Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card review: For frequent travelers in search of luxury benefits with a low annual fee

Anyone struck by a bad case of wanderlust will benefit from a travel rewards credit card. And if you find yourself taking trips more frequently, you may want to upgrade to a card that offers some luxurious benefits.

Capital One has three travel-focused consumer credit cards: the Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees), the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees) and the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees). The cards offer similar rewards programs and nearly identical card benefits, but they differ in the number of miles you earn per dollar spent and the annual fee.

With the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, which ranks as one of our top credit cards for travel and rewards, you earn 5X miles per dollar on hotel and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and unlimited 2X miles on every dollar spent, as well as up to a $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® application fee every four years.

Below, we break down Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card's rewards, benefits and fees to help you decide if it's the right card for you. (see rates and fees)

• Welcome bonus
• Benefits and perks
• How to earn and redeem Capital One miles
• Rates and fees
• Card comparison
• Is the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card right for you?
• Bottom line

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card has a strong welcome bonus of 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening.

That's worth up to $750 when redeemed as a statement credit to offset past travel purchases and you can potentially get even more value when transferring miles to one of Capital One's travel partners, which includes airlines like Air Canada Aeroplan and Air France-KLM. (see rates and fees)

The card offers a good amount of travel and purchase-related perks given its low annual fee.

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card's benefits include the following:

• Airport lounge access: Two complimentary visits per year to 100+ Plaza Premium Lounges through the Partner Lounge Network
• Up to $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® application fee every four years
• Complimentary Concierge service* - Enjoy assistance 24 hours a day, from home and when you travel, with World Elite Mastercard Concierge
• Travel Assistance Services* - Available 24/7 to help connect you with local emergency and assistance resources when you're away from home
• MasterRental Insurance* - Use your card to rent an eligible vehicle and you may be covered for physical damage and theft of the rental vehicle
• Master RoadAssist®* - Take advantage of 24 hour toll-free assistance to help with services like towing, gas delivery, jumpstarts, and tire changes. Customer is responsible for any and all costs incurred
• Purchase Assurance* - Eligible purchases made with your card are covered if damaged or stolen within the first 90 days of purchase
• Access to the Capital One Travel portal, which includes benefits such as opt-in travel insurance, price drop protection and price match guarantee
• Exclusive access to premier culinary, music and sports events, such as the New York City Wine and Food Festival and the iHeartRadio Music Festival through the Capital One Experiences program

*Benefit available to accounts approved for the World Elite Mastercard product, subject to terms, conditions, and exclusions in the World Elite Mastercard Guide to Benefits. See Account Terms or Application Terms for more details. Terms, conditions and exclusions apply.

Capital One also provides a free credit score and report dashboard, CreditWise. It's free to use and anyone can join — you don't need to have a Capital One account. With CreditWise, users can learn more about the key factors that impact their credit scores, get email alerts whenever their credit report changes and monitor their credit information. (see rates and fees)

Earning Capital One miles

If you're looking for a simple rewards program, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees) has you covered.

With this card, you will earn:

• 5X miles per dollar on hotel and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
• 2X miles for every dollar spent on all other eligible purchases

CNBC Select calculated how many rewards the average American can earn if they optimize the way they use their Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card. We worked with the location intelligence firm Esri, who provided us with a sample annual spending budget of $22,126.

The budget includes six main categories: groceries ($5,174), gas ($2,218), dining out ($3,675), travel ($2,244), utilities ($4,862) and general purchases ($3,953).

Here's how many miles you can earn with your Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card in each category, annually:

• Groceries: 10,348
• Gas: 4,436
• Dining out: 7,350
• Travel: 4,488
• Utilities: 9,724
• General purchases: 7,906
• Total: 44,252

Based on the annual spending budget from Esri, the average American can earn an estimated $1,193 in rewards the first year of card membership (including the miles earned from the welcome bonus) and an estimated $2,965 in rewards after five years with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.

This assumes that cardholders are redeeming miles for a typical maximum value of 1 cent per mile. Extreme optimizers might be able to achieve more value, and you may earn a higher or lower return depending on your spending habits. Your rewards don't expire as long as your account remains open.

Redeeming Capital One miles

Capital One miles can be redeemed in several ways, including:

• Booking travel directly through Capital One Travel
• Using them as a statement credit toward past travel purchases
• Transferring them to various airline and hotel partners
• Redeeming them for gift cards
• Redeeming for cash back

Miles are worth a flat one cent apiece when redeemed as a statement credit for past travel purchases or to book future travel through Capital One Travel. This option is useful for those that want straightforward redemptions. Just keep in mind statement credit redemptions must be made within 90 days from the date your travel purchase posts to your account. Travel purchases include things like flights, hotels, cruises, train tickets, local transit and ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft.

A potentially more valuable option is to transfer your miles to one of Capital One's hotel or airline partners. Depending on the redemption, you may be able to get two cents or more in value per mile this way, especially when booking business and first-class award flights.

Capital One's 18 transfer partners include:

• Aeromexico Club Premier
• Air Canada Aeroplan
• Air France-KLM Flying Blue
• ALL Accor Live Limitless
• Avianca LifeMiles
• British Airways Executive Club
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
• Choice Privileges
• Emirates Skywards
• Etihad Guest
• EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
• Finnair Plus
• Qantas Frequent Flyer
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go
• Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
• Virgin Red
• Wyndham Hotels

Although the majority of these are international programs, they're still useful for U.S.-based travelers. For example, you can book United Airlines flights through Turkish Airlines and American Airlines flights through British Airways.

Capital One cardholders can also redeem miles toward cash back and miles via Amazon.com. The company joins American Express, Chase, Citi and Discover to provide the convenient Shop with Points redemption option to cardholders. Cardholders have the flexibility to use as many or as few rewards as they like on purchases at Amazon.com. The redemption rate is 125 miles are worth $1 on Amazon. Note that this is the least valuable option, so if you want to earn cash back consider a cash-back credit card instead.

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card has a $95 annual fee for the first year; (see rates and fees), putting it right in between the no annual fee Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees) and $395-per-year Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees).

There's no introductory 0% APR period, and the regular variable APR is 19.99% - 29.99% variable on new purchases and balance transfers. Travelers going overseas can take advantage of no foreign transaction fees, which is a huge plus when venturing abroad. A 3% fee is charged for balances transferred at a promotional APR and none for balances at the regular APR. No fee for amounts transferred at the Transfer APR. (see rates and fees).

Capital One Venture Rewards vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred

The closest comparison to Capital One Venture Rewards is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. For the same $95 annual fee, it offers 5X points on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 5X points on Lyft rides (through March 31^st, 2025), 3X points on dining, 3X points on select streaming services and online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs), 2X points on all other travel purchases, and 1X points on all other purchases. Sapphire Preferred cardholders also enjoy an anniversary points bonus equal to 10% of their total purchases made the previous year. Overall, the card offers more bonus categories, but the Venture Rewards still offers a better return on everyday purchases.

While the Sapphire Preferred doesn't come with any lounge access or TSA PreCheck/Global Entry credits, it still offers an array of valuable perks, including the up to $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit, a complimentary DashPass membership for a minimum of one year (must activate by Dec. 31st, 2024),  primary rental car insurance and more. Plus, cardholders receive 25% more value when you redeem for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Travel℠. For example, 75,000 points are worth $937.50 toward travel. At the end of the day, the best card will depend on your individual preferences and spending habits.

Capital One Venture Rewards vs. American Express® Gold Card

If most of your spending is on dining at restaurants or groceries at U.S. supermarkets, the American Express® Gold Card can be a great asset with its 4X Membership Rewards® points at restaurants and U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per year in purchases, then 1X). Terms apply. The card has a slightly higher annual fee of $250 (see rates and fees) but also comes with more statement credits to make up for it.

In addition to the bonus for restaurants and U.S. supermarkets, cardholders earn 3X points on flights directly through the airline or via amextravel.com and 1X points on other eligible purchases. Benefits include up to $120 Uber Cash annual credit ($10 per month) for rides in the U.S. and dining via Uber Eats (you must add your Amex Gold Card as a payment method in the Uber app in order to enroll) and up to $120 in annual dining credit ($10 per month) to use with certain delivery services like Seamless and Grubhub, as well as restaurants including The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar and select Shake Shack locations (enrollment required). Terms Apply.

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card holders need to spend approximately $4,750 a year to earn enough rewards to break even on the $95 annual fee. This should be manageable considering the average American spends approximately $22,126 annually, according to consumer spending data from location intelligence firm Esri. But if you have other travel rewards cards that charge an annual fee, you might not want to add another to your wallet.

That said, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card's annual fee is effectively offset once every four years if you take advantage of the $100 credit for a Global Entry application. Plus, you'll get to enjoy two airport lounge visits each year.

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is a competitive rewards card that provides premium benefits for cardholders. If you're looking to earn flat-rate rewards on everyday spending or higher rewards in bonus categories, this card can be a great fit. And when you take advantage of the added plus of Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit, you can help offset its $95 annual fee (see rates and fees).

Travelers looking to receive some of the benefits found with luxury travel cards but don't want to pay a large annual fee upfront will find more value in this card, versus the Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees), which is a better choice for consumers who want to avoid an annual fee while taking advantage of special financing. However, if you want more premium perks, such as unlimited airport lounge visits and a $300 Capital One Travel annual credit to use toward purchases made through Capital One Travel, you may want to get the high-end Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees) instead.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every credit card review is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of credit card products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best credit cards.

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For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the above benefits are provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply.

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