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Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
The Capital One Venture X is a great premium card that I have, carry, and use. In some sense it competes against Amex Platinum and Sapphire Preferred – but at a much lower annual fee price point of $395 (see rates and fees).
The card has an initial bonus to 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.
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is my go-to for spend that doesn’t earn in an accelerator category on other cards. It earns 10 miles per dollar on hotels and car rentals booked via Capital One Travel; 5 miles per dollar on vacation rentals and flights booked via Capital One Travel; and 2 miles per dollar on other purchases.
I like 2x earn as a catch-all for the bulk of my spending. And when it comes time to redeem, I prefer transferring points to airlines over using points at fixed value against travel expenses.
Capital One’s points do 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. This is done at a value of 1 cent apiece against travel purchases in the form of a statement credit.
The travel category also goes beyond flights to “rail lines, car rental agencies, limousine services, bus lines, cruise lines, taxi cabs, travel agents and time shares.” There’s no minimum points required when redeeming for a statement credit against travel spend.
Here are the partners for points transfers.
I value Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer for booking Singapore’s own premium cabins (availability is better than with partners – indeed, many partners lack access to premium cabin long haul seats entirely).
Singapore Airlines Airbus A350
I find EVA Air to offer good availability to program members using their own miles. And TAP does a good job of making space available at greater than the lowest award price, making them an option when little else is available.
EVA Air Hello Kitty Business Class
Now that many Avios program make better award space available using a program’s own miles, Finnair and British Airways are quite useful. The same applies to Qantas for travel to and from Australia. And Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles get access to more premium cabin award seats on that airline than oneworld partner programs do.
Cathay Pacific First Class
Cathay Pacific First Class
I’m on record that Air France KLM’s Flying Blue is the best program in SkyTeam. I’ve used their miles frequently for my own business class travels between the U.S. and Europe.
KLM Business Class
KLM Business Class Departure Gift, Delft Houses
Now that Virgin makes some awards available much cheaper both in points and money, I see them as a fantastic path to premium cabin travel to London. And there are few better deals than using Emirates miles to upgrade from business class to first class.
Emirates Airbus A380 Shower Spa
Capital One currently has lounges at Dallas – Fort Worth; Washington Dulles; Denver; and Las Vegas. They also have a restaurant concept, Capital One Landing, at Washington’s National airport and another one announced for New York LaGuardia.
The Venture X card comes with complimentary unlimited access to these lounges. You can also request a Priority Pass for access to their 1,300+ partner lounges.
The Capital One Landing at DCA has some of my absolute favorite lounge food in the U.S. I make reservations (not strictly speaking required) whenever booking tickets out of this airport.
I really like Capital One’s lounges as well. In my experience, even when the lounge is full it still is enjoyable, with plenty of seating and access to the bar. When there are queues, they manage it well – you can add yourself in their mobile app when you wish (for instance, when you make it to the airport before going through security).
And the food is really quite excellent. Plus, they offer a ‘grab and go’ concept with refrigerators near the entrance so you can visit and take something with you to your flight.
Since Capital One lets you add additional cardholders for no fee (see rates and fees), you can extend lounge access as well.
To me, the card’s cost is an easy decision when I factor that you get $300 in credits annually for bookings made through Capital One Travel. I’m not personally a big fan of booking hotels through travel portals, so I just use the credit to buy an airline ticket.
While many card issuers have cut back on travel and product protections, Venture X offers trip delay reimbursement; cellphone protection (by using the card to pay your monthly wireless bill, your cellphone is protected for the next calendar month); auto rental collision damage waiver (count on built-in auto rental coverage, sve money by saying no at the counter — rent with your covered Visa Infinite card and get built-in Auto Rental Coverage); extended warranty protection (extend your qualifying product warranties automatically when you purchase using your Venture X card); and return protection.
You’ll also receive up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®.
The card is worth getting, spurred on by the initial bonus offer. It’s worth using for my ongoing spend. And it’s worth having for the benefits.
Each year I do the math. Between the $300 credit and an anniversary bonus of 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary, starting on your first anniversary (worth $100 toward travel or transfer miles to partners), I’m covering my cost – and getting access to Capital One’s lounges which I enjoy.
