Capital One Venture X Review: A Worthy Option Among Premium Cards

High rewards rate

Bonus miles on travel spending are expected for a higher-end travel credit card, and this one has those if you’re willing to use Capital One’s online travel-booking site:

• 5 miles per dollar on flights booked via Capital One Travel.

• 10 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked via Capital One Travel.

Unlike some others in its category, this card is rewarding for everyday spending, too. It earns 2 miles per dollar spent on purchases outside those bonus areas. That’s an excellent rewards rate because so much spending falls outside the usual bonus categories.

If it’s your top-of-wallet card, you’ll rack up miles quickly even if you’re not booking a lot of travel.

Generous sign-up bonus

Sign-up bonuses can change over time, especially with travel credit cards. But the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card has an excellent one: Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.

That's enough to cover the annual fee for nearly two years. The downside is you’ll have to put a lot of spending on the card first. Spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months is an average of about $1,333 per month.

» MORE: How to know if a credit card sign-up bonus is worth it

Airport lounge access

Besides access to more than 1,300 Priority Pass lounges, a somewhat common offering on travel cards in this class, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card offers access to Plaza Premium Lounges and full access to the new Capital One Lounges. As of November 2023, Capital One Lounges are open at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C., at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and at Denver International Airport.

Anniversary perks

Central to the value of the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card are the annual credits, which have substantial dollar value.

• Up to a $300 annual credit for bookings made through Capital One Travel.

• 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary (equal to $100 toward travel). The first batch of miles comes when you renew after one year of card membership.

Those credits alone, granted each year, make up for the annual fee. That assumes you’ll use the Capital One Travel online booking service. More on that later.

Flexible redemption options

Capital One's rewards program gives you several ways to use your miles for travel — both travel you already paid for and travel you want to book:

• Redeem rewards as a statement credit. Book travel however you want, then redeem miles for statement credit for some or all of the cost. Miles are worth 1 cent each when redeemed, with no minimum redemption amount required. Any expense that Capital One considers "travel" is eligible, including not only flights and hotel stays, but "rail lines, car rental agencies, limousine services, bus lines, cruise lines, taxi cabs, travel agents and time shares," according to the Capital One website.

• Book through the issuer's travel center. This online portal offers flights, hotels, rental cars and vacation packages. You can pay upfront with your miles, at a rate of 1 cent per mile.

• Transfer miles to partners. Capital One lets you transfer your miles to the loyalty programs of a number of airline and hotel partners.

Miles have no blackout dates and never expire.

Simplicity

“Simple” and “premium travel credit card” aren't concepts that usually go together, since the typical card in that category is wildly complicated. But relatively, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is easier to understand than, say, The Platinum Card® from American Express. That card has a dizzying array of benefits, many of which aren’t super-useful to everybody or take an inordinate amount of effort to use.

By contrast, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card at its core retains the simplicity of the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card by offering a flat rewards rate on all spending and lets you use rewards to pay for travel.

It layers on airport lounge access and more rewards if you use the Capital One Travel portal.

The point is that someone willing to endure only modest hassle from their travel credit card can enjoy and benefit from the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. That same person might be frustrated by complex competing travel credit cards.

Travel-friendly perks

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card offers additional benefits frequent travelers will enjoy. Some come because it's a top-tier Visa Infinite card.

• Complimentary Hertz President’s Circle status. This is the top status tier at Hertz. You can get confirmed one-car-class upgrades, 50% bonus on Gold Plus Rewards points on qualified rentals, free additional driver, expedited pickup and e-return, and more. The status is typically reserved for customers who have 20 or more rentals in a year or spend $4,000.

• Trusted traveler application credit. A statement credit of up to $120 for the application fee for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck. The credit is available once every four years.

• Cell phone insurance. This is for the primary cardholders and authorized users.

• Travel protections. These include auto rental collision damage waiver, trip cancellation and interruption, and trip delay reimbursement.

• No foreign transaction fees. Standard on travel credit cards and useful for overseas purchases (see rates and fees).

(Note: Benefits may change over time.)

» MORE: Capital One credit cards mobile app review

MORE NERDY PERSPECTIVES

Annual fee

With annual fees, it’s all relative. A yearly fee of $395 is substantial, but other luxury travel credit cards have similar or even significantly higher fees.

A sampling:

• Chase Sapphire Reserve®: $550.

• The Platinum Card® from American Express: $695.

Still, if the big annual fee bothers you, but you like aspects of the card, consider the original Venture card with fewer perks: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card. (See a comparison below.)

Outside the Capital One family, look at the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card with an annual fee of $95. It’s versatile and valuable as a travel credit card.

Value tied to booking portal

Capital One Travel, the issuer’s online travel-booking site, has nice features, including predictive pricing models and tools to help customers get the best deals — including proactively comparing hotel rates against Expedia, Orbitz and other travel booking sites. It offers access to thousands of flights, hotels and rental cars, and features free price-drop protection, 24/7 alerts and the option to freeze a price and come back 14 days later to book it.

But this card’s value is so tied to that booking portal that it diminishes one of the main traits of the Venture family of cards: flexibility.

If for some reason you won’t use Capital One Travel for booking, the bonus rewards for spending on this card as well as the huge $300 travel credit are worth nothing to you. The card’s value proposition quickly shrinks. Some savvy travelers prefer to book directly with hotels, for example, which adds to their elite status with a particular hotel chain or allows them to use status benefits they already have. Booking through a travel portal can negate those elite benefits.

By contrast, the competing Chase Sapphire Reserve® also links the value of its rewards to its travel portal. Chase Ultimate Rewards® points are worth 1.5 cents each if used to book travel there. But an important difference: Its $300 annual credit can be used for a broad range of travel purchases, including taxi rides, campground fees and train fares. That travel can be booked anywhere, and the credit is applied automatically.

The comparable anniversary credit on the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, one that can be used more flexibly for travel, is worth $100.

Granted, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® has a higher annual fee of $550.

Lack of familiar transfer partners

For travelers who like to squeeze every last drop of value out of loyalty programs, the growing roster of transfer partners of the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is appealing. You can now transfer your Venture miles to more than a dozen airline partners — but none are U.S. carriers. While transferring miles to foreign airline carriers can bring outsize value for your miles, it may be overwhelming for those just beginning with transfers. It does offer U.S. hotel partners for transfers to such programs as Wyndham Rewards.

If you want to work all the angles, one of the aforementioned Chase travel cards might be a better choice: The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. You can move points to several useful airline and hotel loyalty programs at a 1:1 ratio. Partners include United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Marriott.

Chase’s transfer partners:

How it compares to the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

Both Venture cards are general travel credit cards and come with the same base rewards rate of 2 miles per dollar spent. You can redeem miles at 1 cent apiece for credit on your statement against a recent travel purchase, use them at Capital One Travel or transfer to more than 15 travel loyalty programs. And both offer the same credit for applying for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry. A third Venture card, the $0-annual-fee Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card - Miles Boost, is a less useful comparison (see rates and fees).

Is the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card worth the higher annual fee? Here’s a quick comparison.

If you already have the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, you can also apply for the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.