Launched in late 2021 the Capital One Venture X Card stormed onto the market to immediately become one of the top travel rewards credit cards in the U.S.. Going directly after cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve and The Platinum Card from American Express, the Venture X marked Capital One’s first foray into the Ultra Premium credit card sector. A higher annual fee brings with it a wealth of benefits plus earning and redeeming options to compete with other cards charging over $300 per year.
The review of the Capital One Venture X Card review is broken down into the following sections:
Overview
The Capital One Venture X Card is a card targeted towards U.S. travelers who want a flexible (Hybrid) travel rewards card that provides the utmost in benefits coupled with strong earn rates and flexible reward options. From a great airport lounge access program to annual travel credits to being able to convert miles to over 15 airline & hotel programs, this card has it all.
Costs & Sign up Features
The Capital One Venture X Card has an annual fee of $395. This may seem high but for an Ultra Premium card it is actually quite a bit lower than its competitors. Add in the fact additional/supplementary cards are free and include most of the benefits the primary cardholder gets and you can see that $395 provides great value.
Right now the Capital One Venture X Card is is offering a welcome bonus of 75,000 miles The bonus is awarded when you spend $4,000 in the first three months your account is account is open.
Earning
The card earns Capital One Miles and earns those miles as follows
- 10 Miles per dollar spent on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- 5 Miles per dollar spent on flights booked through Capital One Travel
- 2 Miles per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases
- 10 Miles per dollar spent when you book on Turo, the world’s largest car sharing marketplace, through May 16, 2023.
The card also offers 10,000 bonus miles every year, starting on your first anniversary
Point Valuation Chart
| Spending Category | Points earned per dollar spent | Effective rate of return (travel booked via Capital One Travel or your own travel bookings) |
Effective rate of return (converting to airlines/hotels) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel | 10 | 10% | 6%* to 50+% |
| Flights booked through Capital One Travel | 5 | 5% | 3%* to 25+% |
| All other spending | 2 | 2% | 1.2%* to 10+% |
| Turo bookings | 10 | 10% | 6%* to 50+% |
| * This is a very low minimum valuation based on Choice Privileges points being worth 0.6 cents each. In most cases you should be able to easily pull higher values especially if you redeem for business class or first class flights. | |||
Redeeming
There are multiple redemption options with Capital One’s program and like many proprietary credit card programs these include travel, airline+hotel transfers, cash back and gift cards.
Travel
Redeeming Capital One Miles for travel is extremely straightforward with three options to chose from.
Book via Capital One Travel
You can use your Capital One Miles to pay for travel that you book via Capital One Travel. Miles are redeemed at a value of 1 mile to 1 cent towards any travel you book via the portal. The advantage of booking via Capital One Travel is to be able to use the $300 annual travel credit that the card offers and to be able to earn 5 to 10 points per dollar on whatever portion of the travel you don’t redeem your miles towards. That being said, if you have previously used up your travel credit you may be better off booking travel directly with a provided and using the statement credit option we detail next.
Book travel your own way
This option also lets you redeem 1 mile towards 1 cent of your travel purchases. You can basically go out and buy travel with whomever you like, an airline like Southwest, a hotel chain like Marriott and so on. Once the charge shows up on your account you can then redeem your miles towards the charge with either a partial redemption or the full amount – it’s up to you. You have 90 days after the charge posts to be redeem your miles towards it. This redemption option is ideal for booking travel like hotel stays. Most hotel chains will only award points, elite status credit and even only provide status benefits when you book direct with them. Thus you can book with them, pay with the Venture X card and then redeem your miles towards that charge all the while still earning all your hotel points and benefits.
Convert to Airline + Hotel partners
The last travel redemption option of this card is the one points and miles enthusiasts love! And that is the ability to convert your Capital One Miles to 17 airline and hotel programs. With airline frequent flyer programs you have the ability to extract outsized value of the miles or points when you redeem for business class or first class flights. And by outsized value we mean upwards of 5 cents per mile/point or more. With the Venture X earning up to 10 points per dollar spent that can represent up to a 50% or more return on you spending!
Current Capital One Miles Transfer partners and the transfer ratio:
- AeroMexico Club Premier 1:1
- Air Canada Aeroplan 1:1
- Air France KLM Flying Blue 1:1
- Avianca LifeMiles 1:1
- British Airways Executive Club 1:1
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles 1:1
- Emirates Skywards 1:1
- Etihad Guest 1:1
- EVA Air Infinity MileageLands 2:1.5
- Finnair Plus 1:1
- Qantas Frequent Flyer 1:1
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer 1:1
- TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go 1:1
- Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles 1:1
- ALL Accor Live Limitless 2:1
- Choice Privileges 1:1
- Wyndham Rewards 1:1
Other redemption options
Finally you are also able to redeem Capital One Miles for non-flight rewards including gift cards (1 cent per mile) or cash back statement credits (0.5 cents per mile)
Features and Benefits
This is where the Capital One Venture X Card really shines. It is full of benefits and additional features that complement the really strong miles earning and redeeming capabilities
Airport Business Class Lounge Access
This card provides one of the best lounge access programs found on a credit card! It has multiple options providing access to over 1,400 business class lounges around the world. The lounge access benefits for the Capital One Venture X are as follows
- Capital One Lounges: Unlimited complimentary access for the cardholder and 2 guests per visit. Capital One have moved into the lounge game themselves and currently have one lounge open in Dallas and lounges coming soon to Denver and Washington-Dulles. Further into the future lounges will be opening in Las Vegas, New York La Guardia and Washington National.
- Plaza Premium Lounges: Unlimited complimentary access for the cardholder and 2 guests per visit to Plaza Premium Lounges around the world
- Priority Pass: Unlimited complimentary access for the cardholder and 2 guests per lounge visit. All additional guests are US$32. (Please note the Priority Pass restaurant option for dining credits is being removed as of January 1, 2023)
The lounge access is also available for all additional/supplementary cards on your account.
Annual Travel Credit
Upon approval for the card and then each year on your card’s anniversary date you will up to $300 back as statement credits for bookings through Capital One Travel. The credit will be applied as a full $300 if your booking is $300 or more. If it is less than $300 the applicable amount will be credited and the remainder will applied to future travel bookings.
Annual bonus points
Starting with your first anniversary on the card and each year after that you’ll receive 10,000 bonus points. That’s at least $100 in value to your everyday travel bookings or higher when converted to an airline partner.
Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® Credit
You will receive up to a $100 credit on Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® application fees once every four years as long as those fees are charged to your Capital Venture X Card.
No Foreign Transaction Fees
No foreign transaction fees will be charged on any purchases you make on the card that are not in US dollars.
Hertz Elite Status
Another benefit for the primary and any additional cardholders on the account is complimentary Hertz President’s Circle Elite Status.
Insurance
The Capital One Venture X Credit Card comes with a decent insurance package that includes the following:
- Trip Cancellation Insurance
- Trip Interruption Insurance
- Trip Delay Reimbursement
- Lost Luggage Insurance
- Primary Car Rental Theft and Damage Insurance
- Cell Phone Insurance
- Purchase Protection Plan
- Extended Warranty
What is good about this card
The welcome bonus is great – 75,000 Capital One Miles are worth $750 towards any travel or 75,000 miles/points in most of their airline transfer partners. In most cases you only need 70,000 Aeroplan points for a one way business class from North America to most destinations in Europe on their partner airlines – that’s easily worth over $1,000.
The card has really good earn rates. The base earn rate of 2 miles per dollar is like having a 2% return when you redeem for any travel and also makes it a 2 miles/points card for most of the transfer partners. The accelerated earn rates for Capital One Travel bookings are excellent if you can funnel lots of bookings via the portal.
The lounge access is second to none with this card – getting both Priority Pass and Plaza Premium access is great especially after the two companies parted ways in 2021.
Not having to pay an annual fee for additional cards when they get most of the benefits provided on the primary card is an amazing benefit. That is full lounge access, Hertz status and more for you all your supplementary cardholders.
What is not so good about this card
The somewhat lack of flexibility if you are not someone who needs to convert points to airlines and hotels. Being forced to book travel via Capital One Travel – while not a bad option does limit you to what their travel portal offers. You may not have access to best offers out there but they do offer price drop protection and the ability to hold pricing for 14 days. That being said since Capital One Travel is operating as an OTA (Online Travel Agency) if you book hotels via the portal you will most likely not earn your hotel loyalty program points and most likely will not have your elite benefits recognized. This is the same process as if you booked via Expedia, Hotels dot com etc.
The airline and hotel conversion options, while amazing for many points and miles enthusiasts, may not be very attractive for a lot of American travelers. The reason why is that there is not one U.S. based airline that is a conversion partner. Yes, there are partners that you can end up using miles on U.S. airlines such as Aeroplan points on United Airlines and British Airways Avios on American Airlines but a lot of people do not want to take that circuitous route to getting those domestic U.S. award flights.
The hotel partner conversions at 2:1 (Accor) and 1:1 (Choice & Wyndham) don’t represent a great value when compared to the airline conversions but it is still nice to have them as an option.
The annual fee – while on the low end for an Ultra Premium Card is still high for a lot of people and may be out of reach. If that’s the case you may be better of with this card’s sibling the Capital One Venture Card or the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.
Customer Service – According to one of reader’s comments, Capital One’s customer service leaves something to be desired!
Who should get this card
- Consumers who want a card with flexible and multiple travel redemption options
- Consumers who want excellent lounge access for themselves and others travelling with them
- Consumers who get additional cards for their partners, spouses and/or children who can use all the benefits afforded to those free additional cards
- Frequent flyers of any of the Capital One airline transfer partners who want a credit card that has good earn rates to help boost the balance(s) in their frequent flyer programs.
Conclusion
The Capital One Venture X card stormed onto the market in 2021 the fill the bank’s need for an Ultra Premium card offering. It provides many of the same benefits as other Ultra Premium cards in the market but with a noticeably lower annual fee along with no fees on additional cards. With a strong welcome bonus, healthy earn rates, a great lounge access benefit and the ability to transfer to a big list of airline and hotel partners make this one of the better card options for many Americans.
Click here to learn more about the Capital One Venture X Card
Other cards to consider if you are looking at this card:
- American Express Gold Card
- The Platinum Card® from American Express
- Capital One Venture Rewards Card
- Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
- Chase Sapphire Reserve Card®
- U.S. Bank Altitude® Connect Visa Signature® Card
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You can remove the part about Capital One Lounges until they actually open one. IAD announced nearly three years ago!
I’m guessing that you may have skimmed or didn’t read that actual part and that they do have one lounge open?
” Unlimited complimentary access for the cardholder and 2 guests per visit. Capital One have moved into the lounge game themselves and currently have one lounge open in Dallas and lounges coming soon to Denver and Washington-Dulles. Further into the future lounges will be opening in Las Vegas, New York La Guardia and Washington National.”
Another not so good is customer service. Been 3 months now and haven’t received the credits for my AirB&B. Haven’t received anniversary miles. Phone reps have been useless. No departments to speak to who can directly address my issues – only can “file a report” and someone “will get back to me” – needless to say – no one has gotten back to me several times.
Only reason I kept the card was they offered a $100 credit to the AF and if I close they won’t continue to process the credit which even their T&C says they’re outside the latest date for reimbursement.
Good card – but they have to get their act together.
Thank you for the feedback on the customer service (or lack thereof)