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Capital One recently got the miles and points community considerably more excited about a couple of its credit cards when it announced that a majority of transfers to its travel partners would now process in a 1:1 ratio. Today, more excitement seems to be on the way as the bank announces that it will launch the Venture X credit card in 5 days’ time.
Introducing the Venture X credit card
The Venture X credit card is Capital One’s first dive into the miles & points premium credit card sphere and it appears to be doing this with quite a big splash. Here’s what you know about the new credit card:
When it’s coming and the cost
- The Venture X credit card will open to applicants next Tuesday, 9 November 2021
- The card will come with a $395 annual fee
- There is no fee for authorized users
The Welcome Offer
- The launch welcome bonus will offer two things:
- Successful applicants will receive 100,000 bonus miles when they spend $10,000 on their new card in the first 6 months of card membership
- For a limited time, cardmembers will be able to receive up to $200 in statement credits for vacation rentals like Airbnb and VRBO.
Capital One hasn’t said what time limit will be placed on the availability of the statement credit.
The Earnings Rates
The Venture X credit card will offer cardholders the following earnings rates:
- 10 miles/dollar for all hotel and car rental bookings made through Capital One
- 5 miles/dollar for all flight bookings made through Capital One
- 2 miles/dollar for spending in all other categories
All miles earned by the Venture X credit card can be transferred to all of Capital One’s travel partners.
The Benefits
In exchange for the $395 annual fee, these are the benefits that come with the Captial One Venture X credit card:
- Up to $300 in statement credits every year for bookings made through Capital One Travel
- 10,000 bonus miles every year on a cardholder’s anniversary
- A credit of up to $100 for TSA Precheck or Global Entry
- Unlimited access to Capital One lounges for cardholders and authorized users + 2 guest passes.
- Access to all Priority Pass lounges
- Hertz President’s Circle status for primary cardholders and authorized users
- Cellphone insurance for primary cardholders and authorized users
Thoughts
The first thing that I thought as I read through the list of what the card offers is that its benefits should make it very easy to recoup the annual fee in full – the $300 Capital One Travel credit and the 10,000 bonus points offered every year will do the job.
Yes, a lot of people reading this probably won’t want to do too much hotel spending through Capital One Travel because such bookings won’t earn elite stay credits or points in a hotel’s loyalty program (bookings through Capital One will be viewed as 3rd party bookings), but with Capital One saying that it constantly compares what it charges through its travel portal to other online sites, there shouldn’t be any issue booking flights through the portal. That makes earning the $300 statement credit relatively straightforward.
The 10,000 bonus points that cardholders are given every year can be used to buy travel through the Capital One Travel portal at 1 cent each (valuing the bonus at $100) but considering these points can be transferred over to the likes of Aeroplan, the British Airways Executive Club, Emirates Skywards, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, etc,… in a ratio of 1:1, these points can actually be worth considerably more.
On top of all this, we have the fact that Capital One Venture X credit card’s authorized users are free and just like the primary cardholder, are given unlimited access to Capital One and Priority Pass lounges, and are given cellphone insurance too. That’s fantastic.
Put simply, if you can’t easily recoup the annual fee from the benefits on offer here, you probably shouldn’t be considering a travel rewards card at all. Even those who only travel a couple of times a year should be able to get good value out of the Venture X credit card.
I’ll admit that it’s a little disappointing that this card doesn’t offer significantly elevated earnings for spending outside of the Capital One Travel ecosystem, but the fact that this card offers 2 miles/dollar on all other spending (which I equate to a 3% rebate) makes it a great card to use on all those occasions when the other cards in your wallet don’t offer a spending bonus.
Lastly, it’s probably worth pointing out that Capital One says that its travel portal offers its customers price predictions and 24/7 alerts which, per the bank, saves customers an average of 15% per flight. Assuming that this is true, that can go a long way to offsetting the annual fee too.
At this point, I’m going to reserve any further comments for a further post that will go live once I’ve had a chance to take a good look at the Capital One Travel Portal and have compared the prices that I find there (flights, hotels, car rentals, etc,…) with what I find when I price up the same bookings directly with airlines, hotel chains, and the car rental companies.
If the research shows that the Capital One Travel portal is as good as Capital One claims it is, the Venture X card may be the new must-have card for anyone who loves to travel.
Bottom Line
Capital One has just announced that it will open applications for a new premium travel rewards credit card on Tuesday, 9 November 2021. The Capital One Venture X credit card will come with a lower annual fee than most other premium travel rewards cards and based on the information provided, should offer enough benefits to allow cardholders to recoup that annual fee with ease. Moreover, with there being no charge for authorized users, this could be the most economical card with which to ensure that friends and family have access to airport lounges when they travel.
What do you think of the new Capital One Venture X credit card?
