Are you interested in getting started with points and miles? Do you travel at least a few times a year? Then my pick for the single best credit card is the Capital One Venture X credit card.
Yes, it has a $395 annual fee but that pays for itself if you use just two features of the card! Those are:
- An annual $300 travel credit through the Capital One Travel Portal
- 10,000 Capital One Miles on the card anniversary (a $100+ value)
Together that’s $400 or more of value, fully offsetting the annual fee! But there are many more benefits of the Venture X card! Just look at the free food you can get at the Capital One Lounge in Denver International Airport!
Here are my favorite features of this card and why I think it is the best value option if you only want to carry one travel credit card.
$300 Capital One Travel Portal Credit
I’ve found the Capital One Travel Portal credit easy to use. I’ve used it for flights, hotels, and car rentals without issue. I do find that hotels are sometimes higher priced through the portal than if booking directly. This is especially true if it is a major chain but for smaller hotels there is often little or no difference. Perhaps my favorite way to use the credit though is booking flights. For example, I recently booked flights on Allegiant at exactly the same rate as on their website and then could still pay for seats and bags after the fact from their site at the same cost as booking direct. Bottom line, I value the $300 travel credit at face value.
Good Mileage Earning Opportunities
I’ve already mentioned the 10,000 bonus miles you receive annually just for having the card but earning miles is pretty easy more broadly with the Venture X. Highlights include:
- A 75,000 mile sign up bonus after spending $4000 in the first three months.
- Earning a flat 2 miles per dollar on all purchases. This makes it my go to credit card for all categories that I can’t get bonus point spending on.
- Earning significant miles by booking travel through the Capital One Travel Portal. 10 points per dollar on hotels and car rentals and 5 points per dollar on flights.
Capital One Miles Are Easy to Use
I find the miles from my Venture X easy to use and they provide me with good value. There are two main ways that I use my Capital One Miles. The first is you can charge any travel related expense to your Venture X card and then use the “Cover Travel Purchases” redemption option. This allows you to redeem points at one cent per point to cover any travel purchase. This is done online and takes effect instantly. While this may not be the highest value redemption method it is very versatile and easy to use. The second way that I use my points is by transferring to partner programs, usually airlines. This can unlock amazing value but tends to be more complicated and time consuming to utilize.
Lounge Access At Airports
Ahh, the airport lounge. A truly useful perk if you fly frequently. At a minimum this gives you a more pleasant place to sit than in the terminal and means not spending extra money on expensive airport food and drinks.
While Capital One doesn’t have as large of lounge network as American Express the value proposition of the lounges it does provide are excellent! In fact, the Capital One lounges are some of my favorite in the United States! Check out my review of the Denver lounge to find out why.
The other big draw of the Venture X for me is that the cardholder and up to two guests receive free entry to lounges. Lounge access for three people not enough for you? Another great thing about this card is that you can add authorized users on the Venture X for free, and they get their own lounge access!
The Venture X gives you access to the Capital One, Priority Pass, and Plaza Premium lounges. Together that’s over 1500 lounges worldwide. I find coverage to be particularly good outside the United States. In the US it can vary depending on where you fly and it isn’t unusual to find lounges relatively full. Nonetheless, this is still a very useful benefit.
And More
There are quite a few other features on this card that are useful too. A few others I think are worth quickly highlighting are:
- $100 Global Entry credit every five years
- No Foreign Transaction Fees (and it is a Visa card, so is widely accepted internationally)
- Good travel insurance, including primary collision damage waiver in most countries on car rentals
- Cell Phone Protection
Overall the Venture X is a great travel card that easily covers the $395 annual fee, enhances your travel experience, and can open up some great travel redemptions through the mile transfer partners.
