Capital One Venture X benefits guide

Capital One entered the luxury travel credit card market in 2021 with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, an economical premium travel card with a lower annual fee than its competitors. Even though it has a lower annual fee, Venture X doesn’t skimp on helpful travel-related benefits and card protections or the opportunities to easily earn rewards on travel and everyday spending.

All of these Capital One Venture X benefits come with a $395 annual fee; it’s significantly lower than that of similar cards, but still a major consideration when you are trying to choose a travel card. This Capital One Venture X benefits guide can help you understand what you can expect from this card and make an informed decision about whether the card is right for you.

Capital One Venture X rewards program benefits

Welcome offer

New cardholders can earn a welcome bonus of 75,000 miles — worth $750 when redeemed to cover travel purchases — after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening.

Want to stretch that welcome bonus further? You can transfer your miles to one of Capital One’s travel partners, which makes your miles worth an average of 1.7 cents according to Bankrate’s latest points and miles valuations. That means your welcome bonus could be worth about $1,275 if you transfer those miles to a high-value partner.

Earning rewards

This card offers 10X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5X miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel and 2X miles on all other purchases. This rewards structure is relatively straightforward and focuses on travel spending booked through the Capital One Travel site.

But that doesn’t mean the card is only good for travel purchases. The 2X miles back on all other purchases makes this card ideal as an everyday spending card that will help you reach your award travel goals.

Redeeming rewards

The best way to redeem Capital One Venture X miles is for different types of travel. You can redeem miles at a rate of 1 cent per mile as statement credit to cover eligible travel purchases made within the past 90 days. Or, you can redeem your rewards for eligible purchases through the Capital One Travel portal.

If you want to score the best possible value for your rewards, though, transfer them to one of Capital One’s 18 travel partners such as Air Canada, Flying Blue or Wyndham Rewards, among others. It’s the most valuable redemption method according to Bankrate’s valuations, but does require more work than just redeeming for statement credit to cover your travel purchases.

You can also redeem rewards for statement credits, checks, gift cards and more; however, note that these redemption options typically offer less value than travel redemptions.

Anniversary bonus

Capital One will thank you for your loyalty with 10,000 bonus miles after each account anniversary, which is worth $100 toward travel. This starts on your first card anniversary and will continue as long as your Venture X account is active and in good standing. You can think of this as a simple way to offset $100 of the card’s annual fee.

Miles don’t expire

Capital One Venture X miles don’t expire for the life of your account, nor do they have blackout dates since you can simply redeem them to cover your travel purchases for whenever you want to travel.

If you close your account, you will lose any rewards you haven’t redeemed.

Capital One Venture X travel benefits

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

Travel credits

You’ll get up to $300 back annually in the form of Capital One Travel credit for bookings made through that portal. This annual credit could cover the cost of an airline ticket, a weekly car rental or a night at a hotel, which makes this a pretty generous credit. Between this $300 credit and the 10,000-point anniversary bonus, the card completely covers its annual fee each year.

Additionally, Venture X cardholders can get up to a $100 credit every four years to cover your Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee.

Airport lounge access

Capital One has started to improve its airport lounge access game to compete with the benefits other luxury travel cards offer. This card comes with unlimited, complimentary access to Capital One lounges (for you and two guests per visit), plus access to more than 1,300 Priority Pass lounges internationally (for you and two guests).

With free food and drinks in many lounges — not to mention simply avoiding the airport hubbub — you can get a ton of value from this card perk alone.

It’s also worth noting that Venture X authorized users receive their own lounge membership, which isn’t always the case for authorized users of other premium cards. Furthermore, there isn’t a fee to add authorized users, another break from the norm of other premium cards. Chase Sapphire Reserve®, for instance, charges $75 for each authorized user.

No foreign transaction fees

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

Travel insurance

The Capital One Venture X also comes with valuable travel insurance benefits thanks to its Visa Infinite status. You’ll get trip cancellation and interruption insurance, travel and emergency assistance services, travel accident insurance, trip delay reimbursement, lost luggage reimbursement and an auto rental collision damage waiver.

Capital One Venture X protection benefits

Purchase coverage

As a Visa Infinite card, Capital One Venture X comes with extended warranty coverage, purchase protection and return protection.

Cellphone protection

You’ll also get cellphone protection when you pay your cellphone bill with your Venture X card. If your phone is damaged or stolen, you can be reimbursed up to $800 per claim (maximum of two claims and $1,600 per 12-month period). Terms and a deductible apply.

Maximizing the Capital One Venture X card

This is a travel rewards card, so make sure you like to travel if you intend to maximize the Venture X benefits.

Take advantage of all the rewards-earning opportunities and meet the welcome bonus requirements. Beyond that, earn all of the available credits. When you add in the up to $300 annual travel credit for bookings made through the Capital One travel portal and the up to $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, you’ll more than offset your $395 in your first year.

After year one, you’ll still get the $300 annual travel portal credit for Capital One Travel bookings and you’ll receive 10,000 bonus miles after your card anniversary (worth $100 toward travel); that means the card pays for itself each year and the rewards you earn are icing on the cake.

Once you’ve racked up a bank of miles, make sure to redeem them only for travel, either as statement credit to cover your travel purchases or, for maximum value, by transferring them to travel partners.

The bottom line

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is a relatively low-risk travel card for those who want to test the waters of the premium travel credit card space. It isn’t quite at the top of the line when it comes to other benefits-packed luxury travel cards like the Sapphire Reserve or The Platinum Card® from American Express. But since the card has a lower annual fee and can pay for itself with travel credits and an annual anniversary rewards bonus, Venture X deserves serious consideration.