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Update #2: This news was eventually confirmed. The partnership with Hotels.com is ending on 1/31/20.
Update: Gary from View From The Wing has contacted Capital One who confirmed that they haven’t made an announcement regarding this. The Hotels.com/Venture landing page lists the end date as January 31, 2020, but the partnership could be extended beyond that date. If anything is formally announced, we’ll let you know.
Just over a year ago, Capital One started offering 10% back on its Venture cards when booking stays through Hotels.com. They’ve now announced that this partnership will be ending on January 31, 2020.
You can find more details about the partnership in our original post covering the announcement. See: Capital One & Hotels.com Team Up For 10x Miles On Venture Cards.
In my opinion, this isn’t a huge loss as you were forgoing discounts and rewards worth far more than you were getting through this partnership. For starters, you had to book directly at hotels.com/venture which meant you missed out on portal rewards worth ~5%. Secondly, the 10% included the 1.5%/2% you already earned by paying with the Venture card, so you were actually only earning an additional 8.5%/8%.
Not only did the partnership limit your rewards, but it also limited your savings. That’s because you can frequently save 15%-20% on Hotels.com gift cards through all kinds of methods:
- Raise – Raise sells discounted Hotels.com gift cards and TopCashback is currently offering 8% on Raise purchases. Alternatively, Raise often provides promo codes offering sitewide or travel-category discounts.
- Amex Offers – There are sometimes specific Hotels.com gift card Amex Offers, such as ‘Buy $50 gift card and get $10/1,000 Membership Rewards back‘. Other Amex Offers give 20% back at stores with gift card racks that stock Hotels.com gift cards.
- Amazon/Chase/Amex promotions – Amazon sometimes offers promotions where you can use 1 Ultimate Rewards point to save $15 off $60 or 1 Membership Rewards point to save $100 off $500. This provides an opportunity to stock up on their cards at 20%-25% off.
- Gift Card Sellers – Sites and apps like Newegg, Gyft, PayPal Digital Gifts, Bitmo, etc. sometimes sell Hotels.com gift cards at a 15%-20% discount.
All these methods would save you more money than paying with a Venture card, so there’s no need to be too disappointed after January 31, 2020 if it’s a partnership you’ve made use of.
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HAVE the Venture but haven’t used it much but want the Savor. What are the chances of being approved for it?
Reading thru the comments, I am surprised to see folks having an issue with this deal. I’ve booked a few prepaid rooms for this spring and fall and already got the Cap One points for them. I had bought some gift cards, too, that I used up on some of the reservations I made.
I think I was the only one that had issues – maybe it’s something weird with my account. Anyway, I was inspired by this post to call Capital One and ask about it; they fixed it within ~15 minutes. The points I got are worth about $100, so I have FrequentMiler to thank yet again. 🙂
Nice one – glad you were able to get it fixed so quickly!
I tried to use it twice and didn’t get the rewards. The first time, I placed a couple calls to get it sorted out, but by the second time, I just didn’t have the energy to fight with it again.
U got the Signup Right but nothing after ?
I can’t remember anymore. The second time, I did take a screenshot of myself clicking through the link, but like I said, I didn’t care to fight to get it in the end.
Thanks not Good news no one likes a Hassle .
CHEERs
[…] to Award Wallet which claimed that “Capital One has announced” this, and it’s since been picked up by Frequent Miler citing back to Doctor of Credit. Only it is not exactly […]
“Only” 8% in a world where people rave about 2x and 3x back on other cards? This is one of my favorite blogs, but LOL good luck finding 8% on any long-standing category elsewhere.
The 8%/8.5% is only available with one site rather than the ‘travel’ category as a whole. As I explained in the post though, earning the 8%/8.5% meant you were forgoing savings of 15%-20%, meaning paying with the Venture card was actually costing you 7%-12% which is a much worse deal.
Don’t forget too IF u got this card u may not be able to get another Better card as in to many cards. Maybe a better way to state it is ” If they DON’T Renew it it will end Jan. 2020 ” . This stuff changes every 10 mins that’s why u follow Blogs ..
CHEERs
Great no loss for me C1 turned me down like a month ago . I’ll just Look for deals on Hotels.com GC’s .
” What’s in your Wallet ” not your card Lady .
CHEERS