Capital One Venture X Perks
The day is here, the Capital One Venture X Rewards is now live. I found it a bit strange that they announced the card a week before launch but the wait is now over. I figured I should take up some digital space and share my thoughts about the Capital One Venture X perks, features and the card overall. Did Capital One knock it out of the park, or did they hit more of a double? We also talk about the card on this week’s upcoming MtM Podcast along with Richard Kerr so check that out on Thursday too.
Capital One Application Rules
There are a couple of things we should point out about Capital One’s application rules before I dive into the Capital One Venture X perks.
Capital One is a difficult approval and it pulls your credit from all three bureaus. If you value your hard inquiries then you should be aware of that. They also have the following application rules:
- Maximum of 2 personal cards at any time.
- Only 1 new card every 6 months.
If you have already been approved for a Capital One card in the last 6 months you will be auto denied so don’t even try.
Capital One Venture X Details
Before I get into my thoughts let me give you a quick overview of what the Capital One Venture X offers:
Welcome Offer
- Welcome Offer:Â Earn 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months.
- Annual fee is $395.
- Learn More
Venture X – Earning Structure
- 10X earning on hotels and rental cars booked with Capital One Travel
- 5XÂ earning on flights booked with Capital One Travel
- 2XÂ earning on all other purchases
- No limits on the total rewards you can earn, and your rewards never expire.
Venture X – Other Perks/Benefits
- $300Â in statement credits for bookings made on Capital One Travel
- 10,000Â bonus miles every account anniversary (equal to $100 towards travel)
- Unlimited access to Capital One Lounges
- Priority Pass membership that allows two guests
- Add up to 4 authorized user cards at no extra cost
- Authorized users get free Capital One lounge and Priority Pass entry and can bring up to two guests as well.
- Complimentary Hertz President’s Circle status for primary cardholders and authorized users.
- Up to $100 in statement credits for either TSA PreCheck or Global Entry
- Learn More
My Thoughts On The Capital One Venture X Perks
If I am being honest, I keep going back and forth on this card. But let’s break down my thoughts by section.
Welcome Offer
The 75,000 point welcome offer is pretty good. The 3-month spending timeline for $4,000 is pretty standard. But when you compare it to the recent Chase Sapphire Preferred 100,000 point offer for $4,000 in spend it doesn’t look quite as good.
Overall the welcome offer is strong.
Earning Structure
If you already use the Ultimate Rewards or ThankYou Points portal etc. to make your bookings then this card will look very intriguing to you. If you loathe portals, like I loathe Southwest’s boarding procedures, then this may be a deal breaker for you.
The card has a solid base earning level of 2 points per dollar. That puts in on par with the very popular Capital One Venture Rewards credit card. All of the increased earning happens in the portal though, which is a miss for me. I don’t like adding a middle man to my travel bookings should issues arise. To be fair I have never used Hopper, or their portal, though so their customer service could be a lot better than what we are used to as far as portals go.
Hotel Portal Bookings
I don’t see myself ever booking a hotel through a portal since you miss out on the loyalty points you would earn from the hotel.
Car Rental Portal Bookings
Where the card could be very useful is for car rentals. I will sometimes book through a portal anyway when renting a car and 10X earning is hard to pass up. It also has primary car rental insurance which means you aren’t missing out on that too. Throw in Hertz President’s Circle status and this could be huge for some road warriors.
Flight Portal Bookings
Flights earning 5X through the portal isn’t overly exciting. If the portal matches up to airline’s published pricing then this could be useful for non complicated, domestic flights. You would still earn status and miles for flights booked through the portal so nothing is lost there. I would still book international flights etc. direct instead.
Card Perks
Since this is Capital One’s first premium card the focus has to be on the perks right? The Capital One Venture X card does come in as the lowest annual fee premium card which is nice. The $300 travel credit should be fairly easy for most to use, even if you have to go through a portal. A quick flight, or car rental, booking should get it done. If it earns points on the purchase, like it does with American Express, then even better.
The $100 in points every year, plus the travel credit, make this a net negative card for most. If you refuse to use the portal then this is a non starter for you, of course, and the Capital One Venture Rewards card is probably a better fit overall.
Where the card gets a bit interesting is in the Priority Lounge access and authorized user perks. You get access to all Priority Pass lounges, including restaurants, for you and two guests. The really crazy thing is authorized user cardholders also get this perk, including guest privileges. And, since there is no added fee for up to 4 authorized user cards you could get a small army into a lounge if you needed to. Access to Capital One lounges doesn’t mean much right now but it could grow like Centurion Lounges have.
Top tier Hertz status is a nice touch as well, especially when paired with 10X earning on car rentals through the portal. If you rent cars often then the Capital One Venture X is a winner for you in my opinion.
Capital One Venture X Perks – Final Thoughts
Overall I think this is a good card, but not quite great. Forcing everything through the portal to earn bonus points will be a sticking point for many. If the portal works well, and has good customer service, then this may not be an issue at all. Only time will tell there.
I think anyone that rents cars often, or values Hertz status, this card could be a great addition to your wallet. Earning 10X on the rentals, plus getting all the perks, is hard to pass up. Also, if you are looking to hold only one Priority Pass lounge card then this could be the best option. The fact that authorized users get the same access and guesting privileges is great, but who knows if that will last long term.
I will say I think this is a better card than the standard Capital One Venture Rewards card for most. Even though the annual fee is $300 more you can offset that with a $300 portal booking and the $100 in points each year. Then you are earning 2X on everything fee free versus $95 for the Venture card. Throw in the lounge access and Hertz status and I think it is a vast improvement for most. That assumes you will use the portal credit though.
The Capital One Venture X is available to current Venture cardholders too. We are not sure if it is available as a product change or not yet though. I would attempt to sign up first, and grab the welcome offer. If denied, then you could pursue a product change.
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Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
My wife just applied and was approved. That is just 15 months after getting approval for the Venture card with that 100k bonus. Now I have to decide if its worth my last 5/24 slot. Decisions Decisions
Congrats to your wife! Tough call on last spot. I guess it depends on what Chase cards you already have etc. Could always try to double up and grab Chase first then apply for Venture right after if you can swing the spend too.
Any idea if you have to go through the portal to get the $200 Airbnb credit?
I’m no fan of booking through portals either, but to my surprise my husband was approved, so I guess I have to tackle the portal for the $300 credit. I was denied with similar history. Excellent credit score and substantial balance in our Cap. One checking didn’t garner an approval.
The $200 credit has been posting on all kinds of things.
https://milestomemories.com/around-the-web-769/
I’m excited for the addition of Virgin as a Capital One transfer partner. There are some good redemptions out of Atlanta to the Caribbean that I have my eye on (if Delta releases availability). Destinations like Bonaire, Aruba, Roatan, etc. that are quite pricy with cash or Delta miles can be had for 25K Virgin points round trip.
A great use whenever you can find the Delta space for sure Nathan.
Very good analysis and breakdown Mark. Especially cons and pros with portal booking and priority pass benefits. I personally have Amex Platinum (Schwab) and CSR. I don’t travel as much during pandemic and when i do domestically I kind of have to go with Delta in order to use my airline incident fee credit and also use the delta sky club. I am also not a big fan of portal booking. I still prefer CSR for their transfer partners compared to Capital One especially with Hyatt and United. Also another perk for the CSR is PYB, which is huge when you’re not traveling as much. Another downside with this Capital One X card is that it doesn’t have cashback option?
Hopefully the better PYB categories come back around for Chase but that is a great option, as well as, having the 1 cent cash out in a pinch. Capital One is 1/2 cent for cash outs if I remember correctly which isn’t great. I always used my cap one points for property charges like breakfast, bar tab etc. when traveling.
“If you have already applied for a Capital One card in the last 6 months you will be auto denied so don’t even try.”
Hey Mark/Shawn, I want to make sure this choice of language was intentional. I applied for the regular Venture card back in August and was rejected. So based on what you wrote I shouldn’t even bother applying for this card till Jan/Feb 2022 since that rejected application reset my six month clock?
That is the way it always worked in the past but I think I saw a report of someone applying a few months after a recent Venture denial and got approved so maybe things have shifted. It does seem that more people are being approved for the Venture X vs the normal Venture.
Updated it to say if you have been approved.
K, thanks for the follow up
I heard the authorized users have to live in the same household. Is this true? My other downside to this card is the transfer partners.
I have not heard of that. The transfer partners are more nuanced that other issuers for sure. I look at them as a bonus offering but would plan on it being more of a travel cash back type card most of the time. At least for me.
“Good. Not great.” Seems like you’re reaching to discredit the card.
This is a great card and a fantastic offer. Matching all of the CSR travel benefits and BETTER authorized user benefits. The other big guys have there own travel portals as well.
Weird that you don’t want to admit this is a solid card.
If you like booking through a travel portal then it is a great card. If you don’t then it is a good card. I don’t like portal bookings, as I said in the article, so that is why it is not great for me. Glad it works for you Paul.
Saying it is good is not saying it is a solid card???
I would think that 1, $300 hotel stay that is an independent brand might be doable even for you, Mark?! And perhaps even a nice change of pace for your family from a Hyatt Place or Hampton Inn…geez
I am talking about long term. To rack up points in the larger areas you need to book through the portal. That just doesn’t work for my travel patterns. Good to see you back Pam, snark and all 😉
Hey Paul thanks for sharing your opinions and thoughts on the card. We appreciate all takes.
With that said Mark said the card is a good card and even applied himself. Apparently you don’t want honest opinions but would rather read something that is only the EXACT opinion you have.
And saying he wants to discredit the card? Come on man!
I wonder if you can use the $200 vacation rental credit to buy an AirBnB gift card…
I would lean towards it would but I am sure someone will have a DP in the next few weeks.
Any amount of Capital One funny money points is a terrible offer. Assuming that you are a Hyatt fan, you can book up to $1000 of Hyatt stays through their portal and get much less than that in value, since the Hyatt loyalty perks are worth up to 20-30% of the value of the room if you have status. Compare that to 100,000 points on the Sapphire card, which directly nets you 100,000 Hyatt points (I’m getting about 2.5 cents per point of value on average) plus all the loyalty benefits.
You can book the Hyatt hotel direct and use the points to wipe it off and get all of the perks and earn points etc. You don’t have to use the points through the portal.
Capital One also has airline partners etc. But yeah if all you care about are Hyatt points then Ultimate Rewards are the way to go for sure.