Fewer perks than the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is a solid choice for most travelers. But if you want heftier perks, it’s worth considering the card’s higher-end sibling, the $395-annual-fee Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees). Both cards earn similar rewards on most purchases and offer a statement credit to cover the cost of TSA PreCheck or Global Entry. But the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card makes up for its higher annual fee with some significant perks:
-
Unlimited access to Capital One Lounges and more than 1,300 Priority Pass lounges.
-
Up to $300 annual credit for bookings made through Capital One Travel.
-
10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary.
It might feel a bit off-putting to pay hundreds of dollars a year just to carry a credit card. But as long as you don’t mind booking travel through the issuer, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card‘s perks easily offset the higher annual fee.
Lack of domestic transfer partners
For travelers who like to squeeze every last drop of value out of loyalty programs, the growing roster of transfer partners for the the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is appealing. You can now transfer your Venture miles to more than a dozen airline partners — but all are non-U.S. carriers. For those just dipping their toe into transfer options, sending their miles off to a foreign carrier may be a bit daunting.
For these travel hackers, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is a better choice. First, there’s an option to transfer points to participating frequent traveler programs at a 1:1 ratio and those programs include domestic carriers United, Southwest and JetBlue, as well as the Marriott, Hyatt and IHG hotels programs. You can also use your points to book a trip directly with Chase’s travel tool. If you choose this route, your points rise in value from 1 cent apiece to 1.25 cents.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card also offers a great sign-up bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That’s $750 when you redeem through Chase Travel℠. It earns bonus rewards in a variety of popular spending categories, including dining and travel. The annual fee is $95.
Poor cash-back option
If you want to use your miles for cash back or a statement credit for non-travel purchases, your miles are worth only half as much as if you were to redeem them for travel. This can be an issue if you don’t travel often and want to turn your rewards into money in your pocket. You may get greater value out of a cash-back card like the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card, which offers 2% cash back on all purchases with a $0 annual fee.
Annual fee
The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card has an annual fee of $95 (see rates and fees). While this is typical for travel rewards cards, that’s not comforting news to anyone trying to keep credit card costs down. The $0-annual-fee Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card earns 3 points per dollar on several popular spending categories:
-
Gas stations and EV stations.
-
Popular streaming services.
