I receive compensation for content and many links on this blog. Citibank is an advertising partner of this site, as is American Express, Chase, Barclays and Capital One. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners. I do not write about all credit cards that are available -- instead focusing on miles, points, and cash back (and currencies that can be converted into the same). Terms apply to the offers and benefits listed on this page.
There’s no question that Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is the most exciting premium rewards card of the last couple of years. It has a nice front bonus offer, strong points-earning, airport lounge access and a host of premium benefits. (See rates and fees)
Capital One miles now transfer 1:1 to:
- Star Alliance: Air Canada Aeroplan, Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles, Avianca LifeMiles, TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go
- oneworld: British Airways Executive Club, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Finnair Plus, Qantas Frequent Flyer
- SkyTeam: Air France KLM Flying Blue, Aeromexico Club Premier
- Non-alliance: Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Virgin Red
- Hotels: Wyndham Rewards, Choice Privileges
Capital One miles also transfer at 2-to-1.5 into EVA Air Infinity MileageLands. And they transfer 2-to-1 into ALL Accor Live Limitless.
Here are the 19 things I’m loving about the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card:
- Initial bonus offer. 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel
- Minimum of 2x on everything. The card earns 2 miles per dollar on every purchase, and 10 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked at Capital One Travel as well as 5 miles per dollar on flights booked via Capital One Travel.
- Minimum 2% rebate towards travel. Capital One’s miles let you buy any flight without worrying about restricted award availability. This is most useful for people who use their rewards for domestic economy flights, and can be especially valuable over peak travel dates. You pick the flight you want and don’t inconvenience yourself based on what’s available at the saver level.
- Double threat. It’s a single card that works great as a travel rebate product, and great transferring to airline frequent flyer programs.
- Transfers to Air Canada Aeroplan They’re a great Star Alliance partner with most awards bookable on their website and great pricing for business class to Europe.
- Transfers to LifeMiles This is the only Star Alliance frequent flyer program with an award chart and no carrier-imposed surcharge. You can redeem United domestic flights starting at just 3500 miles.When you are flying a ‘mixed cabin’ itinerary (say, for instance, Los Angeles to Tokyo in first class and then connecting in business class to Beijing) the program will charge you proportionately for each flight segment.
A first class award between the US and North Asia is listed at 90,000 LifeMiles on the award chart. If you flew Los Angeles – Tokyo Haneda non-stop in first class it would cost you 90,000 LifeMiles. However if you added a connection in coach beyond Tokyo Haneda then the price of the award drops — add Tokyo – Beijing in economy and you can get the price down to just over 66,000 miles. That’s a generous perk no other program offers.
- Transfers to Air France KLM Flying Blue. Air France offers better award availability when you’re using Flying Blue miles than when you’re using partner miles. I often transfer to Flying Blue because I find they have business class award seats to Europe when other airlines don’t. What’s more flights to Europe – especially connections to Central and Eastern Europe – are reasonably priced. For instance flying between the U.S. and some European cities will price under 60,000 miles each way in business.
- Transfers to EVA Air Infinity MileageLands. EVA Air is a totally underappreciated mileage transfer partner.Flying business class between the US and Asia on EVA Air costs a reasonable 75,000 or 80,000 miles each way depending on the US gateway used. One real hidden gem is that they charge just 25,000 miles each way for business class intra-Asia awards. They also offer Star Alliance round-the-world awards.
US-Europe Star Alliance awards in business class is 65,000 miles each way, 85,000 miles in first class. US-Mideast Star Alliance awards in business class is 67,000 miles each way. And two stopovers permitted on a roundtrip award (one in each direction). Changes to date and flight up to three days in advance of travel are free while additional changes and also cancel/mileage redeposit cost $50.
While many people skip over the program because they add fuel surcharges to partner award tickets you don’t need to get excised about fuel surcharges for awards on EVA’s own flights e.g. $43 Los Angeles – Taipei and $56 Los Angeles – Taipei – Bangkok.
- Transfers to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer. Since everyone transfers to Singapore it’s easy to build up their miles. And Singapore Airlines offers much better award availability to travel on Singapore’s own flights when you’re using Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles than if you’re trying to use miles from a partner frequent flyer program.
- Transfers to Emirates I’ve found upgrades to be easier to get with Emirates than on most other airlines, but you need their own Skywards miles to upgrade a paid ticket or to redeem for Emirates first class.
- Access To Capital One’s Own Network Of Airport Lounges The Capital One Venture X card comes with unlimited access to Capital One airport lounges, including access for 2 accompanying guests. The Dallas – Fort Worth lounge is open and new lounges are in the pipeline for Denver and Washington Dulles. I was extremely impressed during my visit to the Dallas airport lounge. They even encourage you to take food and drink with you to go.
- Priority Pass With Unlimited Visits and Guests. The card also comes with Priority Pass Select.
- Airport Lounge Access For No Annual Fee Additional Cardmembers The Capital One Venture X card lets you add cardholders to your account for no fee.
- $300 Annual Travel Credit Up to $300 credit annually for bookings made at Capital One Travel (including airline tickets, so easy to use this)
- Bonus miles every year, not just your first year. 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary (equal to $100 towards travel, or transfer to other loyalty programs)
- Hertz elite status This card comes with complimentary Hertz President’s Circle status through December 31, 2024 which is their top public tier. This benefit is for primary cardholders, authorized users and account managers. Meanwhile Capital One offers additional benefits with National Car Rental, Avis and Silver.
- Purchase and travel protections There’s primary car rental protection; lost luggage reimbursement; trip delay + cancellation/interruption reimbursement; cell phone protection; and extended warranty protection.
- Earn more points referring friends to the card. Cardmembers can earn up to 100,000 miles per year for referring friends (25,000 miles per referral, up to 4 referrals per year).
The Capital One Venture X carries a $395 annual fee. That’s on the low end for premium travel cards and a great price. Consider that competitor products generally run $450 to $695, they clearly made a conscious decision to pack a lot of value into their card and charge less than American Express, Chase, or Citibank.
With an initial bonus offer worth well over $1500 in my view, exceeding $395 in value by a lot the first year should be easy even without statement credits but they’ve set up benefits that make the card pay for itself quite easily.
Visa/Mastercard: For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the above benefits are provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply
Hertz: Upon enrollment, accessible through the Capital One website or mobile app, eligible cardholders will remain at upgraded status level through December 31, 2024. Please note, enrolling through the normal Hertz Gold Plus Rewards enrollment process (e.g. at Hertz.com) will not automatically detect a cardholder as being eligible for the program and cardholders will not be automatically upgraded to the applicable status tier. Additional terms apply
I think Capital One looses a lot of trust when they remove benefits and then blame it on others like with Pearl Resort Silvassa restaurants. They said it was a Visa Infinite issue yet Reserve (a Visa Infinite card) continues to have these benefits.
The Capital One lounge at IAD has been “coming” for years. I’m not convinced it’s ever actually going to exist.
Capital One Travel is horrendous. It is not worth the extra 3% when there is a schedule change.
Also, just found out today that the do not honor residual credit if you have to cancel a ticket. The airline gives you full credit (and RESIDUAL) but Capital One just tosses any residual out. Pathetic
Thanks for continuing to drink from their teet… shameless
I have to say that out of all the posts you make talking about credit cards. This one seems the most biased. I agree that Capital One lost a lot of trust when they removed Priority Pass Restaurants and blamed it on Visa. In some airports they don’t have Priority Pass lounges so it’s annoying to know that a Priority Pass restaurant exists but you can’t use it because Capital One is being cheap. The bundled benefits are annoying too use as well and far less practical than what Chase does. Not impressed so far.
One negative I can think of is Cap One is issuing 1099s when your referrals get over 2. I got a 1099 for $752 for 3 referrals last year. Apparently, they also count the TSA/Global Entry credits as well.
My problem with the Venture X and the Capital One travel site is that it only allows you to book one way and round trips. There is no option for multi-city trips. As an avid cruiser almost all of my flights go to one city and then leave from another. I have talked to Cap One about this several times and each time I am promised that multi-city bookings will be available “soon.” After 2 years of asking I am giving up and will use other ways to book travel.
Has every blogger just conveniently forgotten that they froze transfers for two weeks without any plausible explanation? They lost me forever on that move.
I hold the card as a frequent transit passenger in Dallas, but I don’t use it for purchase.
Bullet 11 is no longer true (Etihad Guest devaluation)
If these high-fee cards (like this one) require you to be reimbursed by using their travel centers, I don’t consider my money reimbursed because I won’t use them. Air travel is so unreliable nowadays that I never buy a plane ticket from anyone other than the airline. I don’t need the complication of talking to a third party while I’m stranded in an airport. And I won’t book a hotel in a foreign country through the centers in case something goes wrong with that either. I booked a flight a year ago through the Chase site and of course had to change the flight, but fortunately it was before I was at an airport. The fellow I spoke with was very polite but at some point he had to talk to his supervisor to get approval, and while I was waiting for him I could hear a rooster crowing. Lord knows where he was. So this card would be a straight $395 fee for me, unlike Chase which reimburses you for any travel.
The 10x points on hotel bookings is a perk I use when not going the airbnb route. Most recently for Rome/Barcelona. Already used my amex fhr benefits.
Have had the Venture X for a couple of years but its biggest drawback is that it does not allow booking for multi-city flights, only one way or round trip. Cap One keeps telling me that they will add multi-city but I am still waiting. Just about all my flights leave from one city and return from another so the flight benefits for Venture X are non-existent for me.
Finally after much bi*****g and moaning the Cap One Travel site allows for multi-city booking of flights. It’s about time.
My recent experience with the travel credit booking is that as mentioned above, they do not honor residual. I cancelled 3 x $850 tickets in business. When I went to rebook through their link to the credit, first, it would not offer business seats, only economy ($150), and it charged the full amount of the credit. I stopped and called. On the phone they did find business seats, $200 more expensive than I was looking at on AA, and still they confirmed on the phone that the entire credit is used regardless of residual. I told them thanks, no thanks. Called American and was charged $50 per voucher to use it correctly, with residual vouchers issued because the credit “was a travel agency’s”.
I will definitely not be renewing this card.
It’s almost malpractice to your a Hertz perk without mentioning their false arrest problem. Similarly the Crap1 PP benefit was somewhat gutted when restaurants were removed.
20. “I receive compensation for content and many links on this blog. Citibank is an advertising partner of this site, as is American Express, Chase, Barclays and Capital One”
At least Venture X has finally added the multi-city option to its flight selection process. Only took them 2 years.
Capital One Venture X. My experience is that it’s only good for transfers to airlines. The travel portal for the $300 credit…not a good experience. I had to cancel the flights and upon rebooking they wanted the full value of the refund regardless of the cost of the replacement tickets. That was 3x $785 vouchers that they wanted all of for 3x $450 replacement flights. And they also could not see the same prices I was seeing directly on the airline. Total ripoff. I ended up calling AA and paying a $50/ticket fee to transfer the credit to AA directly and got full value.
I will definitely be canceling this card after that experience.
oops just realized I answered the same thing a month ago. Recycle articles much?
Great warnings here, especially about shortchanging of residual value. I used the $300 credit on a last minute flight that I knew wouldn’t change. Given the experiences shared here, I don’t think I would use them to book planned trips. I also like the many merchant money back offers that are often better than Rakuten. Overall I’ve gotten great value from this card and have enjoyed many visits to their DFW lounge.
Capital One Travel credit refund changes are inducing me to cancel the card at renewal.
Worst premium card in history … but writers who pedal credit cards will never be as subjective as they are with the airlines.
*Capital one does NOT understand how to support premium cars transactions. Good luck if you have an honest issue
*The travel portal is hell and they don’t even provide good support of rogue hotels within the portal.
Lounges are great if you can find one !
This has become my favorite. card. You come out ahead just from the travel credit and the yearly bonus miles. Made 2 airline and 2 hotel reservations through their travel portal this year with no issues. The great DFW lounge is the cherry on top – been there a dozen times. And that last $200 hotel credit promotion was just crazy.
You can use the travel credit on hotels, but the travel credit is not usable for travel on Southwest or RyanAir. The travel credit is not usable on your full car rental because there is an additional collection on pickup which is not eligible for travel credit.
Capital One Travel is not ready for prime time. I think the Venture card, without the $395 fee or travel credit, is the better deal for me.
Sure, who wouldn’t prefer annual fee being reduced by the amount of credits. I’d much prefer to pay $95 for Amex Plat than go through all those credit hoops. But as far as credits go, the $300 Venture X travel credit is exceedingly easy for most people to use.
I love the 100% totally misleading Capital One commercial where – while sitting in the only Capital One lounge on earth – they say you have access to over 1300 airport lounges.
If they were telling the truth they’d say, “you have access to our one and only lounge in DFW and 1300 other lounges which are not nearly as swanky or nice and aren’t even run by us here at Capital One!”
What a whiny bunch! If you can’t get value out of this card you either don’t travel, are lazy, or, most likely, stupid. Two points on every purchase with a great set of transfer partners, 10k in points annually which is worth well over $100 (unless , of course, see “stupid” comment), the ability to share lounge access with trusted friends and family, extended warranty protection, great travel protection; the list goes on! “Yes” the travel portal is mostly lame to use the $300 credit but you should be able to squeeze out $180-$200 worth of value. This is not near the challenge of getting the value out of an AMEX Platinum card. This and my Wyndham Rewards Earner Business are my best investments in travel so far (OK, Chase has been good to me, too).
I love my Venture X! We’ve saved a lot of money eating in the lounges vs paying for food at the airport. Is it gourmet? No, but it’s free. The restaurant choices at the airport aren’t generally gourmet either. I use my $300 credit on hotels when we need a one off here and there.
Summary of the three premium card competitors:
Capital One (Venture X): Grind it out with 2x on everything
Amex (Gold/Plat): High multipliers, generous bonuses for sign-ups and arbitrary tasks
Chase (CSP/CSR): Some multipliers, but you’re really in it to convert into Hyatt points
As far as brand image though: Amex has bling, Chase is sexy, and Capital One is kind of square.
I have been an Amex loyalist, but the value proposition of the Venture X and Savor combo makes Capital One tough to turn down.
Capital One is the WORST for credit cards but great for a checking account. Gary isn’t a trust worthy blogger. He wants your referral $$ … 19 things he Loves LOL. 10 of them are transfer partners which most are available on other cards. The $300 credit is garbage since you have to use their absolutely insane portal and forfeit your benefits. This card sucks. Get the Chase Sapphire Reserve over this hunk of crap.
Cap One also has that nouveau riche thing about it.
Are some of you cancelling your flights with Cap1 travel? On American, I can cancel the flight on the AA app. As long as I note the original ticket number, I can pull up the credit on the app and I have and applied it to a future AA flight no problem.
James Cox absolutely right calling many of these posters “a whiny bunch”. People like “JJ” constantly criticizing the blog. Why are you even here? Cap One Venture X is still one of the few premium cards out there worth the AF. I have dumped all of my other premium cards with the exception of the AX Aspire and CSP.