Red Alert: A Big Referral Bonus on the Venture X
Tl;dr: If you’ve been eyeing the Venture X–maybe the best single card on the market–now might be the time to strike.
Well, my plan for today was to follow up on my post about traveling to Japan on points. Alas, one of the stars of that post, the Capital One Venture X, insisted on the spotlight for itself today instead. (It was also going to be a star of the next post–it’s an incredible card–but I guess it didn’t want to share.) Both of us have and love this card, and I’m inclined to say that if I could only have one credit card in my wallet I would go with this one.
For the longest time, the Venture X has offered new cardmembers 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 in the first three months. That’s a minimum of $750 toward travel (more on that below). Now, for a limited (and, as far as I can tell, unspecified) time, new account holders signing up via a referral link will earn 90,000 miles when meeting those spending requirements. So if you’re lucky enough to be in the market for the Venture X, now you can get an extra $150+ worth of rewards just by signing up via a referral. Like, for example, this one here.
Let’s just quickly recap why you might want the Venture X:
Ultra-Flexible Points
You can stretch your Capital One miles a bit further by transferring them out to partners like Choice Hotels or Flying Blue. In Japan, we saw $100+ hotels in Tokyo and Osaka available for just 8,000 points, and this month’s Flying Blue promos include 30,000-mile round trips to France.
But if you don’t want to figure out the logistics and math of points transfers, simply book any travel with your card, and you can use your Capital One miles to erase the purchase at a 1:1¢ ratio. So if you find two $450 tickets to Europe, you could simply use your 90,000-mile welcome bonus to wipe that purchase from your statement and fly for free.
Solid (and Simple) Earning Rates
The Venture X earns 2 miles per dollar on every purchase. The only exception is travel booked via Capital One, where the card earns 5x on flights and 10x on hotels and rental cars.
Upscale Perks and Protections
The Venture X comes with Priority Pass airport lounge access and access to the Visa Infinite concierge. You can also add up to 5 trusted authorized users for free, and they can use these perks too.
Venture X cardholders also receive complimentary Hertz President’s Circle status. This is pretty useful; the last time I rented, I was upgrade from a compact car to a Tesla for for free.
Incredible Value
All those benefits come at a cost–namely, the $395 annual fee. But cardholder’s receive $300 in statement credits each year for travel booked through Capital One Travel (the platform offering 10x points on car rentals and hotels, remember), and 10,000 miles ($100) when you renew your card, making the net fee effectively negative. And that’s without counting all the free snacks and drinks you can consume in the airport lounge.
Referral Link:
So if that sounds good to you, consider signing up! Just make sure you use a referral link like this one and see something like this:
