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If you’re out shopping for a premium travel rewards credit card, it can be overwhelming to look at all the different options available. Making sense of all the bells and whistles that come attached can be a whole other issue entirely. Champagne problems, I know. But there’s one currently available that is glad to keep it simple and just give its cardholders the essentials: a sizeable travel credit, lounge access, increased points-earning rates, and no foreign transaction fees, with a number of insurance related coverages.
What is the annual fee for the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card?
What is the welcome offer on the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card?
How do you earn points with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card?
You earn 10 points per dollar spent on hotels and car rentals purchased through the Capital One Travel portal; and 5 points per dollar spent on flights purchased through the Capital One Travel portal. If you find, say, a flight or a hotel stay sold in the Capital One Travel portal that’s cheaper than or equal to the price you’d pay if you booked directly with an airline or hotel, then I suggest using your card to make the purchase through the portal.
As for spending done outside of that portal, the Venture X keeps it simple by applying a flat 2x on all eligible purchases made out of the Capital One Travel portal. That includes non-portal travel spending, e.g. a $300 plane ticket you buy directly from Delta will get you only 600 Capital One points; so if you want to use your Venture X card, it’s in your best interest to search for and possibly purchase that same flight through the Capital One Travel portal (you’d get 5x on buying that $300 ticket through the portal, netting you 1500 Capital One points instead).
This may seem like a less exciting feature when compared to the higher earning rates of other premium travel credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, but it’s perhaps just as powerful. The ability to earn two points per dollar on every purchase means you can use it for pretty much all your spending and you’ll steadily earn points as you simply live your life without thinking too much about your points strategy.
What are the points transfer partners of the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card?
You can transfer Capital One points to these airline partners:
- Aeromexico Club Premier
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France / KLM Flying Blue
- Avianca LifeMiles
- British Airways Executive Club
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Emirates Skywards
- Etihad Guest
- EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
- Finnair Plus
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go
- Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- Virgin Red
With one exception, all Capital One points transfer to airline partners at a one to one (1:1) ratio, which means that one Capital One point is equivalent to one mile or point with most of these loyalty programs, once transferred. The exception to this is EVA Air Infinity MileageLands. Capital One points transfer to EVA AIr at a 2:1.5 ratio (e.g. 1000 Capital One points become 750 EVA Air miles).
Transfer times from Capital One to its travel partners vary. Points transfers to Cathay Pacific can take up to 24 hours. Meanwhile, points transfers to EVA Air can take up to 36 hours. Points transfers to all other airline partners are relatively instantaneous.
And these are Capital One’s current hotel partners.
- ALL Accor Live Limitless
- Choice Privileges
- Wyndham Rewards
Capital One points transfer at a 1:1 ratio to Choice Privileges and Wyndham Rewards; points transfer to Accor at a 2:1 ratio. Points transfers to all these hotel loyalty programs vary in speed. It can take up to two days for Accor, one day for Choice Privileges, and a few minutes for Wyndham.
On the whole, transferring points to hotels rarely maximizes the value of your points. You’re better off sticking to points transfers to airlines to get the most cents per point when you compare the cash price to the points cost.
What kinds of flights can I take using the points I earn from the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card?
With the current welcome offer of 75,000 bonus points, that can get you a wide variety of travel experiences. Here are some ideas of what you could do with those points.
- Take your family to Disney World by transferring points to British Airways Executive Club and booking partner awards for four roundtrip economy tickets on American Airlines between Dallas and Orlando for a total of 72,000 Avios (that’s British’s miles currency)
- Fly in comfort and style to see the Eiffel Tower by transferring points to Air France-KLM Flying Blue and booking a one-way award flight from New York to Paris in Air France business class for 55,000 Flying Blue miles (with enough left over to book an economy flight back for just 15,000 Flying Blue miles
- Go on a group vacation to Hawai’i by transferring points to Air Canada Aeroplan and booking partner awards for three roundtrip economy tickets on United between San Francisco and Honolulu for as low as 75,000 Aeroplan miles in total
I highly recommend transferring your Capital One points to an airline partner rather than using the points to pay for travel through the Capital One Travel portal. You will rarely maximize the value of your credit card points by using them in travel portals. Do the math: Your 75,000 points are worth only $750 through the travel portal, whereas those four roundtrip tickets to Orlando could cost as much as $1,400. Transferring your points to airlines will stretch the value of your points way farther than they could ever go in a travel portal. (To learn how to calculate the value of your points, read this guide.)
That said, finding flights bookable with points does take time and patience. We at Going can do the work for you. We send email alerts to our Elite members when we find a good deal bookable with points and miles—often for even fewer points than the prices I’ve listed above. Here’s how it works.
What are the other benefits of the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card?
In addition to the ability to earn Capital One points and transfer them to airline partners, the Venture X also has a number of benefits that mitigate the high annual fee—and even make it so that the cost to carry this card is virtually zero.
The card comes with a $300 annual travel credit—the only thing is that you have to make your purchases through the Capital One Travel portal, which is easy enough. For what it’s worth, I just used my $300 credit on a hotel booking in Paris this September; it was an easy process and the prices were equivalent to what was advertised directly on the hotel’s site.
On top of that, you get 10,000 Capital One points every year, after your first year of card membership; that’s worth $100 if you redeem through the Capital One Travel portal—and even more if you transfer them directly to an airline partner to make an award booking.
Between those two credits, that’s at least $400 of value, negating the $395 annual fee. And that doesn’t count the Global Entry and/or TSA PreCheck® credit that you get every four years as reimbursement for the application fee charged to the card. On top of that, you get plenty of lounge access with the Venture X: With it, you receive unlimited complimentary access to Capital One Lounges for the cardholder and two guests per visit (at the time of writing, the only Capital One Lounge currently open is the location at Dallas-Fort Worth). Additionally, you get access to over 1,300 airport lounges in Capital One’s Partner Lounge Network, which includes lounges within Priority Pass™ and the Plaza Premium Group.
Who is the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card for?
For the simplicity of its reward structure and the easy-to-use travel credits that essentially bring the annual fee to $0, I recommend the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card to travelers who want a premium rewards card that they’ll actually use every day, not just while they’re on the road (or in the air, as it were). The ability to earn two points per dollar on every kind of spending, no matter what (thank goodness for no foreign transaction fees!), is unmatched in this tier of consumer credit cards. Add to that the lounge access and the Global Entry and/or TSA PreCheck® credit, and this card will quickly become one of the longest-standing cards in your wallet—which is to say, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a reason to not keep this card for a good long while.
What are my other options, if I don’t think the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is right for me?
It’s worth noting that the mid-range version of this card—simply called the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card—offers nearly the same reward structure: 2x on all purchases made outside the Capital One Travel portal; 5x on hotels and rental cars booked through the Capital One Travel portal, for a reduced annual fee of $95.
It doesn’t have any easy-to-use credits, however, so the Venture X, in theory, costs less to carry than its “junior” sibling. Which one you choose may just come down to the question of if and how you’d use the credits that come with the Venture X, such as the Global Entry and/or TSA PreCheck® credit and the lounge access.
Going has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Going and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses, and recommendations are the author's alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
