Capital One Venture vs Venture X

Two of Capital One's top travel credit cards are the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card & Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. This post outlines their differences and offers some pointers if you're trying to decide between them.

Before we get into their differences, let's recap some of their great similarities:

• Earn 2 miles for every $1 spent (no bonus categories to keep track of!)

• No foreign transaction fees

• Up to a $120 statement credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®

Capital One Venture

If you're looking for a card with a special sign-up bonus, reasonable annual fee, and miles earning simplicity? Look no further.

• Special sign-up bonus: Enjoy a $250 Capital One Travel credit in your first cardholder year, plus earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.

• Bonus miles earning: Earn 5X miles on hotels, rental cars, and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel

• Status with Hertz: You'll automatically have Hertz Five Star status- this lets you pick from a wider selection of cars and skip the rental counter.

• Annual fee: $95

Click here to learn more about the Capital One Venture.

Capital One Venture X

The Venture X offers a great balance of solid miles earning on everyday spend, plus airport lounge access and other travel perks.

• Sign-up bonus: Earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months

• Bonus miles gift: 10k bonus miles anniversary gift each year you keep the card

• Bonus miles earning: Earn 10X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, and 5X miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel

• Luxury travel perks:

  • Access to Capital One and Priority Pass lounges

    • You can see all 1,300+ included global lounges in the network here

    • Perk ending soon: Bring 2 guests into airport lounges.

      • Details: Beginning February 1, 2026, guests of Venture X cardholders will no longer automatically receive complimentary access to lounges.

  • Annual travel credit of $300 when booked through Capital One Travel

  • Cell phone insurance up to $800

  • Status with Hertz: You'll automatically have Hertz President's Circle elite status.

• Travel insurance: Trip cancellation/interruption insurance, primary car rental loss/damage insurance, trip delay reimbursement, lost luggage reimbursement, travel/emergency assistance services, travel accident insurance, purchase and extended warranty protections

• Annual fee: $395

Click here to learn more about the Capital One Venture X.

Venture vs Venture X

If you don’t travel often or don’t care about airport lounge access, the Venture can be a really solid choice. The lower annual fee is easier to justify, and the current sign-up bonus makes this a particularly good moment to consider it. Plus, it leaves you the option to move "up" through the card family in the future (see below for more info on eligibility rules).

For frequent travelers, I personally get much more value from the Venture X. The $300 annual travel credit plus the 10,000 anniversary miles (worth at least $100) effectively cover the annual fee, which makes the lounge access and extra perks feel like a true bonus.

If you’re considering applying for one of these cards, I’d be so grateful if you use my referral links included in this post. They don’t cost you anything extra, but applying through them supports my small business.

Sign-up Bonus Eligibility Rules

Capital One recently updated the welcome bonus rules for the Venture card family. There is now a 48-month rule that affects how you move between cards.

Here’s the key part: if you currently have the Capital One Venture X and received its welcome bonus within the last 48 months, you are not eligible to earn a welcome bonus on the Capital One Venture Rewards or the Capital One VentureOne.

The good news is that moving “up” the Venture lineup is still allowed. That means if you want access to multiple Venture bonuses over time, the order matters. The safest strategy is to start with a lower-fee card and work your way up, for example: VentureOne → Venture Rewards → Venture X.

Once you move up to Venture X, you effectively close the door on bonuses for the lower-tier Venture cards for four years.

Capital One travel transfer partners:

• Airlines: AeroMexico, Air Canada, Avianca, British Air, Cathay Pacific, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Etihad, Finnair, Qantas, Qatar Air, Singapore Airlines, TAP, Turkish Airlines, Virgin

• Hotels: Choice Privileges, Wyndham Rewards

• Non 1:1 transfer ratio partners: Accor Live Limitless, Emirates, EVA Air, I Prefer Hotel Rewards, Japan Airlines, JetBlue