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Head’s up to those of you with Capital One Venture or Spark Miles credit cards! Starting in 2025, you’ll no longer get 2 annual passes to use at the Capital One lounge or Plaza Premium Lounge passes with your cardmembership. You’ll still get 2 passes to use on either network, but those will expire 12/31/24, and starting 1/1/25 you’ll only be able to access via a reduced $45 lounge fee. If you hold either the Capital One Venture X or Capital One Venture X Business, you’ll continue to enjoy unlimited access for you and 2 guests.
Capital One Lounges are incredible
I’ve visited the Dallas and DC lounges and they are wonderful. Great food to sit down, grab n go food already packaged, delicious coffee, and it just feels fresh and luxurious. Clearly…they’re having to cut some cost and targeted the low fee cards first.
Capital One Lounge Access
At first glance it doesn’t really look like anything has changed; however, you’ll note the stipulation that Venture and Spark cardholders 2 comped visits expire 12/31/24 for both lounge networks
The FAQs reveal the damage
“Effective January 1, 2025, Venture and Spark Miles cardholders will no longer receive complimentary lounge access. You will have 2 complimentary visits to Capital One Lounges or Plaza Premium Lounges to use by December 31, 2024. Venture and Spark Miles cardholders can access Capital One Lounges at a special rate of $45 for themselves and their guests.”
Overall
These lounges get overcrowded, and if you want to keep them feeling exclusive and not over-run, these kind of devaluations are a good first step toward reducing foot traffic. The implementation of grab n go food has been especially expensive when people can effectively come in, take whatever they want, and then bounce. Perhaps those with $95 annual fee cards abused this more than those with $395 fee cards?
What do you think of these changes?
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
$300 Chase Travel℠ Credit + Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- $300 Chase Travel℠ Credit + Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- That’s worth $750 when redeemed through Chase Travel℠. Plus, get up to $300 in statement credits on Chase Travel℠ purchases within your first year
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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