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You don’t want a ton of cards in your wallet…then I have a solution. Hands down, The Most Underrated 2 card combo in the marketplace is the Capital One Venture X ( my choice for best super premium card ) & Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card . Why?
How does earning an unlimited 2x on all purchases alongside earning 3x on dining, streaming, entertainment, and grocery stores ( excluding Target and Walmart ) sound? And…if you spend more than $400 a year on travel, you’ll net $5.
Pretty great right?
Well this two card combo accomplishes just that, AND they both come with great welcome offers. Let’s take a deeper look.
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
If you’re looking to add a super premium card to your wallet without having to calculate whether you’re recouping the annual fee every year… the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card may very well be the best fit for you. 2x miles everywhere, lounge perks, and great travel partners make this a killer card
Welcome Offer
Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel
Annual Fee
$395
Points Earned
Transferrable Capital One Miles
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card offers 2x miles on every single purchase you make, a $300 annual credit when booking in Capital One Travel, 10k Miles every year you keep the card ( worth a minimum of $100 in portal ), Priority Pass, Cap1 Lounge Access + when booking via the Capital One Travel Portal you’ll earn 10x miles on hotels and car rentals + 5x miles on flights.
The travel credit and 10k anniversary bonus miles alone recoup the $395 annual fee and they have a great list of transfer partners.
It’s an absolutely killer offer from Capital One.
- Receive a $300 annual credit for bookings through Capital One Travel, where you’ll get Capital One’s best prices on thousands of trip options
- Get 10,000 bonus miles (equal to $100 towards travel) every year, starting on your first anniversary
- Earn unlimited 10X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and 5X miles on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel
- Earn unlimited 2X miles on all other purchases
- Lounge Access
- Enjoy access to 1,300+ lounges worldwide, including Capital One Lounge and Landing locations and participating Priority Pass lounges, after enrollment
- Use your Venture X miles to easily cover travel expenses, including flights, hotels, rental cars and more—you can even transfer your miles to your choice of 15+ travel loyalty programs
- Enjoy a $100 experience credit and other premium benefits with every hotel and vacation rental booked from the Premier Collection
- Cell Phone Protection
- Up to $800 per claim, $50 deductible
- $1600 max per 12 month rolling period
- Receive up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® every 4 years
The best ever offer was 100k after $10k spend in 6 months when the card first debuted, but 75k has been the offer ever since.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists what the highest offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
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.
- Best CashBack
Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card
Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card is an incredible team mate to the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card since it earns 3% back or 3x on grocery ( excluding superstores like Walmart® and Target® ), dining, popular streaming, and entertainment. See more in the quick breakdown.
Welcome Offer
Earn $250 Cash Back after you spend $500 on purchases within 3 months from account opening
Annual Fee
$0
Points Earned
Cashback or combine into one of the Transferrable Capital One Miles earning cards
The biggest reason I would add this card to my wallet is to create a Capital One Dynamic Duo.
It’s not well known, but you can combine the cashback you earn on the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards with the Capital One Venture Rewards or Capital One Venture X and they become transferrable Capital One Miles.
That means if you have either of those Venture cards mentioned above you’d earn unlimited 2x on every single purchase.
If you added the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards to your wallet you’d also earn 3x on dining, grocery ( excluding superstores like Walmart® and Target® ), popular streaming, and entertainment.
The Capital One Savor Cash Rewards has no annual fee but could add a lot of value to your wallet on its own via cashback, but even better if you pair with either the Capital One Venture Rewards or Capital One Venture X
- $0 annual fee and no foreign transaction fees
- Earn unlimited 3% cash back at grocery stores (excluding superstores like Walmart® and Target®), on dining, entertainment and popular streaming services, plus 1% on all other purchases
- Earn 8% cash back on Capital One Entertainment purchases
- Earn unlimited 5% cash back on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- No rotating categories or sign-ups needed to earn cash rewards; plus cash back won’t expire for the life of the account and there’s no limit to how much you can earn
- Top rated mobile app
purchases within the first 3 months from account opening
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists what the highest offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
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.
What is the annual fee of each card?
| Capital One Venture X | Capital One Savor Cash Rewards |
$395 Annual
| No annual fee |
Where would I use each card? Super simple
The goal with these two cards is that you would earn multiple points on every purchase you make and structure it like this:
You would use the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards to earn
- Unlimited 3% cash back on
- dining
- grocery (excluding superstores like Walmart® and Target®)
- entertainment,
- popular streaming services
- Unlimited 8% back on Capital One Entertainment
You would use the Capital One Venture X for everything else
- Unlimited 2x miles on every single purchase
- Purchases in the Capital One Travel Portal earn
- 10x miles hotels and rentals cars in Capital One Travel Portal
- 5x miles flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel
How do I net $5 every year if I spend $400 on travel?
The Capital One Venture X has a $395 annual fee. It also comes with a $300 Capital One Travel Portal Credit + 10k Anniversary Bonus miles for each year you keep the card starting in the 2nd year. Those 10k Bonus miles are worth $100 in the Capital One travel portal
Zach, are travel portal prices the same as direct booking rates?
It totally depends, but I’ve found that the prices in any travel portal vary and are usually pretty close to the Best Available Rate you’ll see at a hotel. So if you’re booking on a member rate, or a AARP/AAA rate, etc you will often pay more upfront for the booking ( But you may also earn a higher rate of points/miles through the portal than you would direct so they could offest in value ). One thing to keep in mind though….
- Airlines will give you elite miles/status perks
- Hotels and Rental Car companies will not honor any of your elite perks, nor will you earn elite night/rentals.
For this reason, I will often use these credits on airline and car rentals OR hotels that I can’t earn elite status with like luxury hotels or small boutique hotels.
You can 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 an account that earns Capital One Miles. This is Pretty awesome and means that the cashback you earn from the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card can be combined with the Rewards in the Capital One Venture X.
Why would I want to combine them?
Capital One Miles can be transferred to over 15 transfer parnters and this is where you can get outsized value for your miles.
Here’s a pretty chart referencing Capital One transfer partners. I’m really impressed with how far Capital One has come in just a few years regarding their push to establish themselves in the travel rewards ecosystem. This is an impressive list of 15+ partners and all but two are 1:1
- The following partners are now 1:1
- Aeromexico Club Premier
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Avianca LifeMiles
- Air France Flying Blue
- British Airways Executive Club
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Choice Privileges
- Etihad Guest
- Emirates Skywards
- Finnair Plus
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Qatar Airways
- Singapore Airlines
- TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go
- Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles
- Virgin Red
- Wyndham Rewards
- Accor transfer 2:1
- EVA transfers 2:1.5
- IPrefer transfers at 1:2
- JAL transfers at 4:3
Overall
These two cards yield a super simple approach to your wallet that would yield a minimum of 2x everywhere you spend + 3x at some of the most popular categories with lounge status, and more perks.
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
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card went through a major refresh in 2026 adding new bonus categories, travel protections, statement credits, and remains one of the best travel starter cards in the market. It earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott. Note that Hyatt is now a 4:3 transfer partner
Welcome Offer
Earn 100,000 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
Earn
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on gas and EV charging
- NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on vacation homes at top brands
- Cardmembers will earn 3x points on vacation homes at these top brands: Airbnb, Vrbo, Plu Guide, HomeAway, Homestay.com and Vacasa.
- 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)
- 2x on all other travel
- 1x on everyday purchases
- 5x points on Lyft rides Earn 5x total points on eligible Lyft rides including ride share, bike and scooter rides and subscription and membership products through September 30, 2027.
- 5x total points on Peloton equipment Earn 5x total points on eligible Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $150 through December 31, 2027.
Benefits and Credits
- $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- NEW: $120 Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS fee credit Cardmembers will receive one statement credit of up to $120 every four years as reimbursement for the application fee charged to the card.
- NEW: Complimentary Apple TV subscription for one 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
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® Card is great 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: Chase Ink Business Cash® , Chase Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into the Sapphire Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee remains quite low at $95 a year and if you use the $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠ you’ll wipe out that annual fee every year. It has great bonus categories and other useful statement credits to enhance your travel.
One thing that is a bummer is Chase lowered the transfer ratio to World of Hyatt from 1:1 to 4:3.
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