The CNN Underscored Money editorial team has developed a star rating so you can see the best card for specific categories. While we believe this card excels in this category, its overall star rating may differ.
CNNU Money editors awarded this card 5 stars as the best Travel card.
Pros:
- 2 miles for every dollar you spend on all purchases
- 5 miles on flights and 10 miles on hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One Travel
- Easy to redeem miles for any travel purchase at 1 cent per mile
- Advanced users can get even more valuable redemptions by transferring miles to 18 airline and hotel partners
- Up to $300 in annual statement credits for bookings made through the Capital One Travel portal
- 10,000 bonus miles each year on your card member anniversary
- Priority Pass Select membership and complimentary access to Capital One airport lounges
- Up to $100 Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit
- Cell phone insurance
- No foreign transaction fees
Cons:
- No introductory APR on purchases or balance transfers
- Mostly international airline transfer partners and limited hotel partners
- $395 annual fee
Current welcome bonus: Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.
Best for: People looking for a premium travel credit card with all the bells and whistles, but with an annual fee below $400.
Digging into the Capital One Venture X card
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card debuted in November 2021 and turned heads for those looking for a premium travel rewards credit card. Although the card comes with a $395 annual fee, that’s still less expensive than most of the other premium travel credit cards on the market, while still offering a ton of benefits.
Those benefits include up to $300 in annual statement credits for travel bookings made through Capital One Travel, 10,000 bonus miles each year starting with your first card member anniversary, up to $100 in credits for a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck membership every four years, cell phone insurance, a Priority Pass Select membership and complimentary access to the issuer’s new airport lounge network.
While the card might not offer as many bells and whistles as some other premium travel cards, the annual fee on the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is significantly lower, making it more desirable for those in the market for a premium travel credit card. The benefits are well-designed and can easily help offset the annual fee.
Earning and redeeming miles with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is also extremely easy. The card offers a simple approach, earning a fixed 2 miles for every dollar you spend on almost all purchases. The only exception is if you purchase travel through the Capital One Travel portal — on flights purchased through the portal, you’ll earn 5 miles per dollar spent, and on hotels and car rentals, you’ll earn a whopping 10 miles per dollar spent.
When it comes to redeeming your Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card miles, you can use them to wipe away your travel purchases at a fixed value of 1 cent per mile. Alternatively, you have the option to transfer your miles to Capital One’s airline and hotel partners and get potentially even more value for your rewards.
Advantages of the Capital One Venture X card
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card has a lot to offer. With its many benefits and simple approach to earning and redeeming miles, it’s an extremely competitive option.
Currently, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is offering new card holders 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on the card within the first three months after opening the account. Since the card earns 2 miles per dollar spent, you’ll end up with 83,000 miles when you include the miles earned from spending $4,000 on the card. Those 83,000 miles are worth $830 toward travel purchases, or potentially even more if transferred to a partner loyalty program.
After you make a travel purchase with your Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, you can cover it with miles at a fixed value of 1 cent per mile. This allows you to cover the cost of the entire purchase — or just a portion of the cost if you prefer — with your miles. You have 90 days from the date the purchase was made to redeem your miles, and ultimately anything that codes as “travel” is eligible, such as airfare, hotels, car rentals, cruises, trains and even taxis.
While the $395 annual fee on the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card isn’t cheap, the benefits of the card can provide immediate savings and make the annual fee more palatable. Two of our favorites are the annual travel statement credits and the anniversary bonus miles.
During each year you have the card, you’ll receive up to $300 in statement credits for bookings made through Capital One Travel. This works like any other travel booking site, such as Expedia, meaning that you can buy virtually any flight, hotel or car rental that’s available. For those who travel even just once or twice a year, using the $300 credit should be incredibly easy.
Then, on every account anniversary — starting with your second year as a Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card card holder — you’ll automatically earn 10,000 bonus miles. These miles are worth a minimum of $100 toward travel. So if you use both the bonus miles and the $300 travel credits each year, the card essentially pays for itself.
But one of the best benefits of the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is its complimentary lounge access. The card comes with a Priority Pass Select membership that provides free access to over 1,300 airport lounges around the world.
Plus, Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card card holders get complimentary access to Capital One’s lounges. The first lounge in the network opened in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) in 2021, and its second opened at Washington-Dulles (IAD) in 2023. The issuer is set to open a new lounge in Denver (DEN) soon. Each card member can bring up to two guests into the lounge with them.
Additionally, Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card card holders receive up to a $100 statement credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, cell phone protection (up to $800 per claim with a $50 deductible), primary car rental coverage, trip delay protection if your flight is delayed six hours or more or requires an overnight stay, lost luggage reimbursement, complimentary Hertz President’s Circle status and no foreign transaction fees.
Above all, you can add up to four authorized users to your Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card at no additional cost. Authorized users also get many of the same benefits as the primary card holder, such as a Priority Pass Select membership, access to Capital One Lounges, Hertz President’s Club status and travel protection benefits.
Understanding the benefits of Capital One’s transfer partners
Although Capital One makes it incredibly easy to redeem your miles for all travel-related purchases, advanced card holders might find more value in transferring their miles to one of Capital One’s travel partners. Using transferred miles requires some planning and flexibility, but can result in getting a lot more value when redeeming your miles. Capital One currently has 18 travel partners — 15 airlines and 3 hotels.
Airline partners
Aeromexico Club Premier
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
| Qantas Frequent Flyer
|
Air Canada Aeroplan
| Emirates Skywards
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
|
Air France-KLM Flying Blue
| Etihad Airways Guest
| TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go
|
Avianca LifeMiles
| EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
| Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
|
British Airways Avios
| Finnair Plus
| Virgin Red
|
Hotel partners
Accor Live Limitless
| Choice Privileges
| Wyndham Rewards
|
Capital One miles transfer to most of its airline and hotel partners at a 1:1 ratio, meaning for every 1,000 Capital One miles transferred, you receive 1,000 points or miles in the respective airline or hotel program. The only two exceptions are EVA Air Infinity MileageLands (which transfers at a 2:1.5 ratio) and Accor Live Limitless (which transfers at a 2:1 ratio).
Although transferring your miles to a partner program can be complex, there are many situations where redeeming your miles with this method makes sense. For example, you can transfer Capital One miles to British Airways Executive Club to book short-haul flights on American and Alaska for as few as 7,500 Avios (British Airways’ award currency) one-way.
Likewise, you can transfer to Air Canada Aeroplan to book business class award tickets to Asia, Europe and beyond at reasonable rates. Your flight doesn’t have to be on Air Canada either; the airline has partnerships with a variety of airlines including United Airlines, Emirates and Singapore Airlines, among others.
Disadvantages of the Capital One Venture X card
One of the best features of the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is its simplicity, but this can also be a flaw in some respects since the card doesn’t have any major bonus categories. You won’t earn any bonus miles on common everyday purchases such as gas stations, grocery stores or dining out.
While you’re earning 2 miles per dollar on everything with the card, many other credit cards offer more points and miles in specific bonus categories. That means if you find yourself spending a majority of your household budget in one of those categories, you might prefer a card that rewards you more for those particular purchases.
That said, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card does earn 5 miles on flights and 10 miles on hotels and car rentals when you book through the Capital One Travel portal. However, that has its disadvantages, as you won’t usually earn hotel points or have your elite status honored on your hotel stays booked via a travel portal.
And if you prefer to redeem your miles for travel at a fixed value, you’re pigeonholed into only redeeming your miles for travel. With a cash back card like the Citi Double Cash? Card * The information for the Citi Double Cash? Card has been collected independently by CNN Underscored. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. , for instance, you’ll earn 2% cash back on all purchases — 1% when you make a purchase, and another 1% when you pay it off. That’s effectively the exact same return, but it’s hard cash in your pocket which can be used on anything you’d like.
If you think you’re mostly going to redeem your miles at a fixed value instead of transferring your miles to partner programs and you’re not going to utilize all of the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card’s premium travel benefits, then likely benefit from a cash back credit card instead.
And while it’s great that Capital One has 18 transfer partners and continues to add to its roster, there are no US-based air carriers on the list. While the international carriers can provide a ton of value — and many partner with US airlines — there can be a steep learning curve in figuring out how these programs work.
Other credit cards similar to the Capital One Venture X
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card was designed to go head-to-head with cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve? and The Platinum Card? from American Express. They all offer premium perks at a high cost, but with benefits that rival any other card on the market. All three also offer the opportunity to transfer points to partner programs, though each one has its own unique list of partners.
The Platinum Card? from American Express offers the most perks, but with an incredibly high $695 annual fee (terms apply, see rates and fees), you’ll want to make sure you’re using all of them to get your money’s worth. American Express has the most transfer partners of any transferable points program with 20 airlines and hotels in its Membership Rewards? roster. But if you don’t want to redeem points by transferring them, the remaining redemption options on The Platinum Card? from American Express aren’t particularly lucrative.
Meanwhile, the Chase Sapphire Reserve? has a nice set of bonus categories and offers a ton of flexibility when it comes to using your rewards. Redeeming points through the Chase travel portal comes with a 50% bonus, and Chase Ultimate Rewards? transfer partners offer several US-based options, such as United MileagePlus, Southwest Rapid Rewards and World of Hyatt.
But, the Chase Sapphire Reserve? still comes with a significantly higher $550 annual fee than the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, and it has fewer transfer partners with only 14 options. Regardless, run the numbers and see if the extra cost is worth it for your particular situation.
Should you apply for the Capital One Venture X card?
It’s somewhat refreshing that Capital One has chosen to create a premium card with a relatively low price point and basic easy-to-use elite perks that many travelers truly want. While $395 may seem like a lot of money for a credit card, it’s much cheaper than the annual fees of its premium card competitors. Plus, it’s easy to essentially offset the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card’s entire annual cost with the included $300 annual travel credit and 10,000 anniversary bonus miles.
As Capital One builds out its own airport lounge network, the value of this card will only grow. So if you’re looking for a premium travel credit card with all the most important features and at a reasonable cost, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card may very well fit the bill.
To view rates and fees for The Platinum Card? from American Express, please visit this page.
All information about Citi Double Cash? Card has been collected independently by CNN Underscored.
