I have already written about my search for a new premium travel credit card. The Amex Platinum card will be refreshed this year which means that the annual fee will increase, and even more credits will be added. I had flirted with the idea of adding the Chase Sapphire Reserve, but that card has been refreshed recently with a higher annual fee and lots of useless credits; the changes make the card quite unappealing to me, and it doesn’t suit my needs.
For the last two years, I have periodically used the pre-approval tool on the Capital One website, but I was repeatedly rejected. The main reason for the rejections was that I had too many revolving accounts. It’s been about a year since I opened any new accounts. Earlier today, I used the pre-approval tool for the Venture cards, and I was just approved for the Capital One Venture X. I’ve been interested in this card for quite a while. I’ve gotten weary of the increasing complexity of premium travel cards. The credits have multiplied beyond reason and fully utilizing them sometimes feels like a part time job. I want to simplify my setup, and the Venture X should support my goal of doing so.
It earns:
10X Miles on hotels & rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
5X Miles on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel
2X Miles on all other purchases, every day
Here are a few highlights that are interesting and relevant to me. This list is not exhaustive:
Earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening.
Get 10,000 bonus miles (equal to $100 towards travel) every year, starting on your first anniversary.
Receive a $300 annual credit for bookings through Capital One Travel, where you’ll get our best prices on thousands of options.
Access to Capital One lounges. Their lounge network is not very extensive at the moment. It has a lounge at Ronald Reagan International, and that’s interesting to me because I often have connections there.
The card gives you primary CDW for rental cars. If you purchase CDW coverage from the rental agency, it will cost you about $30/day. That adds up quickly.
The combination of the $300 travel credit and the 10,000 bonus miles on your anniversary completely offset the $395 annual fee.
Price drop protection.
Trip delay and cancellation insurance.
Lost luggage reimbursement.
Now seems like a good time to get the card, because I have to book a lot of flights and pay for other travel expenses. I should spend enough in the next few months to earn the signup bonus. One complaint I might have about the card is that you only earn the maximum points when you book through the Capital One travel portal. I much prefer to book directly with the airline, but I will probably try their portal at some point just to see what it’s like. This trend of banks nudging their customers into using their travel portals is not unique to Capital One, but I’m still uneasy about using them.
No post about the Venture X card would be complete if I didn’t talk about the Capital One Duo, which is a well know setup within the credit card community. It consists of the Venture X and Savor cards. It’s a simple and powerful setup. The Venture X helps to earn points on travel and the Savor card helps you earn on your groceries, dining, and streaming services. Together these two cards cover a wide variety of common spending categories. I plan to start concentrating my spending in those categories on those two cards, and that should allow me to rack up points rapidly.
The multipliers for flights, hotels, rental cars, and vacation rentals are certainly impressive. However, I’m equally as interested in the 2X catch-all category. A lot of my spending does not fall into categories that are covered by most credit cards. There are several cards with a 1.5X multiplier for non-category spending, but there are not many that will give you 2X points. Thus, I plan to use the Venture X as a catch-all. For example, I can imagine using this card at Walmart. Walmart does not code as a grocery store, so I couldn’t use my Savor card there and get 3X points. I can imagine many other uses.
I got this card to simplify my spending and concentrate my points and miles. I’ve become increasingly agitated with the trend towards higher annual fees and the increasing number of useless credits. I’m hoping that the Venture X will be the reprieve I’ve been wanting. I will keep you all updated on my progress.
If anyone wants to read more about the card, see this link.
If you are interested in this card, you can use my referral link. I will get a referral bonus when someone uses the link and is successfully approved.