Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card 100K "Miles" Earn 100K bonus miles when you spend $20K on purchases in the first 12 months from account opening, or still earn 50K miles if you spend $3K on purchases in the first 3 months (Offer Expires 12/14/2020) Click Here to Apply $95 Annual Fee Recent better offer: None. This is the best we've seen in recent years. FM Mini Review: This card earns 2 "miles" per dollar, which are worth exactly 1 cent each toward travel. This makes the return on spend similar to a 2% cash back card (though in this case you must redeem your miles to offset travel in order to get 1 cent per mile). One big advantage over cash back: Capital One allows transfering their "miles" to airline miles at a 2 to 1.5 ratio. Card Type: Visa Signature Earning rate: 2X everywhere. Through 1/31/21: 5X Uber Eats. Noteworthy perks: Receive up to $100 application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre✓® ⚬ Redeem miles for travel at value of 1 cent per mile ⚬ Convert "miles" to airline miles at a (mostly) 2 to 1.5 ratio ⚬ No foreign transaction fees |
The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card makes for a unique one-card solution in that it offers the best of both worlds: earn 2x “miles” on all purchases and then redeem those “miles” for paid travel at a reasonable rate of return or transfer those “miles” to airline partners. While there are credit card combinations from other issuers that can offer greater returns, the Capital One Venture card likely appeals the most to those looking for one card to keep on hand for all purchases. In fact, the simplicity of being able to use one card to earn rewards and travel any time is why this card (along with its business twin:Â Spark Miles for Business) topped the list in our post answering the question: What is the best credit card?. This guide contains everything you need to know about the Capital One Venture Rewards credit card.
Capital One Venture Application Tips
Capital One Application Tips
To check application status, call (800) 903-9177 or (877) 277-5901 |
Should you apply?
This is a decent travel rewards credit card with good “everywhere” rewards. Earn 2 miles per dollar for all spend. Miles are worth 1 cent each when redeemed for travel. Simply use the card to pay for any travel expenses, and then log onto your account and apply miles to offset your statement charges.
Things get more interesting now that Capital One Miles are transferable to airline miles. Since the transfer ratio is 2 to 1.5, you can think of this card as earning your choice of 2% everywhere OR 1.5 airline miles everywhere.
It is worth noting that Capital One is known to pull from all three bureaus for new applications, resulting in hard inquiries on all of them. Anecdotally, some have reported being approved with a single report frozen.
Are you eligible?
Capital One allows at most 2 Capital One consumer cards and you must wait six months before applying for another card.
However, beyond those rules, Capital One also tends to be less likely to approve those who have opened many credit cards with other issuers. There is no known rule as to how many is too many, but those who regularly open rewards credit cards are likely to have difficulty being approved.
How to apply
You can find the current best welcome bonus offer and application link at the top of this page: Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card.
Application status
After you apply, call (800) 903-9177 or (877) 277-5901 to check your application status.
Reconsideration
If your application is denied, we recommend calling for reconsideration (800) 625-7866. It’s surprising how often denials can be changed to approvals just by asking, though note that Capital One is unlikely to approve those with many open credit cards.
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Perks
Capital One “Miles”
Capital One calls its rewards currency “miles”, though really it is like other transferable currencies in that it offers the ability to redeem towards travel or to transfer to airline miles as follows:
- Redeem Points $0.01 each toward travel: Points are worth 1 cent each toward travel and can be used to “erase” a broad range of travel purchases (including flights, lodging, ride shares, cruises, and more) within 90 days of purchase.
- Transfer Points to Partners: Points can be transferred one to one to a number of airline loyalty programs. Capital One “miles” transfer to most airline partners at a rate of 2 Capital One “miles” to 1.5 airline miles, though some offer a worse ratio of 2:1. Transfer bonuses sometimes improve these ratios.
Travel Protections
- Auto Rental Coverage: Capital One offers secondary auto rental CDW (collision damage waiver), which means that it acts as supplemental insurance to your personal car insurance if you have any (if you do not have car insurance, it acts as primary CDW). Here’s the description directly from Capital One: “Rent an eligible vehicle with your credit card and you can be covered for damage due to collision or theft.”
- Travel Accident Insurance: When you charge the entire cost of the passenger fare(s) to your card, you, your spouse and unmarried dependent children will be automatically insured up to $250,000 against accidental loss of life, limb, sight, speech or hearing while riding as a passenger in, entering or exiting any licensed common carrier.
Global Entry or TSA Pre-Check credit
- Receive up to $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre® when you use your Venture card. Get one statement credit every four years.
Purchase Protection
- Extended Warranty: “Doubles the time period of the original manufacturer’s written U.S. repair warranty up to one (1) additional year on eligible warranties of three (3) years or less for items purchased entirely with your eligible Visa Signature card.”
Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card Earn Points
Welcome Bonus
This card earns Capital One “miles”. Here’s the current welcome offer:
Refer Friends
Capital One occasionally sends out targeted email offers to refer friends and receive a bonus for each referral.
Bonus Spend
Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card offers 2X everywhere with no permanent bonus categories.
Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card Redeem Points
Cash Back
Cash back is the poorest use of Capital One “miles”. This is because if you redeem for cash back, whether as a statement credit or via check, you’ll only receive half the value of travel redemptions: just 0.5 cents per “mile”. If you are looking for cash back rewards, there are much better options on the market.
Travel
Redeem points for paid travel: 1 cent per "mile"
Capital One "miles" can be redeemed for paid travel at a rate of 1 cent per "mile". Travel purchases can be "erased" by redeeming miles within 90 days of purchase. Note that Capital One keeps a fairly broad definition of travel, with things like flights, hotels, Airbnb, ride shares, cruises, and more qualifying. There is no minimum redemption if you are covering the charge completely with your "miles". If you are redeeming for a partial credit toward a travel purchase, the minimum is 2,500 miles. Also keep in mind that Capital One allows you to combine miles earned on each of their miles-earning cards as well as transfer to other cardholders with eligible miles-earning cards.Some customers get "special hotel offers"
Capital One "miles" can be redeemed for gift cards for many popular merchants. Some cardholders with older Capital One miles-earning cards may additionally have the ability "Get Special Hotel Offers". If you happen to have a card with this option, you can redeem 64,250 Capital One "miles" for a $900 gift card with select hotel chains. See this post for more detail.
Transfer points
Transfer to another Capital One miles-earning card
Capital One allows you to combine miles earned from all of your Capital One miles-earning credit cards. Additionally, Capital One allows transfers to any other cardholder who has a miles-earning Capital One card. This makes it very easy to combine miles to redeem for a valuable award.Transfer Partners
| Rewards Program | Best Uses |
|---|---|
| Accor Live Limitless | Use to pay hotel bill with value of 2 Euro cents per point. In some cases (such as hotel to airline transfer bonuses) it may make sense to convert Accor points to the following airline miles at a 1 to 1 ratio: Finnair, Iberia, Qantas, or Virgin Australia |
| AeroMexico ClubPremier | AeroMexico is a SkyTeam partner. Club Premier points can be used to book flights on AeroMexico, SkyTeam alliance members (such as Delta or Korean Air), or on select partner airlines. Unfortunately many have reported that awards are extremely difficult to book through AeroMexico so we do not recommend transferring points to this program. If you want to fly AeroMexico, look to transfer points to another SkyTeam partner (such as Air France) and then book AeroMexico with that program. |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Redeem for Star Alliance flights and/or flights with Air Canada partners (such as Etihad). As of 11/8/20: No fuel surcharges; $39 CAD award booking fee; 5,000 points to add stopover on one-way award. See: Air Canada Aeroplan: Everything you need to know. |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | Monthly Air France Promo Awards often represent very good value. Air France miles can be used to book Sky Team awards, including Delta awards. |
| Alitalia MilleMiglia | Alitalia is a member of the SkyTeam alliance. Unfortunately, fuel surcharges can be quite high, and partner awards cannot be booked online. Worse, after numerous devaluations, few sweetspots exist in this program. |
| Avianca LifeMiles | Avianca LifeMiles can be great for Star Alliance awards. They offer reasonable award prices and no fuel surcharges on awards. They also offer shorthaul awards within the US (for flying United, for example) for as few as 7,500 miles one-way. Best of all, their mixed-cabin pricing can lead to fantastic first-class award prices. See this post for details. |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | Cathay Pacific has a decent distance based award chart, but as of April 2020 they no longer allow stopovers longer than 24 hours. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles can be a good option for booking American Airlines flights with a distance based award chart, especially if other OneWorld Alliance miles aren't available. |
| Emirates Skywards | Emirates has different award charts for each airline partner. Sometimes they allow one-way awards, sometimes they do not. In general, award prices are fairly high, but there are a few sweet spots such as New York to Milan for 90K round trip in business class. |
| Etihad Guest | Etihad has a very competitive award chart for American Airlines flights, among others. For example, they charge only 50,000 miles one-way for business class flights from North America to Europe. Partner awards must be booked over the phone. |
| EVA Air Infinity MileageLands | If you want to fly one of the best business class products in the sky, the best way to snag EVA flights is with their own miles since they release more award space to their own members. One-way business class flights from the US to Taipei cost 75K to 80K miles. Fuel surcharges are very low on these routes. |
| Finnair Plus+ | Award prices are quite high compared to competing programs. Interestingly, miles can be exchanged for tier points (towards elite status). |
| JetBlue | JetBlue points offer the most value when cheap ticket prices are available and when award taxes are high relative to the overall cost of the ticket (more details can be found here). The JetBlue Plus Card and the JetBlue Business Card offer a 10% rebate on awards, so you can get more value by holding one of these cards. |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | Best use is probably for flights on El Al with no fuel surcharges. Also useful for short AA flights. Qantas offers distance based award charts similar to Cathay Pacific. Both are OneWorld Alliance members. I recommend comparing award prices across both programs before transferring to either. Qantas offers round the world business class awards for only 280,000 points (but with many restrictions) |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Use to book Singapore Airlines First Class awards (generally reserved for their own members) or for Star Alliance awards. Low change fees and no close-in booking fees make this a very good program for booking United Airlines flights. |
| Wyndham | Wyndham often allows booking multi-room suites for the same price as a standard room. It's sometimes possible to get great value from points in that way. |
Other ways to redeem points
You can also use points to pay some merchants directly (for example: Amazon.com). Don't do this. These options offer poor value. Further, they may compromise the security of your account (i.e. if someone hacks into your Amazon account, they might spend your Capital One "miles" - causing you a headache in getting your points reinstated).
Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card Manage Points
Combine Points Across Cards
Share Points Across Cardholders
How to Keep Points Alive
Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card Lifecycle
How to meet minimum spend requirements
Keep, cancel, or product change?
Is this card worth keeping in the long run? If you are looking for a simple one-card solution that offers a reasonable return on everyday purchases, it might be. With a baseline redemption of 2 cents per dollar spent and the ability to also transfer to airline partners, this card offers just enough flexibility to make it worth considering as a lone card solution. However, keep in mind that there are long-term options on the market to earn 2% cash back with no annual fee and several cards that are even better in the first year. There are alternatively cards that offer bonus categories for more miles per dollar. The Venture card’s strength is in offering a combination that is less common in a single card.
