Capital One Venture vs. Venture X

Capital One has three awesome travel reward credit cards: the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and the Capital One Venture X Business. If you’re unsure which one is best for you, then keep reading to find out!



Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

Some credit card perks I love that come with this card:

  • Up to $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®

  • 2x on every purchase

  • 5x on rental cars, vacation rentals and hotels booked through Capital One Travel

Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

The premium version of this card is the Venture X.  While this card has a higher annual fee of $395, it also comes with a $300 travel credit every year (including the first year) to use in the Capital One Travel portal, as well as 10,000 Capital One miles deposited into your account each anniversary. These two perks are equivalent to at least $400 in travel, which completely covers the cost of the annual fee.

On top of that, this card has several luxury perks:

  1. Lounge access: Venture X Cardholders get complimentary access to Capital One Lounges, Plaza Premium Lounges, and Priority Pass Lounges.  To enter the Capital One and Plaza Premium Lounges, you just show your Venture X card and boarding pass upon arrival.  In order to access Priority Pass Lounges, you have to enroll in Priority Pass (for free) after you receive your Venture X card. You can search for lounges that are eligible here.

  2. TSA PreCheck or Global Entry membership: When you pay for your TSA Precheck or Global Entry membership with your Venture X Card, you will get a statement credit up to $120 every 4 years.

  3. Hertz President’s Circle Status : You get automatic Hertz President’s Circle Status with the Venture X that includes guaranteed upgrades, free additional drivers, widest selection of vehicles, and more.

    Please note, enrolling through the normal Hertz Gold Plus Rewards enrollment process (e.g. at Hertz.com) will not automatically detect a cardholder as being eligible for the program and cardholders will not be automatically upgraded to the applicable status tier. Additional terms apply.

  4. Cell Phone Protection, Travel Accident Insurance, Rental Car Insurance, and Lost Luggage Reimbursement

  5. No foreign transaction fees.

There are three main ways to redeem your Capital One Venture Miles:

1) Redeem miles in the travel portal.

This is Capital One’s version of Expedia where you can use your points to purchase flights, hotels, rental cars, etc. 75,000 miles will pay for $750 worth of travel in the portal. This is also where you redeem your $300 travel coupon each year if you have the Venture X. You will purchase travel in this portal with your Venture X and will automatically receive a $300 coupon reduction of the cost of travel.

2) Use miles to “Cover Travel Purchases.”

This allows you to cover a travel purchase by charging your travel expenses to your credit card. Any purchase that codes as travel can be covered with points afterwards. Many people utilize this option to cover travel expenses such as rental cars, train tickets, theme park tickets, etc that they can’t cover with other hotel or airline miles to make a trip as free as possible! For example, 75,000 miles will cover $750 worth of travel expenses.

3) Transfer your miles to transfer partners!

Capital One Miles can be transferred to Air France/KLM Flying Blue, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Wyndham and more! These are some of the “sweet spots” where your 75,000 miles can be transferred to cover travel valued at over $1,500! For more information on Capital One Transfer Partner “sweet spots” -> Read Here!

Some things to note regarding these Capital One credit cards:

  1. You CAN hold the Venture, Venture X, and Venture X Business cards at the same time, you just need to apply for them at least 6 months apart.

  2. You can combine your Venture, Venture X, and Venture X Business miles, as well as transfer the points to other cardholders.

  3. You will only receive a referral bonus for referring someone to one of these cards if they are a new Capital One cardholder.

  4. Card Eligibility Rules to be aware of (these rules don’t apply to the Venture X Business):

    💳 Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card 

    You are not eligible for the welcome offer if you've earned a VentureOne, Venture, or Venture X welcome offer in the last 48 months. 

    💳 Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

    You are not eligible for the welcome offer if you've earned a Venture or Venture X welcome offer in the last 48 months.

     💳 Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card 

    You are not eligible for the welcome offer if you've earned a Venture X welcome offer in the last 48 months.

So the best application strategy if you want to earn the welcome offer on all three is to work your way up is VentureOne → Venture → Venture X. That being said, while Capital One does not have a 5/24 rule, they do tend to get more stingy with approvals the more credit cards you open so it might be rare to be approved for all 3 cards within 48 months, especially if you are opening up other credit cards too!


My personal favorite of the cards is the Venture X or the Venture X Business if you are able to hit that minimum spend! The $300 travel credit per year and annual 10,000 anniversary miles are worth at least $400 in travel, making this card a long term keeper for me! (And that does not include all of the other amazing benefits like lounge access, TSA Pre-Check or Global Entry, Hertz President’s Circle and more!)


FREE Beginner’s Guide to Points and Miles

Want to travel for free?! ✈️ Grab a FREE Beginner's Guide to Points and Miles and learn how to redeem FREE TRAVEL this year! CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD.


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