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Starting February 1st, 2026, Capital One will enforce new policies regarding lounge access and Authorized Users, and unfortunately none of them are good. It looks like Cap1 is taking a page out of the Amex playbook on spend thresholds as well implementing a $75k minimum spend to get free lounge guest access. If you’ve ever been to a Capital One Lounge you know that they are some of the best domestic lounges, and clearly its costing Cap1 some money and they’re probably also looking to address overcrowding. Let’s take a look at the changes…cause it ain’t good, but honestly, it’s not really that surprising given how much value the card has built into it.
The most notable changes
- There will be a spend $75k spend requirement to bring guests into any lounge
- 4 free authorized users on the Venture X, but they won’t get free lounge access.
| Capital One Venture X | |
Capital One Lounge Access through January 31st, 2026
| Capital One Lounge Access Starting Feb 1st, 2026
|
| Authorized Users through 1/31/26:
| Authorized Users starting 2/1/26
|
| Capital One Venture X Business | |
Current Primary Cardholder Lounge Access:
| Effective February 1, 2026:
|
| Current Authorized User:
| Effective February 1, 2026:
|
Should you cancel your card?
At the end of the day, the Venture X and Venture X Business both come with $395 annual fees, but include $300 Capital One Travel Credit and 10k Anniversary Points. Those two benefits alone equate to $400 in value. The diminished lounge benefits will hit families hard that don’t spend $75k a year, and those who frequently travel with guests, but with that said, they could always add on AUs if they value the lounge access for additional guests. For those who travel alone, or families with multiple cards, this will make likely make the lounge experience less crowded.
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
Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 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 Points Boost
- each account anniversary you’ll earn bonus points equal to 10% of your total purchases made the previous year
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Complimentary DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees & lower service fees for a min. of one year when you activate by 12/31/27. Plus, a $10 promo each month on non-restaurant orders
- $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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