Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Review
By: Benét J. Wilson
Updated on: Feb 11, 2019
This article was last updated Feb 11, 2019. Terms and conditions may have changed. For the most accurate information, please consult the issuer website.
Why has the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card developed a loyal following despite competing with other rewards cards that offer higher points and more perks? Maybe because it offers cardholders an easy way to earn flat cashback rewards and makes it simple to redeem them via Purchase Eraser or direct booking with miles.
With this card, you don’t have to remember different spending categories, nor are you wedded to a single hotel or airline loyalty program.
The Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card has an easy and understandable redemption platform where you can use your rewards toward various travel options, plus it gives you to chance to transfer miles to airline loyalty programs, earn more miles for hotel stays and get a few nice perks.
But if you’re looking for a card that gives you better rewards in top spending categories, along with more travel and purchase benefits, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card may be a better fit. Below we take a look at the pros and cons of both cards.
Where the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card stands out
New cardmembers earn One-time bonus of 50,000 miles once you spend $3,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $500 in travel. Earn a flat 2 Miles per dollar on every purchase, every day. You also earn 10 miles per $1 spent when you use the card to book rooms at Hotels.com/Venture — all at an annual fee of $0 intro for first year; $95 after that.
You have much more flexibility when the time comes to redeem your miles on the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card. Use them to pay for travel booked on the website or app of any airline, hotel, rental cars and more using the Purchase Eraser feature, which gives you an account credit for what you spend.
You can also book travel with your miles at capitalone.com or at the Rewards Center at 800-228-3001. If you don’t want to use your miles for travel, you can redeem them for a check, an account credit or gift cards.
As of December 2018, the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card is one of four Capital One credit cards that allows you to transfer the miles you earn to 14 travel loyalty programs, with more partners coming.
Transfers are done at a rate of 2 Venture miles to 1.5 airline miles with the following partners:
- Aeromexico (Club Premier)
- Air Canada (Aeroplan)
- Air France KLM (Flying Blue)
- Alitalia (MilleMiglia Program)
- Cathay Pacific (Asia Miles)
- Avianca (LifeMiles)
- Etihad Airways (Etihad Guest)
- EVA Air (Infinity MileageLands)
- Finnair (Finnair Plus)
- Hainan Airlines (Fortune Wings Club)
- Qantas (Qantas Frequent Flyer)
- Qatar Airways (Privilege Club).
Miles are transferred at a rate of 2:1 to Emirates (Emirates Skywards) and Singapore Airlines (KrisFlyer).
Read Cheat Sheet: How Long Airline Point Transfers take for Amex, Chase and Citi Points.
Receive up to $100 credit to cover the enrollment fee for Global Entry or TSA Precheck when you pay for it with the card. See how our staff member, Will, cashed in on this perk during a European vacation.
Additional Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card benefits
- Travel accident insurance
- Auto rental collision damage waiver
- Roadside assistance
- Extended warranty
Where the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card falls short
The same thing that makes this card attractive is also a shortcoming — earning 2 Miles per dollar on every purchase, every day. Other travel cards offer higher points for the travel, dining and gas spending categories.
You’ll be paying the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card’s annual fee after the first year. Some may not be able to meet the card’s minimum spend requirement to get the card’s bonus miles. Plus, the perks you would expect to see with a travel-branded card, such as trip delay, trip interruption and lost/delayed baggage insurance, aren’t included with this card.
Compare it with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
If the low-miles-earning potential and lack of perks of the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card isn’t what you’re looking for in a travel rewards card, then the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card may be a better option. It has an annual fee of $95 and it does come with more benefits than the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card.
| Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card | Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card | |
| Annual fee | $0 intro for first year; $95 after that | $95 |
| Regular purchase APR | 17.49% - 24.74% (Variable) | 17.99% - 24.99% Variable |
| Rewards | 2 Miles per dollar on every purchase, every day | 2X points on travel and dining at restaurants & 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases worldwide |
| Sign-up bonus | One-time bonus of 50,000 miles once you spend $3,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $500 in travel | Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. |
| Foreign transaction fee | None | $0 |
New cardmembers Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That’s a higher spend required than the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card — but those points are valued at $750 if you redeem them at the Chase Ultimate Rewards® website. The Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card’s bonus points are only worth $500, after multiplying the cost of travel purchases by 100.
Earn 2X points on travel and dining at restaurants & 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases worldwide, which is pretty close to what you earn on the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card. But what makes the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card better is that the points you earn on this card give you 25% more value when you redeem them for travel at Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Read Tips for Booking Travel on the Chase Ultimate Rewards Website.
The points you earn can be transferred 1:1 to nine airline and three hotel loyalty programs via Chase Ultimate Rewards®. This allows you to top off any miles or points you already have in your chosen loyalty program.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has travel and purchase perks that the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card just doesn’t have, including trip cancellation/interruption insurance, baggage delay insurance, trip delay reimbursement, travel and emergency assistance services and purchase protection.
The bottom line
When choosing between the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, it all comes down to what’s most important to you in a credit card.
If you want a card that makes it easy to earn and redeem flat rewards, plus the ability to apply your rewards to offset charges with the Purchase Eraser, and don’t care about having a lot of travel perks, then the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card is your card.
But if you spend more on travel and dining, want to get more value for the points you earn for travel and have more perks, then go with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
Read our roundup of Best Flat-Rate Cashback and Rewards Cards and Best Travel Credit Cards.
