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Yes, the Capital One Venture Rewards card is a serious contender

My entire impression of Capital One changed a couple years ago when they announced they’d add transfer partners to their program. Suddenly, one of the biggest cash back hitters became a player in the aspirational travel game. With this addition, it prompted me to write my first ever post recommending a Capital One card: The Capital One Spark Miles for Business Card.

Capital One doesn’t just offer transfer partners to their business cardholders, the perk is available on their personal cards as well. The top of their personal card heap is the Capital One Venture Rewards and they’re currently offering 100k reason to take a closer peek. Let’s take a look at what makes this card one you should heavily consider adding to your wallet.

Details:

• 60k welcome bonus after $3k spend in 3 months from account opening
• 2x miles on every purchase
• $100 credit for Global Entry and TSA Pre
• Transfer miles to 15 partners
• No foreign transaction fees
• $95 annual fee – First Year is waived
• Learn more

60k Welcome Bonus

After you’ve spent $3k in 3 months, you’ll be rewarded with 60k welcome bonus points. Now, the main thing to consider here is that Capital One doesn’t transfer 1:1 to its transfer partners, but rather 2:1.5 and even 2:1 with Singapore and Emirates. Make sure you take this into consideration when planning to allocate your points.

One thing to also note: you’re earning 2x points on every purchase. So for most airline partners you’re actually earning 1.5 airline miles on every dollar you spend.

If you were to transfer the entire 60k welcome bonus to say Avianca, you’d wind up with 45k Lifemiles.

2x on everything

No limit, and as I just mentioned above, you’ll get 2x on every. single. purchase.  Aside from Emirates and Singapore, you’ll be earning 1.5x airline miles on every single purchase. If you spend $25k in a year, you’ll earn 50k points, which, for example, if you transfer to Aeroplan, you’d end up with 37.5k Aeroplan miles, or 1.5x on your spend.

For us…It’s all about the transfer partners: FLY IN LUXURY + COMFORT

The ability to transfer into other programs equates to unlocking increased value in your points. For instance, Aeroplan is a partner, and you can redeem just 70k Aeroplan miles to fly Lufthansa First Class from the US to Europe.

Don’t be deterred if you’re unfamiliar with many of the programs listed below, they’re programs based outside the United States, but offer incredible opportunities to fly flat.

In fact, Aeroplan, Air France, Avianca, Cathay Pacific, Singapore, Emirates, and Etihad are all programs we’ve extensively written about in the past that facilitate the aspirational redemptions we want to achieve. Now, they’re Capital One partners as well.

Note: Aside from Accor, Emirates and Singapore which transfer (2:1) – all other partner programs transfer at a 2:1.5 rate

 

Hotel partners

The Accor situation could be quite interesting. Accor’s redemption is such that 2000 Accor points = 40 Eur credit. So 4000 Cap1 points = 40Eur off. Since you’re earning 2x on purchases, you’re earning 0.02Eur on each dollar spent when transferred to Accor. Pretty decent hotel discount actually.

Approval tips

Capital One will only process one credit card per 6 months…so if you’ve already applied for one in that time frame, you’re going to have to wait. This means both business and personal. Recently picked up their Spark Miles for Business card – you’ll need to wait.

Can you combine your miles with other Capital One accounts? This is incredible.

Yes, you can combine your points into one account. This applies to accounts under your name, and also to ANYONE else that has a Venture or Spark account. Pretty awesome.

How quickly do you accrue the bonus and miles?

Anecdotally, people are reporting that Capital One is crediting accounts with points when the purchases hit the account rather than having to wait until the statement processes.

Conclusion: more competition is better for the market

I already have cards with Citi, Chase, Barclay, and Amex, but have avoided adding Capital One because of its prior concentration on cash back. I like redemptions that put me in hotels and airline cabins that I wouldn’t pay for out of pocket, and greatly outsize the value of cash-back.

As a result of Capital One’s program changes, I now have long term plans to add both the Capital One Spark Miles for Business and this Capital One Venture Rewards to my wallet.