Review: Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

Who is the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card for?

For the simplicity of its reward structure and the easy-to-use travel credits that essentially bring the annual fee to $0, I recommend the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card to travelers who want a premium rewards card that they’ll actually use every day, not just while they’re on the road (or in the air, as it were). 

Quick Facts about the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card 

Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card Review

If you’re out shopping for a premium travel rewards credit card, it can be overwhelming to look at all the different options available. Making sense of all the bells and whistles that come attached can be a whole other issue entirely. Champagne problems, I know. But there’s one currently available that is glad to keep it simple and just give its cardholders the essentials: a sizeable travel credit, lounge access, increased points-earning rates, and no foreign transaction fees, with a number of insurance-related coverages. 

Earning miles with the Capital One Venture X 

• Earn 10 miles per dollar spent on hotels and car rentals purchased through Capital One Travel
• Earn 5 miles per dollar spent on flights purchased through Capital One Travel
• Earn 2 miles per dollar on all other eligible purchases

The 2X miles per dollar may seem like a less exciting feature when compared to the higher earning rates of other premium travel credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card or The Platinum Card® from American Express, but it’s perhaps just as powerful. 

The ability to earn two miles per dollar on every purchase means you can use it for pretty much all your spending and you’ll steadily earn points as you simply live your life without thinking too much about your points strategy.

Redeeming miles with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

Although the transfer partners of the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

Capital One transfer partners

You can transfer Capital One points to these airline partners:

• Aeromexico Club Premier
• Air Canada Aeroplan
• Air France / KLM Flying Blue
• Avianca LifeMiles
• British Airways Executive Club
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
• Emirates Skywards
• Etihad Guest
• EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
• Finnair Plus
• Qantas Frequent Flyer
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go
• Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
• Virgin Red

With one exception, all Capital One points transfer to airline partners at a one to one (1:1) ratio, which means that one Capital One point is equivalent to one mile or point with most of these loyalty programs, once transferred.

The exception is EVA Air Infinity MileageLands. Capital One points transfer to EVA AIr at a 2:1.5 ratio (e.g. 1000 Capital One points become 750 EVA Air miles).

Transfer times from Capital One to its travel partners vary. Points transfers to Cathay Pacific can take up to 24 hours. Meanwhile, points transfers to EVA Air can take up to 36 hours. Points transfers to all other airline partners are relatively instantaneous.

Capital One hotel transfer partners

These are Capital One’s current hotel partners. 

• ALL Accor Live Limitless
• Choice Privileges 
• Wyndham Rewards

Capital One points transfer at a 1:1 ratio to Choice Privileges and Wyndham Rewards; points transfer to Accor at a 2:1 ratio. Points transfers to all these hotel loyalty programs vary in speed. It can take up to two days for Accor, one day for Choice Privileges, and a few minutes for Wyndham.

On the whole, transferring points to hotels rarely maximizes the value of your points. You’re better off sticking to points transfers to airlines to get the most cents per point when you compare the cash price to the points cost.

Capital One Travel portal

If you find, say, a flight or a hotel stay sold in the Capital One Travel portal that’s cheaper than or equal to the price you’d pay if you booked directly with an airline or hotel, then I suggest using your card to make the purchase through the portal. Your annual travel credit through Capital One Travel will apply to first $300 spent on bookings through the portal.

After redeeming the annual $300  travel credit through Capitla One Travel, I highly recommend transferring your Capital One points to an airline partner rather than using the points to pay for travel through the Capital One Travel portal. 

You will rarely maximize the value of your credit card points by using them in travel portals. 

Do the math: Your 75,000 points are worth only $750 through the travel portal, whereas those four roundtrip tickets to Orlando could cost as much as $1,400. Transferring your points to airlines will stretch the value of your points way farther than they could ever go in a travel portal.

Welcome offer on the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

The current welcome offer can get you a wide variety of travel experiences. Here are some ideas of what you could do with those points.

• Take your family to Disney World by transferring points to British Airways Executive Club and booking partner awards for four roundtrip economy tickets on American Airlines between Dallas and Orlando for a total of 72,000 Avios (that’s British’s miles currency) 
• Fly in comfort and style to see the Eiffel Tower by transferring points to Air France-KLM Flying Blue and booking a one-way business class ticket from New York to Paris in Air France for 55,000 Flying Blue miles.
• Go on a group vacation to Hawai’i by transferring points to Air Canada Aeroplan and booking partner awards for three roundtrip economy tickets on United between San Francisco and Honolulu for as low as 75,000 Aeroplan miles in total.

Capital One Venture X Benefits

In addition to the ability to earn Capital One points and transfer them to airline partners, the Venture X also has a number of benefits that mitigate the high annual fee—and even make it so that the cost to carry this card is virtually zero.

Annual $300 travel credit with Capital One Travel

The card comes with a $300 annual travel credit. The only requirement is that you make your purchases through the Capital One Travel portal, which is easy enough. 

For what it’s worth, I just used my $300 credit to book a hotel in Paris this September; it was an easy process, and the prices were equivalent to those advertised directly on the hotel’s site. 

Anniversary bonus points

In addition, after your first year of card membership, you get 10,000 Capital One points every year; that’s worth $100 if you redeem them through the Capital One Travel portal—and even more, if you transfer them directly to an airline partner to make an award booking. 

Statement credit for application to Global Entry or TSA PreCheck

This card comes with a credit you can use for applying to Global Entry and/or TSA PreCheck® to help you speed through security and customs. This credit is available every four years as reimbursement when the application fee charged to the card. 

Lounge access

On top of that, you get plenty of lounge access with the Venture X: With it, you receive unlimited complimentary access to Capital One Lounges for the cardholder and two guests per visit. 

At the time of writing, Capital One Lounges are currently open in Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, and Washington Dulles airports.

Additionally, you get access to over 1,300 airport lounges in Capital One’s Partner Lounge Network, which includes lounges within Priority Pass™ and the Plaza Premium Group.

Who is the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card for?

The ability to earn two points per dollar on every kind of spending, no matter what (thank goodness for no foreign transaction fees!), is unmatched in this tier of consumer credit cards. Add to that the lounge access and the Global Entry and/or TSA PreCheck® credit, and this card will quickly become one of the longest-standing cards in your wallet—which is to say, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a reason to not keep this card for a good long while.

Alternatives to the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

Not sure if this is the right Capital One credit card for you? Here's how it compares with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.

Capital One Venture X vs. Capital One Venture Rewards

It’s worth noting that the mid-range version of this card—simply called the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card—offers nearly the same reward structure: 2x on all purchases made outside the Capital One Travel portal; 5x on hotels and rental cars booked through the Capital One Travel portal, for a reduced annual fee of $95. 

It doesn’t have any easy-to-use credits, however, so the Venture X, in theory, costs less to carry than its “junior” sibling. Which one you choose may just come down to the question of if and how you’d use the credits that come with the Venture X, such as the Global Entry and/or TSA PreCheck® credit and the lounge access.

Here's more on how they compare: