In 2021, Capital One entered the luxury travel credit card market with a more economical premium travel card known as the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. Not only does this card offer the opportunity to earn and redeem generous rewards on travel spending, but as a part of the Visa Infinite network, it boasts more than a few extremely helpful travel-related benefits as well as other protections and card perks.

However, as you may have already imagined, these additional card perks and benefits come with a higher annual fee. If you want to know if you can justify the higher fee, this Venture X benefits guide will help you understand exactly what you can expect from Capital One’s newest travel card. From here, you can decide if your spending habits and travel style make you an ideal candidate for the Venture X card.

What does the Capital One Venture X Card offer?

Quick card details:

  • Rewards rate: 10X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel; 5X miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel; 2X miles on all other purchases
  • Welcome offer: Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel
  • Annual fee: $395

The rewards structure is relatively straightforward and focuses on travel spending booked through the Capital One Travel site. The 2X miles back on all other purchases makes this card ideal as an everyday spending card that will help you to reach your award travel goals.

Earning rewards

You’ll earn the most rewards by using your Venture X card to book travel through Capital One’s newly revamped travel portal. Capital One recently cemented a partnership with travel search engine Hopper, which features price prediction and alert technology for booking flights, hotels and rental cars, plus the option to easily change or cancel reservations. Capital One cardholders are also able to redeem points for travel through the Hopper-Capital One travel portal integration.

Redeeming rewards

One area where Capital One cards really shine is the flexibility of redeeming miles. Venture X card miles don’t have blackout dates or expire for the life of your account. Also, you can redeem them for 1 cent per mile to cover eligible travel purchases from any eligible merchant you’ve already made a purchase with in the past 90 days.

You can also redeem miles by transferring them to one of Capital One’s travel partners. For a long time, the list of Capital One’s travel partners was rather small, but it has been steadily adding transfer partners, including several loyalty programs with both airlines and hotels. With redemption values that start at 1 cent per mile and go up to 2 cents per mile, according to Bankrate’s latest valuations, you can definitely get more value out of your miles with transfer partners.

If you want to redeem rewards for things other than travel, you can redeem your Capital One rewards for Amazon.com or PayPal purchases, cash back, a statement credit or gift cards. However, these redemption options offer less value than travel redemptions.

Travel benefits

The Venture X card wouldn’t be a premium travel card without additional travel perks and benefits. Here are some features that bump the Venture X into premium travel card territory:

Statement credits and anniversary bonus miles

You’ll get up to $300 back annually as statement credits for bookings through Capital One Travel. This credit could potentially cover the cost of an airline ticket, a weekly car rental or a night at a hotel, which makes this a pretty generous credit. Also, Venture X cardholders can get up to a $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck.

You’ll also get 10,000 miles on each account anniversary, which is worth $100 towards travel. This starts on your first card anniversary and will continue as long as your Venture X account is active and in good standing.

Airport lounge access

Capital One has started to improve its airport lounge access game to compete with existing luxury travel card issuers like Chase and American Express. With several new Capital One lounges open, plus access to more than 1,300 Priority Pass lounges internationally, you’re already getting a ton of value with this card perk alone.

Foreign transaction fees and travel insurance

When traveling, all kinds of incidental costs can bust your travel budget. One such cost is foreign transaction fees, which tend to average around 3 percent of each transaction. Thankfully, the Venture X card does not charge foreign transaction fees.

Another additional expense can come from trip cancellations and interruptions. When you purchase travel tickets with your Venture X card and encounter cancellations or interruptions on your trip, the insurance will reimburse you for the non-refundable cost of your passenger fare. This coverage also applies to other forms of eligible transportation, like fares for a ferry, rail, bus or cruise ship.

Additional travel-related benefits:

  • Visa Infinite Concierge services
  • Visa Infinite Luxury Hotel Collection (VIP status, upgrades when available, complimentary breakfast)
  • Travel and emergency assistance services
  • Lost luggage reimbursement
  • Trip delay reimbursement
  • Auto rental collision damage waiver
  • VIP amenities and discounts on car rentals

Additional card benefits

There are a few more benefits to take note of through the Visa Infinite network:

  • Extended warranty protection
  • Return protection
  • Purchase security (for stolen or damaged items)
  • Cellphone protection ($50 deductible)
  • Emergency cash disbursement
  • Emergency card replacement

How to maximize the perks and benefits offered by the Venture X card

For starters, you want to make sure that you take advantage of all the reward-earning opportunities and credits. The welcome bonus is low-hanging fruit when it comes to earning rewards. At a value of $750, it easily covers your annual fee the first year.

When you add in the up to $300 credit for bookings made through the Capital One travel portal and the up to $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, you are coming out far ahead in your first year—but only if you meet the welcome bonus requirement and take advantage of all of the credits. This alone will get you $755 in rewards and benefits the first year ($750 + $300 + $100 = $1,150, then subtract the $395 annual fee).

After year one, you’ll still get the $300 credit for Capital One Travel bookings and 10,000 bonus miles on your anniversary (worth $100 towards travel) which leaves you in the green at $5 ($400 minus the $395 annual fee). This just means you don’t have to do a lot of spending each year to cover the card’s annual fee.

But to get the most value out of this card, you should use this card as your go-to for travel spending—you’ll earn much more racking up miles and spending them in the travel portal or transferring them to travel partners.

The bottom line

This card certainly isn’t the top of the line when it comes to the most benefits-packed luxury travel cards out there, like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® or The Platinum Card® from American Express. But for the Venture X’s annual fee and near-zero effort you need to make up for it, the card deserves serious consideration. The Venture X is a relatively low-risk, entry-level travel card for those who want to test the waters of the premium travel credit card space.