Since their launches, the Venture X and Venture X Business cards have been popular cards for those seeking lounge access. That’s because Capital One implemented a generous policy for bringing guests into lounges, plus additional cardholders (AKA authorized users) on personal Venture X cards received complimentary lounge access despite the authorized user cards not coming with an added fee.
That’s sadly changing.
As of February 1, 2026, only primary cardholders will get complimentary lounge access. Not only will additional cardholders have to pay a special lounge access fee of $125 in order to gain access, but primary cardholders will also have to pay a fee to have guests join them if they have a personal Venture X card, as will guests of Venture X Business cardholders depending on the type of lounge.
Additional Cardholder Changes
From February 1, 2026, additional cardholders on Capital One Venture X cards will lose lounge access. To regain access, you’ll have to pay an annual lounge access fee of $125. That will reenable access to Capital One Lounges, Capital One Landings and Priority Pass lounges. Venture X Business additional cardholders didn’t previously benefit from complimentary lounge access, but they’ll now have the option to also pay a $125 lounge access fee.
Something important to note is that there still won’t be a fee to get additional cardholder cards on your Venture X and/or Venture X Business cards. It’s only if those additional cardholders wish to have lounge access that a $125 fee will be payable.
For both personal Venture X cardholders and Venture X Business cardholders, there’ll be a limit of four additional cardholders for whom you can pay $125 to gain lounge access.
Guest Access Changes
Also starting from February 1, 2026, primary cardholders will no longer be able to provide complimentary lounge access to traveling companions if they have the personal Venture X card; Venture X Business cardholders on the other hand will have a better policy.
Here’s what the new policies will be based on the lounge types and which version of the Venture X card you have:
Priority Pass
- Venture X – Primary cardholders & additional cardholders who have paid the $125 lounge access fee will be able to bring guests for $35 per visit.
- Venture X Business – Primary cardholders & additional cardholders who have paid the $125 lounge access fee will be able to provide complimentary access for up to two guests. Additional guests can be brought along for $35 per person.
Capital One Lounges & Landings
- Venture X – Primary cardholders won’t be able to provide complimentary access to guests automatically. However, if you and eligible additional cardholders spend $75,000 in a calendar year, you’ll be able to bring two complimentary guests in to Capital One Lounges and one complimentary guest to Capital One Landings. This access is valid for the rest of the year in which $75,000 is spent and all of the following year.
Primary cardholders & additional cardholders who have paid the $125 lounge access fee will be able to pay $45 per guest per visit who’s 18+; children ages 2-17 will be charged a discounted fee of $25, while children under two years old will be free. - Venture X Business – Primary cardholders won’t be able to provide complimentary access to guests automatically. However, if you spend $75,000 across all cardholders in a calendar year, you’ll be able to bring two complimentary guests in to Capital One Lounges and one complimentary guest to Capital One Landings. This access is valid for the rest of the year in which $75,000 is spent and all of the following year.
Primary cardholders & additional cardholders who have paid the $125 lounge access fee will be able to pay $45 per guest per visit who’s 18+; children ages 2-17 will be charged a discounted fee of $25, while children under two years old will be free.
Quick Thoughts
Considering how overcrowded airport lounges have gotten in recent years and how generous the Venture X and Venture X Business lounge policies – particularly for additional cardholders on personal cards – were, it’s not surprising that some kind of restrictions would eventually be implemented. However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that this is potentially a massive hit for Venture X and Venture X Business cardholders.
We added a couple of friends to my wife’s Venture X card a few months ago so that they’d be able to get complimentary lounge access, so it’s a shame that from February 1, 2026 they’ll each have to pay $125 if they want to maintain that.
For infrequent travelers, having complimentary lounge access was nice to have. If you’re only flying a handful of times per year though, it might not seem worth paying the $125 fee, particularly if the airports you fly in and out of only have access to Priority Pass lounges that happen to be mediocre.
It’s even worse for personal Venture X primary and additional cardholders who want to bring along guests. That’s because it’ll now cost $35 per guest for Priority Pass lounges. Venture X Business cardholders can breath a sigh of relief as they’ll still be able to bring two complimentary guests into Priority Pass lounges, for now at least.
Despite these changes, for many cardholders it’ll still be a no brainer to pay the $395 annual fee on these cards seeing as you get a $300 annual credit for bookings made through Capital One’s travel booking site, as well as 10,000 bonus miles at renewal. However, if you find it to be a hassle to redeem that $300 credit, having Capital One greatly restrict lounge access for additional cardholders and guests might make the decision on keeping the card more of a toss up.
Question
Will these lounge access changes have an effect on your decision to renew your Venture X and/or Venture X Business card? Let us know in the comments below.
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I don’t really use airports that have capital one lounges, so it was really the priority pass benefit that was helpful to me and my family (4 total). We have other cards that have priority pass with two free guests, but I’m not sure how to deal with the fourth person. If I have two separate sets of priority pass select benefits, with two guests, does that mean I can bring up to 4 guests with me between the two cards? Is there a way to make this work? Maybe my wife should keep her C1VX card active so she can use that as the fourth person?
Yes the news of lounge restrictions will have me looking for a new travel card. I am not a fan of advertising perks and then clawing them back. At least grandfather existing account holders to the old rules
[…] “The biggest blow is the loss of free lounge access for authorized users, which was a huge part of the value proposition.” – Frequent Miler […]
This is a big hit for family travelers. My family (2 adults + 4 kids) have been able to enter virtually any priority pass lounge with only one Venture X card and one AU. Yes, most are not great (I have never been to one worth $35/pp for a child), but it does make pre-departure time much more manageable. Would love to see FM to an article geared towards family access for PP lounges.
Access for additional users was silly anyway. If someone not in my family wants lounge access, they should get their own card. It’s like sharing your Netflix password with your friends.
But taking away the guest pass is a hard slap, especially for family travel. Now if I take a trip with my son or daughter I basically can’t use the Priority Pass perk. It ain’t worth the $35 charge — most of these lounges only offer skimpy snacks, not enough to justify a $35/kid charge.
As a parent traveling with a child with ADHD and anxiety issues, this is painful.
No issues with the additional card rule changes — as others have said, that was nice while it lasted but way ahead of the competition.
The new guesting policy for primary cardholders is asinine though.
TBH the previous lounge policies were too good to be true. No other card with lounge access offers free AU’s. $125 per AU is still cheaper than any of the competition. Not to mention the base annual fee is still significantly cheaper than the CSR and the AMEX Plat. I’d MUCH rather see these changes than another annual fee go up, or more couponification.
I normally much prefer FM to TPG, but I think TPG had the more clear-headed vibe when covering these changes this time.
Even though these changes will end up costing our family $125 more per year, I still think this was the right thing for them to do 🙂
I do think the guesting policy for families with kids will lose some customers, however. Although that doesn’t apply to us, I think Capital One will see families with kids use the CSR or AMEX Plat instead. I guess folks in the know can start setting their kids up as AUs, but I doubt that will be “mainstream” just because many people would feel weird about their 5 year old having a credit card (even if they don’t have access to it).
Then again, a lounge with fewer kids could be nice…
Ritz card has free AUs and unlimited PP guests
I feel like I’m advertising for the BoA PRE on this comment section, but you can enroll 4 people in Priority Pass select with a PRE without needing to even make them AUs on the card. I think each enrolled person also comes with unlimited guests, but I haven’t tried myself.
I am going to cancel, myself.
If I had to do a ton of biz travel, I might stick around. But I am just doing a few trips and already using the restricted credit is an annoyance. Use up the points and bail is my strategy.
Don’t really see the logic here. A cap for the heavy users seems to make more sense, but I guess someone else will want the spend. On the bright side, not having to pay $400 a month and kind of get it back with overpaying on the C1 travel portal or converting points works too.
Sure, the change will help with lounge overcrowding. However, I’m concerned that this will have a large negative impact to the PP lounge’s bottom line seeing that they just lost their biggest paying customer – C1. It will be very tempting for them to offset it by less staff, worse food, and shorter hours.
I don’t know how much worse PP can get in the US. There’s only 1 that’s even decent in SFO all the other one’s I have been to are pretty meh barely better than sitting in the terminal
They’re not extravagant, but I liked The Club in SJC. The Escape lounge in PDX is also beautiful, and had better food than most Centurions (though the bar wasn’t as good).
The lounges get reimbursed per person admitted. If they’re at capacity, they’re rolling in money
I actually product changed my boundless to the ritz this morning and was wondering if it was worth keeping the VenX anymore. Now this. Any reason to keep this card?
The RC is next at bat. Just watch.
Sadly, you are probably correct
[…] Source: Frequentmiler.com | View original article […]
I smell coupon book is coming to C1.
Not even allowing 1 guest on Venture X is a real slap in the face. What am I paying almost $400 for??
$300 flight credit and 10k miles per year and access to the lounge. They are paying $5 so you can get access to their lounge. Only in bizarro world is that a slap in the face. I have the AMEX Platinum and it comes with no guests and costs $300 more. If you want premium travel perks you gotta pay. Banks aren’t in it to lose moment in perpetuity
10k miles is like $100. Doesn’t even buy a one way domestic ticket. And the $300 flight credit is only good if you book it on the Capital One Portal. They provide that knowing most cardholders won’t use. IMO stripping away all guest lounge access is swinging the pendulum too far in the opposite direction. Why not reduce guests to 1 instead of 2? Or not allow authorized card holders to have access – only the primary cardholder? Or even provide 3-4 guess passes a year?
It’s not a flight credit, you can use it on things like rental cars and the rates aren’t bad
I’ve typically used it for hotels – even though the price is usually higher than if I book elsewhere, just to get the credit. I rarely travel where I need to rent a car – aka I don’t spend my vacation in the US.
IME booking National rentals, the rates are worse than booking directly but not egregiously so as to make the credit useless. To me, between slightly worse rates and not earning points on the $300, I’d value it at around $225-$250.
And yes, I’m aware that you can call them up, but no, it is not worth my time to wait a half hour on hold just to speak to someone with a dubious hold on the English language just to get a $25 C1 travel portal credit on my next booking as a “price match.”
Do they only give “price match” dollars as credits for future use?
Agreed – Venture X is still by far the cheapest of the lounge cards. This change makes them closer to the competition but still a clear winner.
I’ll be cancelling my card before it renews in January. I fly usually 4-5x per year, almost always with my spouse. Our home airport is IAD which has a C1 lounge conveniently located just past TSA Pre security so we can stop there regardless of which terminal we’re flying out of. My spouse and young adult kids all have AU cards on my account so we can use the lounge together and my sons have used it when traveling on their own. We like the hot food and the grab and go options but the lounge has been getting very crowded, one time we had to wait 30 minutes to enter. The bathroom situation / layout is so bad we don’t even bother trying to use it anymore. No way will I pay $35 per visit to bring my spouse on top of the net $95/yr I pay after the travel credit.
TIA for helping to solve the overcrowding issue. Spouse and young kids all have access to a very nice lounge 4-5x a year for a measly $95 then complains about overcrowding and a 30 minute wait to get in.
Why the snark? Isn’t the whole point of this community to learn techniques to get maximum value out of the various travel programs? I’m pretty sure it was here from the FT team that I learned about the free guests and AU cards on the VX card.
People get highly invested in these things and get upset when there are changes. Of course I can sympathize because it can suck when things change and you lose a benefit. But there are *always* changes. (You should hear the howls of injured outrage when a company closes a manufactured spend loophole. Chilling.)
I look at all this as one big game. If I can stay on top of the rules and changes better than others then I can tilt the odds in my favor and do well. Or to use one of my favorite quotes, “A wise man believes only in lies, trusts only in the absurd, and learns to expect the unexpected.”
I’ve been expecting something like this because the benefits on the card seemed too good to last. I haven’t had much trouble using the $300 travel credit and as long as the 10k annual points holds I’ll probably hold onto it. For one thing, if negative changes are coming to the Chase Sapphire Reserve I might want a backup card with primary rental car coverage. It’s also good for non-bonus spend overseas.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there aren’t more negative changes on the way, which is why I haven’t gone all in on other Capital One cards.
No other card pays you $5 to hold it so why would people not expect devaluations? This isn’t even really a devaluation as you pointed out more of a cost cutting measure.
What are you guys redeeming the $300 travel credit for? Flights? I’ve booked hotels with the credit but they’ve always been more expensive than booking elsewhere (i.e., I’m not getting $300 of value from the credit).
Yea, this is my issue. I find the Capone portal is always more expensive. So people saying that Capone is paying $5 for your lounge access isn’t realistic to me. Would you pay $300 to get $300 in credit for an over-priced, restricted travel portal that expires in a year? Certainly not.
I book a lot of independent hotels and often find prices are very close (or even very occasionally cheaper) than booking direct. I just booked a hotel in Boston with the credit and the price was only a few dollars more than the best rate online. Of course a $300 credit like this is never worth $300, but between the credit, the annual 10k points, lounge access, primary rental car coverage, and being a good 2x card for foreign travel, it is (barely) a keeper for me.
I have to add that my overall opinion of Capital One is low and my expectations for this card were never that high. It was very obvious that the initial fee and benefits were teasers to bring people in and wouldn’t last. I doubt this is the end of the changes.