The Capital One Venture Rewards card is Capital One’s flagship credit card and one of several that earns Capital One’s proprietary Venture miles. The Capital One Venture Rewards card is one that earns transferable miles, which are great for their flexibility. You can redeem Venture miles for cash toward travel at a rate of 1 cent per mile. Or you can transfer them to one of Capital One’s airline and hotel transfer partners.
(SEE ALSO: The difference between “points” points and “cash” points (and why it’s important))
Capital One Venture Rewards overview
The Capital One Venture Rewards card has a straightforward earning structure. Unlike some cards that have different earning rates depending on where you use the card, with the Capital One Venture Rewards card you earn the same amount no matter where you are spending. You earn 2 miles for every dollar that you spend at all locations. There is no limit or cap on the amount of miles that you can earn with the Capital One Venture Rewards.
The Capital One Venture Rewards card has an annual fee of $95, and that is not waived the first year. You can redeem your Venture miles for any airline, hotel or nearly any other kind of travel, at a rate of 1 cent per Venture mile. You can either use your miles directly through Capital One’s travel portal, or use your miles after the fact to “erase” purchases. Generally it’s a better idea to book directly with the hotel or airline and then use your Venture miles after the fact, since that eliminates the middleman if something goes wrong and also preserves elite benefits if you’re booking a hotel.
You can also use your Venture miles to transfer to 13 airline or 2 hotel transfer partners. Capital One has a lower transfer rate than most other transferable currencies. With Amex, Chase and Citi, most of their transfer partners transfer at a rate of 1:1. With Capital One, most of their transfer rates transfer at a rate of 2:1.5, which means you’ll get 25% fewer miles in most cases. Still, there are some scenarios where transferring your Venture miles can make sense.
Capital One Venture Rewards 100,000 points welcome offer
You’ll get the biggest benefit with most credit cards from their welcome offer. Currently through December 14, the Capital One Venture Rewards card has a welcome offer that is at its all-time high. The current welcome offer is tiered:
- 50,000 Venture miles after spending $3,000 in the first three months
- An additional 50,000 bonus miles after spending $20,000 in the first 12 months
If you meet the total spending requirements, you can get a total of 100,000 Venture miles. Spending $20,000 is a lot of money, and there is an opportunity cost to spending that extra $17,000 for an extra 50,000 miles instead of opening another card (or three).
As I mentioned, it’s my understanding that this 100,000 point offer will go away on December 14. Nobody knows what the offer will be after that, but it’s a decent guess that it will return to the 50,000 mile offer (which is still a pretty good offer!)
Capital One hotel and airline transfer partners
As we mentioned earlier, Capital One has 15 transfer partners — 13 airline and 2 hotel programs. In most cases, it takes 2 Capital One Venture miles to get 1.5 airline miles or hotel points, though in three cases, the transfer ratio is worse (2:1)
Airlines:
- Aeromexico Club Premier
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue
- Alitalia MilleMiglia
- Avianca LifeMiles
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Emirates Skywards (2:1)
- Etihad Guest
- EVA Infinity MileageLands
- Finnair Plus
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Singapore KrisFlyer (2:1)
Hotel:
- Accor Live Limitless (2:1)
- Wyndham Rewards
Because of the poorer transfer ratio, there isn’t as much value in transferring your Venture miles as there is with Amex, Chase or Citi. Air Canada, Flying Blue and Avianca are probably your best options.
Other perks of the Capital One Venture Rewards credit card
The Capital One Venture Rewards card has a few other perks that might be useful. It is one of the many cards that offer a reimbursement for either Global Entry or TSA Pre. You’ll get up to $100 as a statement credit toward application fees for either of those two programs, once every four years. There are also no foreign transaction fees with the Capital One Venture Rewards card.
Alternatives to the Capital One Venture Rewards card
There are a few other cards that are similar to the Capital One Venture Rewards card. Here are a few others you might consider:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred — currently with a welcome offer of 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4,000. The CSP earns bonus points on dining and travel.
- Citi Premier — the Citi Premier also has a welcome offer of 60,000 points after spending $4,000, and earns bonus points on restaurants, supermarkets and gas stations.
- Capital One VentureOne card — if you’re looking for a card that earns Venture miles but without an annual fee, take a look at the VentureOne card.
Are you planning on signing up for the Capital One Venture Rewards card with the increased bonus?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Beware: CapOne likes mid-range credit scores for people who are likely to carry balances. They routinely reject high credit scores, high net worth individuals. And they pull all three credit bureaus in the process. If you don’t care about credit pulls on all three and a rejection, by all means go for it. This should really be a disclaimer for all bloggers promoting their cards – the evidence is overwhelming that this is standard practice for CapOne.