Capital One Venture X Card features and benefits
Premium benefits to upgrade your travel experience
This card offers a credit of up to $120 to cover the cost of a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® membership. The wait time's longer for a Global Entry interview, but if you're approved for that program, you also get TSA PreCheck®. Going through airport security still isn't fun, but it's faster, and you get to keep your shoes on.
You can get extra perks at upscale hotels if you book through Capital One Travel. This card provides access to two curated hotel collections, and complimentary benefits with each one:
- Premier Collection: A collection offering luxury hotel stays. As a cardholder, you get a $100 experience credit to use during your stay, daily breakfast for two, room upgrades when available, early check-in and late checkout when available, and complimentary wifi.
- Lifestyle Collection: A collection offering stylish and unique hotels. As a cardholder, you get a $50 experience credit to use during your stay, room upgrades when available, early check-in and late checkout when available, and complimentary wifi.
Be sure to check out the full terms and conditions for Premier Collection and Capital One Travel.
Pays for itself without making you jump through hoops
Some credit cards with annual fees pay for themselves, but only if you use a complicated mix of monthly, quarterly, and yearly spending credits. It's one of my biggest credit card pet peeves: Feeling as if I need to keep track of all kinds of credits to get my money's worth.
It's also one of the best parts about this Capital One card. The annual fee is $395, but you can get $400 in travel savings every year with only two of this card's benefits:
- $300 annual travel credit: You receive this on bookings with Capital One Travel, so it's easy to save $300 a year on travel.
- 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary: Starting on your first anniversary as a cardholder, you'll receive 10,000 bonus miles, which are redeemable at a rate of $0.01 per mile toward travel.
In addition it's worth mentioning this card's welcome bonus of 75,000 Miles after you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months, which gives it even more value upfront. To top it off, you can add authorized users free of charge. Some cards charge $75 or more for each authorized user.
Unlimited double miles: A card you can use anywhere
Instead of loading this card with bonus categories, Capital One takes a different approach. This card earns an unlimited 2X miles per $1 on purchases. It earns more on Capital One Travel bookings: 5X miles on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel and 10X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.
Most travel cards have more bonus categories, but they earn a normal rate of 1X points/miles everywhere else. That means they're not the best choice for everyday spending outside of their bonus categories.
With this Capital One card, you don't need to remember a bunch of bonus categories or carry a wallet full of different cards. No matter where you use it, you'll get a reasonable rate of 2X miles.
A much improved travel rewards program that can get you around the world
Capital One's travel rewards program has gotten a lot better over the years. You've always been able to redeem Capital One miles at $0.01 per mile toward travel. For example, if you have 75,000 miles, you can use them to cover $750 in travel purchases made on your card.
You can also transfer miles to over 15 airline and hotel loyalty programs. Transfers to airline partners, in particular, are a great way to save on flights by booking with miles. To give you an idea of how you can use miles, here are a few of the top Capital One Travel partners:
- Avianca LifeMiles: A hidden gem, this program allows you to fly business-class on avianca-operated flights or book flights with avianca's partners -- a long list that includes United and Lufthansa.
- British Airways Executive Club: This program has a massive network of routes from British Airways and its partners. The amount of its rewards currency -- Avios -- you can earn depends on factors such as which airline you use, the cabin you fly in, your ticket type, and your Executive Club Tier.
- Flying Blue: Headed by Air France and KLM, this program could get you to Paris, Amsterdam, and plenty of other popular destinations in Europe.
What could be improved
Weak bonus categories slow down your earnings
You won't earn bonus rewards on your regular expenses or much of your travel spending with this card. It only earns bonus points when you book through Capital One Travel.
Other travel cards have much more useful bonus categories. There are cards that earn 3X points or more on airfare, hotels, dining, and even travel as a whole, to give you a few examples. These are opportunities to earn more rewards, especially if you have high spending in a card's bonus categories.
Now, to be fair, those cards normally also have a standard, non-bonus rate of 1X points/miles per $1. With this Capital One card, you're basically trading bonus categories for a higher rate of 2X miles in every category.
Miles aren't as useful as what other card issuers offer
The other drawback, at least compared to other top travel cards, is this card's miles. They're certainly useful, since you can transfer them or redeem them for travel at $0.01 per mile.
But Chase and American Express have some advantages in this area. They also let you transfer your rewards, only their travel partners are better and include major U.S. airlines. You can use your miles to book on United through avianca LifeMiles but you can't transfer miles to American, Delta, or Southwest.
The Chase Sapphire cards also let you redeem points for travel bookings through Chase Ultimate Rewards. You get $0.0125 to $0.015 per point this way -- 25% to 50% more value than Capital One offers.
