of their Venture X card will also be eligible for such protections as trip cancellation and interruption insurance, trip delay reimbursement, primary rental car insurance, and purchase, extended warranty and return protection.

Airport lounge access

Capital One already has its own airport lounge in Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Additionally, they have plans to open two more lounges in Denver International Airport (Denver, CO) and Dulles International Airport (Washington, DC). All Venture X cardholders and their authorized users have unlimited free access to Capital One Lounges. Plus, primary Venture X cardholders can bring up to two guests with them for free. If you want to bring more guests, it’ll cost $45 per visit for additional guests (the standard rate is $65).

While you do not have to make any reservation to visit Capital One lounges, access is not guaranteed. You may be denied access if the lounge is out of space. Another requirement to visit Capital One lounges is a boarding pass for a departing or connecting flight. You, as a primary cardholder, and your guests need to present one on arrival.

However, more importantly, the Venture X card gives free access to 1,300+ Priority Pass and Plaza Premium Group lounges worldwide. As with Capital One lounges, you can bring two guests for free to Plaza Premium Lounges. Priority Pass membership includes free access for all guests traveling with the primary cardholder. Just make sure you enroll in Priority Pass with your Venture X card. Otherwise, you won’t be able to visit Priority Pass lounges for free. 

Earn extra miles through Capital One Travel portal

The Capital One Venture X card has a base miles earning rate of 2X miles on all purchases. That’s pretty good, but you can earn even more.

Travel purchases made through Capital One Travel can earn even more – up to 10X miles! Eligible categories are hotels, flights, and rental cars. Here’s how many miles you can earn with your Venture X card when shopping through Capital One Travel:

– 10 miles per dollar spent on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel;

– 5 miles per dollar spent on flights booked through Capital One Travel.

The Venture X card is good for everyday purchases, thanks to its solid everyday earning rate. It also offers great earning potential on travel purchases, even though maximum travel rewards are earned through Capital One Travel.

How to redeem Capital One miles

Capital One offers several ways to redeem miles for travel so you can choose the one that is best for you. You can either use your miles towards already booked travel or redeem for future travel.

Here’s how you can use your miles for travel:

– Redeem as a statement credit: You can book your travel through a travel website, travel agent, or other travel resource and then, within 90 days, erase that expense with miles. Easy and straightforward. This type of redemption gets you a value of 1 cent per mile.   

– Redeem through Capital One Travel: You can use miles to book flights, hotels and rental cars through Capital One Travel. The redemption ratio is also 1 cent per mile.

– Transfer miles: Capital One partners with 15+ travel loyalty programs, which include airline and hotel partners, most of which convert at 1:1 ratio. In some cases, transferring miles to partners can bring more value than simply redeeming for statement credits or through the travel portal. Here are loyalty programs you can transfer your miles to:

– All – Accor Live Limitless (2:1)

– Aeromexico Club Premier (1:1)

– Air France KLM Flying Blue (1:1)

– Aeroplan® (1:1)

– Asia Miles (1:1)

– Avianca LifeMiles (1:1)

– British Airways Executive Club (1:1)

– Choice Privileges® (1:1)

– Emirates Skywards (1:1)

– Etihad Guest (1:1)

– EVA Air Infinity MileageLands (2:1.5)

– Finnair Plus (1:1)

– Qantas Frequent Flyer (1:1)

– Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (1:1)

– TAP Miles&Go (1:1)

– Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles (1:1)

– Virgin Red (1:1)

Other than redeeming for travel, Venture X cardholders have non-travel redemption options, which include gift cards, cash back, and pay with rewards at Amazon.com.

Is there a no annual fee Capital One Venture option?

If you visit Capital One’s official website, you will see three more Venture cards: VentureOne Rewards for Good Credit, VentureOne Rewards and Venture Rewards. The first two cards have no annual fee, and the last one costs $95 per year.

Here are the cards’ basics at a glance:

Capital One VentureOne Rewards for Good Credit

– A travel rewards card for good credit

– You’ll earn the usual VentureOne travel rewards, but won’t be eligible for new cardmember bonus miles or 0% intro APR

– Earn unlimited 1.25 miles per dollar on every purchase

– Earn unlimited 5 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel

– $0 annual fee

Capital One VentureOne Rewards

– Earn 20,000 bonus miles once you spend $500 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening

– Earn unlimited 1.25 miles per dollar on every purchase

– Earn unlimited 5 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel

– $0 annual fee

Capital One Venture Rewards

– Earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening

– Earn unlimited 2 miles per dollar on every purchase

– Earn unlimited 5 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel

– Up to a $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®

– $95 annual fee.

How does the Capital One Venture X compare to other travel credit cards?

Thanks to its travel benefits and the annual fee, the Venture X card falls within the premium travel cards category. There are two main competitors in this category: the Platinum Card® from Amex and the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Credit Card.

Both these cards come with significantly higher annual fees than the Venture X card – $795 and $550 respectively. See below how the two cards are compared to the Venture X credit card.

The Amex Platinum is extremely loaded with perks, benefits and statement credits that can be sometimes complicated and a little excessive. You will definitely have no problems offsetting the card’s $795 annual fee, but it’s a lot to manage, though.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card is more similar to the Venture X in terms of earning points. However, the Ultimate Rewards program has some great transfer partners that Capital One does not. Plus, Chase offers a better redemption rate for travel booked through the issuer’s travel portal.

Bottom Line

If you are on a simple side and do not use much of travel perks or don’t want to dig into complexity of travel benefits, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card would be your best choice. It has all the main benefits of a premium travel rewards credit card at a moderate annual fee.

In addition to such main benefits like free lounge access, travel statement credit and anniversary bonus, the Venture X card also has Visa Infinite benefits. Those include trip, luggage, car rental and purchase protections. Add here transfer partners and Capital One Travel portal and you get a card that is nearly a no-brainer.