Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card: Elevated Rewards

In-Depth Review: Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

Any luxury travel card worth its salt needs to provide comfort not found with cards with lower price points. Here, the Venture X shines. Luxurious travel perks start with airport lounge access.

Who Can Benefit from the Capital One Venture X?

The Venture X isn’t your typical travel card. Rather, the card is ultra-premium, like the Platinum Card for American Express.

But the Venture X isn’t as intimidating as the Platinum Card, thanks in no small part to an annual fee that is almost $300 cheaper than the flagship card from American Express. The card is a versatile travel card for anyone looking for a card with premium benefits, like lounge access, elite status, and more.

So, who is the card designed for, then? Essentially, if you want luxury travel perks but don’t want to get stuck with a ton of statement credits you don’t need (like the Saks Fifth Avenue credits with the Platinum), this might be your ideal new travel companion.

Credit Needed

While Capital One offers credit cards for all ranges of credit, that is not the case with the Venture X Rewards. The card, which carries a hefty annual fee and provides plenty of lucrative travel perks, requires an excellent credit score to apply.

Capital One provides a helpful online pre-qualification tool to help you see if Venture X is the right card for you – or if you even qualify. This pre-qualification does not impact your credit score and won’t cause a ding on your credit report.

Earning Rewards with Venture X

Impressive Welcome Offer

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is impressive enough, but the card’s introducer bonus offer takes things to a new level. New accountholders earn 75,000 miles after meeting minimum spend requirements. Those spend requirements, $4,000 on purchases within the first three months, are fairly steep – but provide an excellent goal for the type of frequent traveler that would benefit most from the card.

Capital One Rewards have a value of one cent per mile/point, giving this introductory mile bonus an approximate cash value of $750 (or 10% cash back). Other experts value Capital One Miles higher (as high as 1.7 cents/pt.), so the actual value of the welcome offer may provide even greater value.

How to Earn Miles

As an ultra-premium travel credit card, the Venture X has tough competition. Capital One, however, isn’t backing down, pricing the card below rivals like the Chase Sapphire Reserve while offering equally impressive rewards.

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card earns up to 10X Venture miles on eligible purchases. The miles breakdown with the card is as follows:

• 10X miles on hotels and rental cars booked via Capital One Travel
• 5X miles on flights booked via Capital One Travel
• 2X miles on all other purchases

While the emphasis on Capital One Travel bookings is frustrating, the bank’s travel portal utilizes the Hopper platform, making it easy to secure the best price on travel bookings. Prioritizing bookings made through Capital One’s proprietary booking platform isn’t unique to Venture X either. Both Chase and Amex offer their best earning potential through proprietary booking services – so Venture X’s rewards strategy isn’t out of the ordinary.

Perhaps the most impressive earning rate with the Venture X is the 2X miles on all other purchases. Double miles on base purchases are an excellent rate – on par with Capital One Venture’s $95 annual fee.

Anniversary Miles Bonus

Cardholders also enjoy a 10,000-mile bonus for every account anniversary. This bonus is a $100 value just for keeping Venture X open.

How to Redeem Rewards

As mentioned, Capital One Venture Miles have a value of approximately 1.4 cents per point (using the flat rate of 1 cent for cash back and the much higher 1.7 cent value for transferring to select airlines, like Air Canada’s Aeroplan). Therefore, this median valuation is based upon the typical redemption options through the rewards program, which is travel. Travel options include flights, hotels, cruises, and rental cars booked through the Capital One Rewards portal.

Rewards also transfer to a variety of Capital One airline and hotel partners. Current Capital One airline and hotel transfer partners are:

Cardholders can also use their points towards various award options, including cash back, statement credits, gift cards, or shopping (including using points with Amazon).

Venture X Rewards Cardholders can also use points through PayPal and its Pay with Rewards program. Pay with Rewards is PayPal’s flexible rewards platform that allows select credit cardholders to use their rewards points to make purchases anywhere in the world that PayPal is accepted. The program allows cardholders to pay for purchases entirely with their points or partially with their rewards.

Venture X Travel Benefits

Any luxury travel card worth its salt needs to provide comfort not found with cards with lower price points. Here, the Venture X shines. Luxurious travel perks start with airport lounge access.

Airport Lounge Access

Airport lounge access with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card includes both Priority Pass Select and access to the Capital One Lounges. Priority Pass Select offers cardholders (and up to two guests) complimentary access to over 1,300 airport lounges and restaurants worldwide. Cardholders also enjoy unlimited access to Capital One Lounges, which currently includes three locations:

• Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Terminal D by Gate 22
• Dulles International Airport, Main Terminal
• Denver International Airport, Concourse A on the Mezzanine Level

Even more impressive, Capital One is offering lounge access to authorized users. This feature means gifting an additional card (the first four are free of charge), and guests can also access Capital One Lounges and the vast Priority Pass Network.

Travel Statement Credits

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card also has several travel statement credits. These credits include:

• Up to a $300 credit annually for bookings made on Capital One Travel
• Up to $100 in statement credits for either TSA PreCheck or Global Entry application fees every four years

Other Travel Benefits

Venture X cardholders also enjoy complimentary Hertz President’s Circle status for primary cardholders, authorized users, and account managers. The card charges no foreign transaction fees.

Other Venture X Benefits

Cardholders also enjoy access to Capital One Experiences, offering exclusive access to entertainment, sports, and dining events. Other features of the card include the impressive collection of protections and benefits, including:

Comparison

What We Like About the Venture X

A major advantage of the Capital One Venture X Card is its competitive rewards program. Cardholders earn a fixed number of miles for every dollar spent on purchases, with no limit on the amount that can be earned. This means that the more you use your card, the more miles you accumulate, leading to greater savings on your travel expenses. Additionally, the miles earned with the Capital One Venture X Card do not expire, giving you the freedom to save them up for a dream vacation or redeem them whenever you please.

In addition to its rewards program, the Capital One Venture X Card offers several travel-related benefits. These include access to airport lounges, travel insurance coverage, and concierge services. The card also has no foreign transaction fees, making it a great choice for international travelers. With these perks, the Capital One Venture X Card provides a seamless and enjoyable travel experience.

Things to Consider

While the Capital One Venture X Card has numerous advantages, it is also important to consider the potential downsides. One notable drawback of the card is its annual fee, $395, which can be quite high compared to other travel rewards credit cards. However, it’s critical to evaluate whether the benefits and rewards outweigh the cost of the annual fee based on your personal spending habits and overall travel needs.

Another potential disadvantage of the Capital One Venture X Card is the limited transfer partner options. Unlike other travel rewards credit cards, the Capital One Venture X Card has a smaller network of airline and hotel partners. Amex and Chae, for example, provide far greater transfer partner options.

Capital One Ratings

How is Capital One a credit card issuer? Here is a selection of reviews for the bank from consumers and experts alike:

Should You Apply for the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card?

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is an exciting offer in an extremely competitive marketplace. The card’s earning potential with the Capital One Travel portal is impressive – but not as impressive as the huge array of travel protections and benefits the card provides for a comparatively modest $395 annual fee.

Despite this, the card offers lounge access, various travel protections, and TSA PreCheck credits for an annual fee of $55 lower than the Chase Sapphire Reserve. The Sapphire also charges $50 per year for each authorized user, whereas the Venture X offers up to four free additional cards at no extra cost. The Venture X’s welcome bonus is equally competitive with the Reserve (although Chase does not provide an anniversary bonus to cardholders, while Capital One does – 10,000 miles).