I’ve said multiple times on this blog that the Venture X from Capital One is the best travel credit card on the market. In this post, I’m going to provide details on why I think that. The $395 annual fee of this card is easily negated by easy to use perks that most travelers can take advantage of. If you have been hesitant to apply for a high annual fee premium credit card in the past, I believe this is the card that will make you look at things differently. The main that topics I’ll be discussing are:
I will show how I have personally taken advantage of what this card offers to demonstrate just how easy it is to get enough value from this card to cover the annual fee.
The Venture X is currently offering 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 within the first 3 months of account opening. Since the Venture X earns an impressive 2x miles on all purchases, you will have a minimum of 83,000 miles once you meet the spend requirement. These miles are incredibly valuable as they can be transferred to 13 different airlines at a 1:1 ratio.
I booked an upcoming trip to London in the British Airways Club World business class cabin for $350 in fees and 80,000 miles. The same flight with the same lie flat business class seat would have cost $5,732 without miles. On the way back, I booked a business class award with Virgin Atlantic for $756 in fees plus 57,500 miles. The same seat would have cost me $5,633 without miles. Both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are transfer partners of Capital One.
As you can see, this welcome offer alone can get you thousands of dollars worth of free travel making it well worth the first year’s annual fee of the Venture X. However, because of the other perks that this card has, you will likely be more than willing to renew this card year after year.
Each year, you can earn up to $300 back in statement credits when making purchases with the Venture X through Capital One Travel. Capital One Travel is an online travel portal similar to Expedia or Priceline. I used my credit to book a flight on American Airlines to visit family on a recent trip. The price from Capital One Travel was the exact same price if I had booked the flight directly through American Airlines. Even if the prices were not identical, you can use Capital One’s price match guarantee to have the difference credited to you (read more on this below). Capital One says your travel credit will be credited in as little as 7 business days or up to 2 billing cycles. I received my credit in less than three weeks.
You can book hotels, flights, and car rentals through Capital One Travel. You don’t have to make a single purchase of $300 or more. Multiple smaller purchases can be made to receive the full credit, and Capital One provides a convenient tool that allows you to track how much of the credit you’ve received.
This is a travel game, so if you are reading this, you should be able to take advantage of this credit in any given year. If you aren’t sure that you will be able to receive the full credit, wait until you do have a $300+ flight, hotel, or rental car purchase coming up and apply then.
The Venture X offers a ridiculous 10x miles per dollar spent on hotels and rental cars booked through the portal and an impressive 5x miles on airfare. These are best in class multipliers and can add up quickly if you travel often. Any concerns that you may not be getting the best price are eliminated due to Capital One’s price match guarantee. I have used their price match twice so far this year without issue, but there are some things to be aware of.
If you find a better price than what is on the portal, you have to call Capital One Travel within 24 hours of booking. For my trips, I made sure to find the lower price ahead of time. I then booked the trip through the portal and immediately called Capital One Travel at 844-422-6922. Both of my calls took about 10 minutes from the time I dialed the number until the time the agent verified the price difference. A few days later, a credit for the price difference appeared on my statement.
The agent must be able to verify the lower price without logging in to whatever site is showing the lower amount. This means they won’t honor any loyalty program discounts. Additionally, if you are a member of a loyalty program, you might not be able to take advantage of your program’s benefits since the portal will not allow you to enter your loyalty program’s membership number. If you do have an elevated tier status with an airline or hotel, it’s probably best to book your trip direct.
One final thing to note about the portal is that Capital One recently started issuing price difference credits in the form of travel credits instead of statement credits. Receiving a credit that can only be used in the travel portal is obviously not as good as a statement credit, but it’s not that big of a deal if you see the value in using their travel portal like I do.
Below is my reward activity statement showing how I took advantage of both the price match guarantee and the 10x mile multiplier on on an upcoming hotel stay that I booked through the portal. Those 11,347 miles were earned from the 10x multiplier on a hotel stay. Subtracting the 836 miles deducted for the credit, those miles are worth a minimum of $105.11 or 10% off the purchase price if redeemed for cash back.
But remember – you aren’t going to redeem miles for cash back. Miles and points almost always have more value when redeeming for travel.
For the above hotel stay, I received 10 miles per dollar spent, or 10 percent off the price of the stay if I redeemed the miles for cash. But earlier in this post, I discussed how I redeemed 80,000 miles for a business class flight on British Airways that would have cost $5,732 out of pocket. After accounting for the $350 in fees I paid, I received $5,382 worth of free travel, making those miles worth 6.7 cents each. For the Virgin Atlantic flight, the miles were worth about 8.5 cents each after accounting for the fees.
Now think about this. If you earn 10 miles per dollar spent but then redeem those miles for 8.5 cents each, you earned 85 percent of the cost of your hotel stay back in the form of travel.
Let that sink in.
The Venture X has some nice additional benefits that you would expect from a premium credit card such as airport lounge access, a TSA PreCheck/Global Entry application fee credit, no foreign transaction fees, cell phone protection, price drop protection, and more. However, one single additional perk is all that is needed in order to justify the annual fee.
After your first year with the card, you’ll receive a 10,000 mile anniversary bonus every year that you renew your account. Forgetting all other perks and assuming you can use the $300 travel credit, the 10,000 mile yearly bonus means that you are coming out ahead by a minimum of $5 every year. If you are playing this travel game, there is absolutely no reason not to have this card.
The Venture X from Capital One is the perfect example of how the high annual fee of a premium credit card can be negated by excellent benefits and perks. There are few (if any) cards on the market that make it as easy as this one for any traveler to offset the annual fee. The $300 annual travel credit and the 10,000 mile anniversary bonus alone are enough to justify the $395 annual fee. Add in the incredible mile-earning potential through the travel portal, 2x miles earning on all other purchases, airport lounge access, TSA PreCheck/Global Entry application fee credit, and all the other perks, and there is no reason for anyone playing the Game of Miles not to have this credit card in their wallet.
If you found the information here helpful and decide to apply for any of the cards mentioned, please consider signing up through my referral links (if available) on the home page.
