Capital One Venture Rewards
Features
Annual fee: $59, waived first year
Miles per dollar: 2 miles per dollar on every purchase, every day
Intro bonus: 10,000 bonus miles when you spend $1,000 in your first 3 months for new account holders
Miles can be used on: Fly free on any airline, any time with no blackout dates
Foreign Transaction Fee: No foreign transaction fees
Our review: Simple, generous rewards, no foreign fees
Capital One’s points program is simple — 100 miles are worth about $1. With the double miles on every purchase on the Venture Rewards card, every $100 in purchases is worth $2 in travel rewards, or a 2% return. That compares to a 1% return for typical travel rebate credit cards. You can use your points for travel purchases with any airline, hotel, or car rental agency.
While we generally find more powerful redemption value when you use native airline miles or hotel points rather than a generic points program, the Venture Rewards program’s double miles offer helps offset some of the gap and offers the value of simplicity. There are no restrictions on the flights or hotels you book — simply book it, then ask for your points to be applied as credit against the travel charge. It’s that easy, with every point worth $0.01 toward eligible travel purchases, gift cards, and more.
If you travel overseas, the Venture Card doesn’t charge a fee on foreign purchases – which is often 3% with other companies.
Feature summary
- 2 miles per dollar on every purchase
- One-time bonus of 10,000 miles once you spend $1,000 in the first 3 months
- Earn unlimited miles that don’t expire
- Redeem miles for flights, hotel rooms, car rentals, gift cards and more
Hello!
I live in Japan at the moment (but have a US Mailing address where I grew up and where my family lives). I’m considering either this card – Capital one Venture or the Chase Sapphire. I don’t travel with a regular airline and I usually go home once a year, and another destination within Japan once a year.
I just tried to redeem some miles I had earned with AA and it didn’t end well. What are your thoughts on the cards in this situation?
Becky
@Becky – My advice is to search for a free ticket on United.com on some dates you would be interested in and see if convenient flights are available with miles. If it looks reasonable to you would go with Sapphire Preferred.
ANA is a United partner which should help matters.
Otherwise go for the Venture and that fixed 2% return.
Can I transfer Capital One miles to other airlines like AA or United? If yes, what is the transfer ratio, 1 to 1 or 2 to 1, i.e 1 Capital One mile to 2 AA miles ?
@Liz – Unfortunately no, you can’t transfer miles from your Capital One account into your miles account with other airlines.
We just got the Capital 1 card which gives us double points. I thought this was a good deal, but now that I have looked into using my points, it appears that the points do not transfer to airline miles on a point-per-mile basis. In fact, while my I used 100,000 American Advantage miles to fly business class to Europe, it appears I need something like 800,000+ points for the same ticket using my Capital 1 points. That means I would have to charge $400,000 on my Capital 1 card, to get the same benefit as charging $100, 000 on my Advantage card. Is this correct? If so, is there any other credit card which accrues miles or points which can be used on various airlines on a one or two point per one mile basis?
Thanks.
@C. Garrett – If you’re after international premium class awards you’ll want a card that lets you transfer miles directly into an airline miles account where you can use their fixed rate award charts (business class awards to Europe are typically 100,000 miles, but subject to availability). The Chase Sapphire Preferred and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express, as well as American Express Membership Rewards based credit cards offer direct transfer of the points earned into several airline mile programs. You can learn more about it here
http://milecards.com/1448/credit-cards-with-airline-mile-transfer-feature/
I booked a flight using my capital one skymiles. Does anyone know if and how much it would cost to change a flight if you have already booked it? Any penalties with the card?
@Tess – It works just as if you bought the ticket from the airline so the airline’s change fees will apply.
I am considering the Capital One Venture card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Ideally I would like to find a card that my wife and I could share. Are there any restrictions on getting a card your spouse can use with either of these cards?
Thanks for the help.
@DanO – No restrictions, you can get a free spouse card for both.
can the currency for this card be euro?
Peter- They can’t bill you in Euros, but any charges you make in Euros won’t incur a separate foreign transaction fee. You’ll just be charged their market exchange rate.
I am very interested on a mile credit card, but I am not sure between this Capital once venture or Chase Sapphire. Please give me a light about the different between both of them and give me what do you think is the best one. Thank you very much.
@Marly- For simplicity and a decent value, the Capital One Venture is a good choice. You earn a 2x points per dollar you spend which you can apply toward the purchase of any travel. Every point is worth $0.01 so you get a 2% cash value return on your spending.
The Sapphire Preferred is for somewhat more advanced users — think of it as a Swiss Army knife for miles. There are options to transfer to hotel and airline partners that can earn you higher than 2% cash value for your points. For example, many Hyatt hotel rewards and United Airlines mileage rewards, especially for international travel can offer a better than 2% value.
That said, it might be worth it to consider both — the Sapphire Preferred has a large 50,000 point bonus with $625 toward any travel that in itself more than pays for the card’s annual fee. Then use the Venture for your normal spending to earn points over time.
Is the 10,000 mile signing bonus an annual event?
@John – Yes the signing bonus is a one time event.
I would say the Venture card since there is no fee on charges made in foreign currencies. Both let you use your points for any hotel you’d like and the Venture card earns 2 points per dollar spent.