Travel Past 50 is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on Travel Past 50. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Click here to see our full disclosure.
There seems to be a bit of heightened competition these days for your credit card business. The latest entry is the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.
The exceptional component of the enhanced welcome reward is a $250 Capital One Travel credit valid during the first year of card membership. Plus, you get 75,000 bonus Capital One miles after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months after account opening.
NOTE: This enhanced welcome offer expires on Monday, September 9, 2024. Don't miss it!
This welcome offer alone is worth up to $1,080 when you combine the value of the travel credit and the bonus miles and the miles you earn on the minimum spend. But, but you can get even more value from this offer if you know how to redeem Capital One miles for maximum value by utilizing transfer partners. That's an exceptional welcome offer for a card with only a $95 annual fee.
The Venture Rewards card also simplifies the miles earning scheme for anyone who gets overwhelmed by the variable bonus categories of most other cards.
Instead of a 5x bonus here, and a 3x bonus there, and a 1:1 bonus wherever else, the Venture Rewards card earns 2 miles per dollar spent on most categories. This is the card for someone who doesn't want to bother to track all the various bonus categories, but still wants to earn versatile miles that can be used with hotel and airline transfer partners or for statement credits.
This offer alone is worth up to $1,638 when you combine the value of the travel credit and the bonus miles. But, you can get even more value from this offer if you know how to redeem Capital One miles for maximum value by utilizing transfer partners. (See below for Capital One transfer partners.)
And because this card earns 2 miles per dollar spent on most purchases, hitting the $4,000 spending requirement for the bonus will actually earn you about 83,000 total miles in the first few months (your bonus miles plus those earned on spending), for a total value of $1,786. That earning potential is even higher if you’re booking hotels and car rentals through the Capital One Travel portal, which earns 5 miles per dollar spent.
Capital One Venture Rewards partners
(Note: transfers are 1:1 unless otherwise noted.)
- Aeromexico Rewards
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue
- Avianca LifeMiles
- Accor Live Limitless, 2:1 (1,000 miles = 500 ALL points)
- British Airways Executive Club
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Choice Privileges
- Emirates Skywards
- Etihad Guest
- EVA Infinity MileageLands, 2:1.5 (1,000 miles = 750 Infinity MileageLands miles)
- Finnair Plus
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go
- Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- Virgin Red
- Wyndham Rewards
Another benefit of the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is that you can use your Capital One miles retroactively to pay for travel expenses you paid for on the card. For example, if you spent $100 on a hotel room charged to the card, you can retroactively use 10,000 miles to pay that $100 when your statement is due. This is how you might want to do things if you're getting points or credit toward status from the hotel group. You have to do a little tricky calculation to see whether it's better to just book the hotel for miles through the portal (where you won't get your status points) or pay on the card (and get your 2x miles in addition to your status points) and use your miles for credit later.
Some other benefits of the card
- 5X miles per $1 on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- 2X miles per $1 on everyday purchases
- Up to a $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck
- Hertz Five Star status
- No foreign transaction fees
Here's a more detailed discussion of the Venture Rewards card's benefits and how best to use them.
When you combine the easy everyday earnings with this card’s current welcome bonus, now is the time to add the Venture Rewards card to your wallet, as the television ads say.
See all cards offering elevated welcome offers at this time.