Is The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card Worth It?
TF TAKE: The annual fee is high, but for regular travelers the card’s benefits and rewards can more than cover that cost. The welcome bonus alone is worth about $750, and the annual credits add more if you use them. That’s why it holds a top spot on our best cards list.
Quick note: We put a lot of care into keeping our app and content free. Using our links, if you decide to apply, is an amazing way to support the site.
What’s the Current Welcome Offer?
Spending Categories
- Earn 10x on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- Earn 5x on flights and vacation rentals booked in the Capital One Travel portal
- Earn 2x everywhere else
Travel Perks
- $300 annual credit for bookings made via Capital One Travel
- Unlimited access for the primary cardholder to 1,300+ lounges, including Capital One Lounge and Landing locations and participating Priority Pass™ lounges, after enrollment. Additional guests admitted for a fee.
- Up to $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®
- Earn 10,000 bonus miles each account anniversary
Extra Benefits
- Add authorized users for no annual fee
- Complimentary Hertz President’s Circle status for primary cardholders and authorized users
- Because this is a Visa Infinite card, other benefits include primary auto rental insurance, trip cancellation/interruption reimbursement, travel accident insurance, lost luggage reimbursement, trip delay reimbursement, cell phone protection, and extended warranty protection
- Get rental car elite status with Avis, National, and Silvercar
Is the annual fee worth it?
This is an ultra-premium card, so the $395 annual fee is real and worth taking seriously. It is right for you if you travel regularly and will use the travel credit and lounge access. It is not the right first card if a card with an annual fee would make you nervous or discourage you from getting other cards. Here is the math so you can decide for yourself.
The welcome bonus is 75,000 miles, worth about $750 when redeemed for travel at 1 cent per mile. Meeting the $4,000 minimum spend earns you another 8,000 miles (about $80), for roughly $830 in miles.
$750 welcome bonus value
+ $80 in miles from the $4,000 minimum spend
+ $300 travel credit
+ $120 Global Entry / TSA PreCheck credit
–
$395 annual fee
=
$855 in first-year value
One honest note on that number: the $300 travel credit only counts as real value if you would have booked hotels or vacation rentals through the Capital One Travel portal anyway, and the $120 Global Entry / TSA PreCheck credit is a once-every-four-years benefit. Count the credits you will actually use. Even setting the credits aside, the welcome bonus alone more than covers the first-year fee. Lounge access, primary auto rental insurance, and the other extras are on top of this, and can add $100s more in value if you use them.
Here are 6 Reasons Why We Like the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.
Note to intermediate and advanced users:
We know many of you will be excited about the miles that can be transferred to partners, including Air Canada, Avianca, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad, Air France, Qantas, Singapore, and Turkish Airlines.
How does this travel rewards card stack up to others?
We find it most helpful to our readers to compare the Venture X to the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, our go-to beginner travel card, rather than other ultra-premium cards.
The Sapphire Preferred has a much lower annual fee and is an excellent all-around choice if you’re just getting started or want something more affordable. That said, we see both cards as great options. The right pick really depends on your spending habits and your travel plans.
Choose the Chase Sapphire Preferred if you want a lower annual fee, travel occasionally, and are looking for a simple, beginner-friendly card.
Choose the Venture X if you have upcoming travel, are comfortable with a higher annual fee, and want a more valuable welcome bonus and easy-to-use travel credits.
The Venture X becomes an especially easy call if you have a trip coming up in the next few months, or even a vacation rental or cruise deposit. You can put that expense on the card and then use miles to cover it. In many cases that works out to around $750 back toward travel, without needing to learn complicated rules.
Things to keep in mind
1. Know Capital One’s Application Rules. You won’t be approved if you’re not eligible under their guidelines.
- Welcome bonus rule: You won’t get a bonus if you’ve had the Venture X bonus in the past 48 months.
- Waiting period: You may need to wait up to 6 months after applying for any Capital One card before getting approved for another.
- Card limit: You can have only 2 personal Capital One cards at a time (co-branded cards don’t count).
2. Higher spend, more time.
The minimum spend is $4,000, and you get 3 months to meet it. Spending $4,000 in the first 3 months translates to about $1,400 per month. But please do NOT get sucked into more spending than usual in order to hit this bonus.
TF Tip: Use this card to pay taxes if you have a big quarterly tax payment due, or even your annual tax return in April.
3. Approval can be hit or miss.
Capital One can be unpredictable with premium and ultra-premium cards, especially if you’ve opened several recently. Great credit doesn’t guarantee approval. But, anecdotally the average person with good to excellent credit has been approved and beginners or anyone who hasn’t opened many cards this year are generally in a great spot for the Venture X.
Zac’s Thoughts
Here’s what I think:
- Annual fee worries? Skip this card. It’s not worth the stress, and also not worth it if it will discourage you from getting other cards with annual fees.
- Already have the Chase Sapphire Preferred? Definitely take a close look at the Venture X. It could be a great addition to your wallet.
- Looking for just one “forever” card? This is a solid pick because it’s so easy to earn (2x on everything) and redeem miles, and the annual credits help offset the fee year after year.
How to make the most of your $300 travel credit
To get the most value from the $300 annual travel credit, most Capital One Venture X cardholders should book travel through the Capital One Travel Portal. That’s the approach I took, using the credit just one week after getting the card.
Here’s how the process worked:
- Log in to your Capital One account
Start by signing in and navigating to the Capital One Travel Portal by selecting “Book a Trip.”
2. Choose the type of travel you want to book
Since I was booking a hotel, I clicked on the “Hotels” tab to begin my search.
3. Search and select your hotel
I was impressed by how many hotel options were available.
4. Pay with your Venture X card.
5. Apply the $300 travel credit automatically
The hotel cost $312, which meant my $300 annual travel credit was applied in one purchase, leaving just a small out-of-pocket amount.
6. Earn bonus miles on the booking
The Venture X earns 10x miles on purchases made through the Capital One Travel Portal, so I earned 3,130 miles from this booking, worth about $30 toward future travel.
Bottom Line
We believe the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is one of the best ultra-premium travel cards you can get for the price. Lounge access, travel credits, and TSA/Global Entry reimbursement are all included, and at $395 the annual fee sits well below other ultra-premium cards that run $550 or more. If you travel enough to use the $300 credit and the lounge access, the card pays for itself before the welcome bonus even enters the picture. Several Travel Freely team members carry it for exactly that reason.
