Capital One Venture Rewards Card: Limited-Time Bonus ($900+ First-Year Value)

The Capital One Venture Rewards Card is a premium travel rewards card with a minimum of a flat 2 “miles” per dollar on all purchases. These “miles” are very flexible, and can be redeemed directly against any travel purchase made with the card within the past 90 days (any direct airline website, any direct hotel website, portals like Expedia/Booking.com, AirBNB stays, Uber rides, etc). This makes it effectively a flat 2% cash back card when redeemed towards travel. Capital One miles can also be transferred 1:1 to various airline partners, making it earn more miles for many purchases than the Chase Sapphire Preferred, for example. More details below.

Right now, there is a limited-time offer with a value of $1,000+.

• Limited-time offer: 75,000 Miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening (equal to $750 in travel), plus an additional $300 credit at their Capital One Travel portal.
• 2X miles on every purchase, every day.
• 5X miles on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. Capital One Travel offers a Price Match Guarantee (scroll to bottom) and price-drop protection for 10 days after a flight.
• Up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®.
• $50 experience credit and other premium benefits with every hotel and vacation rental booked from the Lifestyle Collection.
• Automatic Hertz Five Star status.
• No foreign transaction fees.
• $95 annual fee.

Note the following about existing or previous cardholders:

Existing or previous cardmembers are not eligible for this product if they have received a new cardmember bonus for this product in the past 48 months.

Redemption details. Capital One “miles” can be redeemed directly for a cash statement credit on a 1 mile = $0.01 basis when offsetting any travel purchase made on the card within the past 90 days. In other words, 50,000 miles = $500 toward travel. That means you can fly on any airline or stay at any hotel, pay with this card, and then “erase” that purchase using your miles balance later. This even includes AirBnB vacation rentals, car rentals, cruises, and Uber rides.

This means that earning 2 miles on every $1 in purchases essentially makes this a 2% back card when applied towards travel. You also have the option of booking travel through their travel portal, similar to Chase Ultimate Rewards, but you are not required to do so. You have the flexibility of booking through them or making the purchase directly through the airline, hotel, car rental counter, etc. This makes it easy to combine and spend all your Capital One miles.

Miles transfer options. Capital One now allows you to transfer your “miles” into select airline miles programs as well. To transfer Capital One rewards to a travel partner, you must have at least 1,000 Capital One rewards miles. Here are the airline transfer partners:

• Aeromexico (1:1)
• Air France/KLM (1:1)
• Air Canada Aeroplan (1:1)
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (1:1)
• Avianca Lifemiles (1:1)
• British Airways Avios (1:1)
• Emirates Skywards (2:1.5)
• Japan Airlines (2:1.5)
• JetBlue (5:3)
• EVA (2:1.5)
• Etihad (1:1)
• Finnair (1:1)
• Qantas (1:1)
• Qatar Airways (1:1)
• Singapore Airlines Krisflyer (1:1)
• TAP Air Portugal (1:1)
• Turkish Airlines (1:1)
• Virgin Red (1:1)

Hotel partners

• Accor Live Limitless (2:1)
• Choice Hotels (1:1)
• Wyndham Hotels (1:1)
• I Prefer Hotel Rewards (1:2)

If you know how to leverage one of these international airline miles programs (my favorites are Aeroplan and Avios since you can combine family points), this can be a very valuable option. Otherwise, it’s nice to know you can always get a certain level of value by redeeming against any travel purchase.

Bottom line. The Capital One Venture Rewards Card (my referral link) is a solid all-around travel card that earns 2x miles on every purchase, which you can either redeem against any travel purchase (can purchase directly first and erase within 90 days) or transfer to one of their airline/hotel partners.

Like most people, I don’t prefer using a travel portal, but even if you value the $300 credit at Capital One Travel at $250, once you add the 75,000 bonus miles that’s still a $900+ net first-year value after the $95 annual fee. Capital One’s portal a least offers a price-match guarantee.

Above is my referral link, where you can first see if you’ll be approved without an upfront credit check (soft inquiry only). If you then accept the offer, then there will be a normal hard inquiry.