Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card review: A strong alternative for luxury travel

The premium travel card from Capital One, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, strikes a terrific balance between simplistic and advanced rewards cards. Along with its plethora of great perks for frequent travelers, it retains the boosted base rewards rate that made the original Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card a favorite.

Though the benefits packaged with the Venture X may not be as luxurious or specialized as those you get with the Chase Sapphire Reserve® or The Platinum Card® from American Express, the Venture X card’s annual credits alone should offset its annual fee if you use them. Worrying about maximizing every niche perk to justify a card’s cost can be difficult, but the Venture X card’s require very little maintenance.

In fact, the Venture X card’s most exciting innovation may be just how perfectly its features complement its $395 annual fee. This factor alone establishes the card as a uniquely valuable middle-ground option for travelers who want more benefits than those of a mid-tier travel card, but can’t justify a $500 or $700 price tag. If you’re focused on ongoing value and practical travel perks, but don’t need every obscure travel credit under the sun, the Venture X card could be a perfect fit for you.

Quick highlights

• Rewards rate: 10X miles on hotel and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5X miles on flights through Capital One Travel and 2X miles on all other purchases
• Welcome offer: 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months
• Annual fee: $395
• Purchase Intro APR: N/A
• Balance Transfer Intro APR: N/A
• Regular APR: 21.24 percent to 28.24 percent (variable)

Current welcome offer

The latest Venture X welcome bonus is a drop from the card’s previous offer. You can now earn 75,000 bonus miles if you spend at least $4,000 in your first three months as a Venture X cardholder. This new offer is lower than the card’s previous 100,000 bonus miles after a $10,000 spend in your first six months, plus up to $200 back in statement credits on vacation rental purchases like Airbnb and VRBO made during your first year.

While we valued the previous offer at a whopping $1,200 in total value if you redeemed miles for travel through Capital One, the new offer is still worthwhile. If you redeem miles through Capital One travel, you can enjoy $750 in value.

The card’s spending requirement is also a bit more attainable than the last offer. Where the previous offer required a $10,000 spend in your first six months (about $1,667 per month), it only takes a $4,000 spend in your first three months to earn the new offer (about $1,333 per month). If you put most of your everyday spending on the card it’s a relatively easy offer to earn. Using the Venture X for nearly all your purchases makes sense, too, considering the card earns boosted flat-rate rewards on all eligible purchases.

Rewards rate

The Venture X builds on the original Venture card’s flexibility by offering the same boosted flat-rate rewards on everyday purchases while also earning bonus Capital One miles in key travel categories if you book through the Capital One Travel portal. This boost makes the Venture X one of the smartest picks out there. Especially if you’re looking for travel rewards and benefits, but also want a card that covers everyday expenses beyond the typical travel-card categories and their spending limits.

How you earn

Like the base Capital One Venture, the Venture X delivers a streamlined way to earn travel rewards, thanks to its 2X miles rewards rate on nearly all purchases. But the Venture X makes a better case for becoming your primary travel card since it also earns 5X miles on airfare and 10X miles on hotels and rental cars, if they’re booked through Capital One Travel.

These rates are pretty impressive considering your rewards are unlimited and you get a boosted rate on all non-travel spending. It’s even more impressive when you realize the rates you get on airline and hotel purchases through Capital One match or beat those you’d get booking directly through airlines with competing cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve and American Express Platinum.

Compared to other top-tier travel cards, the Venture X distinguishes itself as a useful primary credit card because it carries a generous flat rewards rate on all purchases.

How to redeem

Capital One gives you a solid mix of options for redeeming your bonus miles. Along with booking airfare and other travel through the issuer’s travel portal, one of Capital One’s more unique options is redeeming miles toward a statement credit for travel purchases made within the past 90 days (at a 1:1 value, no less).

This option means you aren’t stuck booking through the issuer’s portal to get a good value for your rewards earnings. As long as you’re okay with the extra step when redeeming rewards, you can shop around to find a deal on a third-party site like Expedia or book directly with an airline or hotel. Then, you’d apply your miles as a statement credit for those purchases.

You also have the option of transferring your miles to partner airlines and hotel loyalty programs, mostly at a 1:1 rate. This action can help you squeeze even more value out of your rewards. Capital One’s newest feature also allows you to cancel your booked travel portal flights for any reason up to 24 hours before the scheduled flight departure and receive the majority of your ticket cost back (for a small fee). This extra flexibility could make the Capital One Travel portal an even more enticing option since trip cancellation insurance isn’t required.

While you can also redeem your miles for gift cards, cash back or purchases through Amazon.com or PayPal, these redemptions may require you to sacrifice a fraction of your miles’ value. Since your rewards don’t expire for the life of your account and aren’t subject to blackout dates, it’s best to sit on your miles until you’re ready to use them for a redemption with the best value, rather than settle for a stunted cash back payday or subpar transfer partner.

When you redeem miles through Capital One travel or for statement credits on recent travel purchases they’ll be  worth 1 cent apiece. Better yet, some transfer partners could boost your rewards value to an average of 2 cents per mile, based on Bankrate’s recent estimations. At its best exchange rate, this card’s welcome offer has a potential value of $1,500. Just be sure to do your research, since not all transfer partners provide that kind of value.

Outside travel, gift cards are probably your best deal since they could potentially get you a 1:1, 1-cent redemption value for each mile. You’ll want to avoid exchanging your miles for cash back and PayPal or Amazon.com purchases, though. These options will shrink your miles’ value to 0.5 cents and 0.8 cents, respectively.

Compared to the multitude of valuable benefits that come with Venture X, the original Venture card’s perks look pretty threadbare. The annual bonus miles and statement credits will be the most interesting features for most applicants, but the Venture X card’s other travel perks and protections are also great additions.

Annual credits and bonus miles

The Venture X credit card carries up to $400 in value every year with two easy-to-maximize benefits. You’ll get 10,000 bonus miles on your account anniversary (redeemable through Capital One for travel at a 1-cent per mile value) and up to $300 in annual statement credits for Capital One Travel purchases. These perks alone make up for your annual fee. In addition, you’ll receive up to a $100 credit to cover Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® application fees every four years.

As far as premium travel cards go, these credits offer a relatively high value given the card’s $395 annual fee. The up to $300 in annual travel credits is the same as you’ll find with the Sapphire Reserve and the Amex Platinum, although those cards carry much higher annual fees — and, to be fair, a bevy of other yearly credits the Venture X doesn’t have that could certainly be helpful for travel. However, the Venture X card’s cost-to-benefit ratio carves out its unique position as a middle-ground travel card for those who want to trim the extras down to the most practical.

Travel benefits

The Venture X card doesn’t offer a slew of “luxury” perks like complimentary hotel elite status and privileges, but it does deliver a few of the main course features frequent travelers look for in a travel card. You’ll receive excellent airport lounge access with complimentary Priority Pass Select membership to over 1,300 lounges around the world, plus unlimited access to the issuer’s own brand-new Capital One Lounge with two complimentary guest passes per year. (Standard Venture cardholders only get two free admissions each year). So far, only one Capital One Lounge is open in Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), but two more are scheduled to open in 2023. One will land at Dulles International Airport near Washington D.C and another in Denver, Colorado.

As a Visa Infinite card, you’ll also have access to benefits like Visa Infinite Concierge for personal assistance securing exclusive travel opportunities and more. One of Capital One’s more notable issuer-specific perks is its relaunched Capital One Travel portal. The new launch features a partnership with Hopper to offer flexible booking, allowing cardholders to cancel for any reason, anytime, for a fee. The portal also has AI-powered pricing that includes price prediction, price watch and excellent price drop protection and price match guarantees. Issuer portals aren’t usually known for offering the best booking deals, but Capital One’s travel channels are shaping up to stand apart from that reputation.

Travel insurance and shopping protections

The Venture X’s Visa Infinite status shines through with its rich travel and purchase protections. In fact, it’s one of the best cards for travel insurance due to its trip cancellation and interruption insurance (the most sought-after protection perk), travel accident insurance, trip delay reimbursement, lost luggage reimbursement and auto rental collision damage waiver coverage for eligible rental vehicle theft and loss. Unfortunately, the Venture X is missing baggage delay insurance to round out the travel protection suite, but that’s a minor nitpick compared to the comprehensive coverage you’re getting for a lower annual fee than the other premier travel cards.

On top of staple shopping protections like extended warranty coverage, you’ll also get rarer benefits like return protection and cellphone protection (an excellent perk that comes with Amex’s top travel cards).

Besides the price protections through Capital One Travel, the issuer also offers another unique safeguard: virtual credit card numbers. This benefit is being phased out by many issuers, but it poses another layer of security for online purchases by essentially preventing online merchants from ever seeing your real card number. It isn’t a deal maker, but it’s an extra touch that most issuers don’t bother with these days.

The Venture X card is par for the course when it comes to rates and fees. The $395 annual fee is the first cost to come to mind. Fortunately, it may not be an issue since the yearly bonus miles and credits can completely make up for it.

There isn’t an intro APR offer for those looking to minimize any possible interest, although that’s not a feature commonly included with luxury travel cards. On the bright side, there’s no balance transfer fee if you transfer your balance at the 21.24 percent to 28.24 percent ongoing APR (variable) — which is a slight margin above the current average credit card interest rate.

There are also no foreign transaction fees for purchases abroad (a standard perk for travel cards) and there’s no penalty APR if you miss a payment due date, although you may face an up to $40 late payment fee.

Although the Venture X only adds two Capital One travel-focused bonus categories on top of the original Venture card’s flat-rate 2X miles, the significantly higher travel rewards potential and the sheer value of the benefits added to the card more than justify the annual fee in the first year and beyond.  In fact, the annual Capital One Travel booking statement credits and the 10,000-mile account anniversary bonus alone could recoup the annual fee each year.

You may also be more likely to use these perks versus the plethora of one-off credits, subscription service memberships and others alike that can clutter competing cards’ benefits lists and inflate their perceived value. Since it should take much less effort to maximize the Venture X card’s offerings than those of many other elite travel cards, it may prove a more valuable option for a much wider audience.

Even through rewards spending alone, recouping the Venture X card’s annual fee isn’t too difficult if you take advantage of the bonus categories — especially if you plan to transfer your miles for the full estimated 2-cents-per-mile Bankrate value.

Overall, the Venture X card’s ongoing value after the first year is certainly impressive enough to serve as an admirable all-around card for any spending you do.

*Based on our model of each card’s average rewards rate and average ongoing rewards value, drawn from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics spending data, and an assumed $15,900 yearly spend over three years ($1,325 per month).

The Capital One Venture X offers great annual perks for a medium-sized price tag, but let’s see how it stacks up against two of its most prominent competitors.

Capital One Venture X vs. Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

The first credit card you’d expect to compare the Venture X to is the original Capital One Venture card, but there isn’t much contest if you’re looking for a true travel card. The Venture X offers all of what makes the Venture, great but builds upon it with bonus categories for travel purchases and other key travel perks — which is what was sorely lacking from the original Venture card.

Streamlined rewards and travel features make up the spirit of the Venture and other Capital One cards.The Venture X manages to retain that essence and package it with valuable benefits that don’t necessarily unravel the experience into a nest of cogs to track like other premium travel cards. You’ll likely use the extra features that come with the Venture X, which actually offset the annual fee entirely — something that the Venture card doesn’t achieve as effortlessly.

Through that lens, the Venture X is a no-brainer decision over the standard Venture card since the only additional benefit that would help offset its $95 annual fee is the statement credit for the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee (which only provides $25 per year if you consider the possible up to $100 credit as spread out over the four years between its availability). However, the Venture may be a better option for people  who travel only a few times a year and mostly put everyday expenses on their card, since they won’t make full use of the Venture X’s features or travel-based bonus categories.

Capital One Venture X vs. The Platinum Card® from American Express

On paper, comparing the Venture X to the American Express Platinum Card — and even the Chase Sapphire Reserve card — is a logical matchup since Capital One’s $395 top travel card also carries premium perks and similar reward rates. The similar travel category rates and the Venture X card’s added flat-rate category spice up the comparison a bit.

It’s clear upfront that both the Amex Platinum and Sapphire Reserve carry a more valuable suite of features and yearly credits than the Venture X. Membership Rewards points and Ultimate Rewards points are more versatile (and therefore, valuable) rewards than Capital One miles to boot. The Venture X is a formidable opponent in terms of affordability and rewards potential for cardholders who don’t want a bunch of cards, but it’s not as perk-oriented for those who want an engaging luxury card.

However, the Venture X’s approach to rewards and benefits show it isn’t trying to compete in the same vast option-oriented and feature-filled rat race. Instead, it successfully establishes its own position as a tier between the $100 and $500+ annual fee tiers we’ve truly needed. 

Best cards to pair with the Capital One Venture X

The Venture X covers a wide range of spending, thanks to its boosted flat-rate miles, so a bonus category card that rewards your biggest day-to-day expenses outside travel would make the best partner.

Another issuer’s cash back credit card may be a good option, or a card that can transfer rewards to your favorite Capital One transfer partner programs. But the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card is a prime choice since you can convert your cash back to the Capital One miles your Venture X transfers at a higher value — all without an annual fee to worry about. That way, you can squeeze even more value out of the SavorOne’s 3 percent dining, entertainment, grocery store (excluding superstores like Walmart and Target) and popular streaming service purchase cash back. Plus, its 8 percent cash back Capital One Entertainment purchases are popular reward opportunities that may pop up in your travels.

The Capital One Venture X Rewards credit card gears itself toward frequent travelers who want a lower-maintenance card without the “fluff” features that require extra effort (and a higher annual fee) to utilize. Although the Venture X has fewer moving parts than a card like the Amex Platinum, the lighter load means the cardholder doesn’t have to offset the overhead cost of a bloated benefits list that has a number of perks they might not use.

The Venture X doesn’t pressure you to justify its annual fee by subscribing to services you wouldn’t normally use and it won’t encourage you to go out of your way to shop and travel with companies you usually wouldn’t — and there’s personal value and respect in that design.

The Venture X card is certainly worth it if you love the flat-rate rewards flexibility of the base Venture card, but you travel enough to take full advantage of its bigger sibling’s bonus categories and benefits. In fact, the Venture X is one of the most worthwhile travel cards on the market since it dumps the first-class travel cards’ perk padding in favor of usable, practical features and affordability.