--- title: 'Capital One Venture X - Still The Best Travel Card in 2026?' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=xo_RReHrIAg' video_id: 'xo_RReHrIAg' date: 2026-07-01 duration_sec: 970 --- # Capital One Venture X - Still The Best Travel Card in 2026? > Source: [Capital One Venture X - Still The Best Travel Card in 2026?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xo_RReHrIAg) ## Summary ## Transcript So, the Capital 1 Venture X is commonly thought of as the best premium travel credit card on the market, and that's mostly because it's known for having valuable features, a lower annual fee compared to its competition, plus only a couple of credits to manage that are super easy to use and can fully offset that annual fee. However, after Capital 1 recently implemented a massive devaluation to the airport lounge access and the Venture X, we started to see a lot of people now question whether this $395 per year credit card is still worth it in 2026. So, in this video, I want to give you guys my updated review on the Capital 1 Venture X, including two controversial opinions I have about it that could impact the way people view this card within the overall credit card landscape moving forward. But, as always, let's go ahead and just jump right into things by first taking a look at the value of the welcome offer on the Venture X before we get into everything else I want to talk about here. So, the offer that Capital 1's been running for this card over the years has typically been for 75,000 mi, and that's after spending $4,000 within the first 3 months from account opening. Now, those 75,000 miles are going to have a minimum value of 1 cent per mile each when redeemed for certain stuff like travel book through Capital 1 or a few other things. So, that would make a welcome offer like this worth at least 750 bucks. But, if you're like me and you know how to find award availability with a hotel and airline partners on this card, then transferring those miles can get you upwards of 2 cents per mile or higher for closer to around $1,500 in value. Now, in late 2025, we actually saw Capital 1 launch a limited time 100,000 point offer on the Venture X. and we hadn't seen an offer for that many points since the card launched over four years earlier in 2021. But because elevated offers like this are just so rare on the Venture X, I don't think you can reliably predict that another 100K offer is going to come around again soon if you're still waiting to apply. So honestly, even if you end up taking advantage of something like that standard 75K offer, that's still a pretty good deal because the value from that bonus in year 1 is going to easily help to offset the 395 annual fee. And if you ever want to learn more about this card to see what offers are currently available for it, then I'll go ahead and leave a link down below where you can see all that stuff. Now, on top of the welcome bonus, the other benefit you're going to start getting in your first year with the Venture X comes in the form of a $300 annual travel credit for bookings made through Capital 1 Travel. So, between earning 75,000 miles that are worth at least 750 bucks and that $300 travel credit, that's $1,50 of year 1 value. Subtracting that from the 3.95 annual fee gets you an effective annual fee or a net out-of- pocket cost in year 1 of minus $655. So, just like pretty much any other premium credit card out there, it can make sense to try out a card like this for at least one year simply because of the way the initial numbers work. Now, a couple of things to be aware of with that $300 travel credit. So, first, that credit is going to be applied to travel purchases at checkout through Capital 1's portal, like you can see here. So, not as a statement credit after your purchase. And second, according to the terms, it can be used in whole for a single purchase or in part over multiple purchases. Just keep in mind though that this is not going to be a calendar year type of credit that's active from January through December because the timeline is based on your card member year. So, don't forget to use the full $300 of this travel credit before your next account open date anniversary because that's when this credit resets. Also, the one thing that people always bring up about this credit is the fact that it can't be used when booking travel directly on something like a hotel or airlines website because again, it has to be used when booking through Capital 1. And normally, I'm not a fan of being forced to book through travel portals. But Capital 1's portal is a bit of an exception in my opinion. That's because Capital 1 Travel offers features that many other credit card issuer portals just don't give you, like price drop protection. So, if you book a flight that Capital 1 recommends and then the price drops within 10 days, you're going to be able to get up to $50 in travel credits for that difference. Capital 1 also offers price matching where if you find a better price outside of Capital 1 Travel and then you let them know within 24 hours of booking an eligible flight, hotel, or rental car, then they're going to give you a travel credit for the difference on that as well. And I've actually used both of these features in the past with the Venture X that my wife has in our two-player credit card setup. What I honestly recommend here is to shop around on multiple websites for the best price anytime you're trying to book something like a flight or hotel stay. And then if you find something that's cheaper elsewhere, but you want to book it through Capital 1, then just book it through Capital 1, but document that other cheaper price you found, then go ahead and give Capital 1 a call immediately. So that way they can take a look at this and give you that travel credit for the difference if you're eligible. Now, Capital 1's travel portal is by no means perfect. So, for example, if you want to book a hotel through their portal, then there's going to be a good chance that status benefits won't apply at the moment if you have that with a certain hotel program because this is technically a third-party booking. But in many situations, Capital 1 Travel definitely does have enough features to be worth using, including some nice elevated multipliers that could allow you to earn a lot of Capital 1 miles. We'll get to those multipliers next here in just a minute. But one other benefit you're going to get on the Venture X that can also help to easily offset the annual fee is going to be a 10,000 mi anniversary bonus. Now, these 10,000 mi also have a value of at least 1 cent per mile for $100 towards travel or again potentially more if you know how to transfer them. And the important thing to understand with this benefit is that you're going to get these 10,000 mi every year. But that's starting on your first account anniversary. That means we're not going to factor in the value from this anniversary bonus in year 1. But we will factor it in once we hit year 2 with Venture X. So in year 2 and beyond, we're getting $400 of annual value from the combination of the $300 travel credit with the 10,000 mi anniversary bonus that's worth at least 100 bucks. So subtracting that from the 395 annual fee gets us an effective annual fee of minus $5. Now, this is where you hear most people say the cliche thing that Capital 1 is basically paying you $5 every year that you have the Venture X. That's one way to look at things, but the way that I look at it is that these two main credits here on this card are going to fully offset the annual fee pretty easily for most people. So, to me, that means all the other features on the Venture X are essentially pure value profit. There's no long list of credits that I've got to keep track of that would otherwise make the Venture X feel like a coupon book, at least for now. And that's what's been helping this card look a lot more favorable in recent years compared to other top tier travel cards from issuers like Chase or American Express because they did go down that dark side path of adding countless credits that have to be used in very specific ways. All right, so now that the annual fee is easily offset for most of you watching this, that's going to bring me to the next major thing that's going to put value back in your pocket every time this card's used, and that would be the spending multipliers. So, with the Capital 1 Venture X, you're going to be able to earn 10x miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital 1 Travel, 5x miles on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital 1 Travel, and 2x miles on all other purchases. Now, obviously, those travel multipliers sound really good on the surface, but again, there is that limitation of only getting 10x or 5x miles on travel booked through Capital 1 instead of getting that on stuff booked directly on other websites. However, for a lot of card holders, those elevated earning rates combined with the stuff we talked about before, like price drop protection and price matching from Capital 1 Travel. All of those benefits together can be enough in many situations to make booking in this portal pretty appealing. It all depends on your own personal situation, though. So, as always, your mileage may vary with just how valuable or how limiting it can feel when being forced to use Capital 1 Travel. But even if you set aside those travel multipliers, the reality is that many people end up getting the Venture X simply because it's one of the best catch-all credit cards in the game. Earning 2x miles per dollar on any miscellaneous spend is really valuable to have in your credit card strategy. And to make things even better, the Venture X is a Visa Infinite card that's going to be widely accepted around the world, and it's also got no foreign transaction fees, which also makes it a good option to use outside the US. Now, next here I want to talk about some of the additional benefits that come with this credit card, including airport lounge access, which again was just recently devalued. But before we get to that, let's go ahead and touch on some other stuff first. So, with the Venture X, you can also receive up to a $120 credit to cover the cost of either Global Entry or TSA PreCheck. And a lot of other top tier travel cards already have credits like this as well. But if this is your first or only major travel card, then this is still a very useful credit to take advantage of. Now, one of the less talked about benefits on the Venture X is that this card allows you to book hotels and other properties that are part of two programs that Capital 1 has. And those are the Premier Collection and the Lifestyle Collection. The Premier Collection is Capital 1's version of a luxury hotel program, similar to fine hotels and resorts through AMX or the edit through Chase. And then the lifestyle collection from Capital 1 is like the younger sibling to the Premier Collection with some nice properties that are just a step down from high-end luxury. Now, for Ventrax card holders, booking through Capital 1 with the Premier Collection is going to get you benefits like 10x miles earned on your stay, a $100 experience credit that varies by property, as well as a room upgrade when available. Plus, you can also get early check-in and late checkout when available, free daily breakfast for two people, and complimentary Wi-Fi. The lifestyle collection is similar, but does not typically come with free breakfast, and you're only getting a $50 experience credit. But both of these collections could give you some nice additional value on some handpicked properties from Capital 1. The Venture X offers some nice car rental benefits as well, including Hertz President Circle Status, which I personally use all the time because I can easily get upgrades as well as super fast pickup and drop off service. And then you also get primary auto rental coverage here. Primary coverage is often better than secondary coverage because it means that if there was ever a claim, then you would go through the insurance provided by the Venture X first instead of your own insurance. And reading the terms here, this primary coverage is going to cover you for theft, damage, and valid loss of use charges as long as your card is used to initiate and complete your entire car rental. and as long as you decline the rental company's collision damage waiver. As always though, make sure that you do your own research and understand your own insurance needs for what is and is not covered here. But honestly, I only ever use credit cards that have primary coverage whenever I'm renting cars because it does save me money versus what the rental car companies would charge me for similar coverage. Now, the Capital 1 Venture X comes with a bunch of other insurance benefits and protections as well. So, that's going to include things like trip cancellation and interruption insurance, trip delay reimbursement, common carrier travel accident, lost luggage reimbursement, and more. There's also a cell phone protection benefit here where if you pay your phone bill with your Venture X, then if your phone is stolen or damaged, you can get reimbursed for up to $800 per claim after a $50 deductible. Again though, there's always details within the terms to this stuff. So, I'm not going to bore you with all those details. But like I said before, you can go ahead and learn more about this card or any of its benefits with the link down below. Now, that is going to bring me to the airport lounge access on the Ventra X, which again just went through a significant devaluation here at the start of 2026. And because of that devaluation, the Venture X just went from being a card that offered a ton of free guest lounge access to a card that basically offers zero free guest access. So under the old airport lounge access policy on the Venture X, primary card holders had unlimited access to Capital 1 lounges and Priority Pass lounges. And those primary card holders could also bring up to two free guests with them. However, an additional trick that people learned about was that Capital 1 allowed authorized users on someone else's Venture X account to also have unlimited access to those lounges where they could also bring up to two free guests. And since you can add up to four free authorized users on the Ventra X, that basically allowed one primary card holder to effectively start a chain where they could bring up to 15 guests into [clears throat] lounges for $0 if they position their authorized users and their guests properly. That obviously led to a lot of overcrowding at these lounges with long wait times. And that's just not a good look when airport lounge access is one of the main selling points that people get excited about when they sign up for a card like the Venture X. So Capital 1 knew they had to eventually make some changes. Now, personally, I think they should have never been that generous with the lounge guest policies in the first place, but as of February 1st, 2026, those policies have now officially been updated. So, here's what guest access is going to look like moving forward. So, now primary Venture X card holders can bring zero free guests into lounges, but there are three new options for obtaining guest access at a cost. So, first, Venture X card holders can now receive a discounted pricing of $45 per visit per guest 18 and older, or $25 per visit per guest 17 and under. and then children under two can still enter for free. Second, Venture X authorized users can still be added for free for up to four additional card holders, but the guest lounge access is no longer free because instead now you're going to have to pay an additional airport lounge access fee of $125 per additional card holder per year. Paying that fee is going to grant that additional card holder unlimited access to Capital 1 lounges, Capital 1 landings, and participating Priority Pass lounges. But to me, paying that $125 per year for this privilege is probably not worth it unless you're going to be going to these lounges a lot. But then the third option is that you can also spend $75,000 on your Venture X account per calendar year to unlock the ability to bring up to two free guests to Capital One lounges or up to one free guest to Capital One landing locations. However, even if you hit that high level of spend, you can still no longer get free guest access with the Priority Pass membership on this card. So, that's a lot of stuff to keep in mind there. And this is definitely a major devaluation for the Venture X since a lot of people got this card because of how friendly the lounge guest policies were. But if there's going to be a silver lining here to this devaluation, it's that hopefully it'll help with the overcrowding and wait times. Solo travelers who are Venture X card holders are honestly going to be the biggest winners from these updates. And then couples or families who relied on guest lounge access are going to have to make a decision on paying these new fees or not paying any of these new fees based on how often they might want to visit these lounges. Now, this recent devaluation is actually going to bring me to my two controversial opinions on the Venture X that I think could impact the way people view this card moving forward. So, my first controversial opinion here is that Capital 1 will likely make some more updates to this card sometime soon. That's because the reality for many premium credit cards is that they have this sort of life cycle where every four to 5 years or so, they just get updated with higher annual fees and different credits or benefits to help justify those increased fees. We've seen this happen to a number of credit cards over the past couple of years. And since the Venture X has been unchanged for the most part since it launched in 2021, I think this recent update to Lounge Access could be a sign of more changes to come because we're kind of right in the middle of that 4 to 5year window since that launch. To me, the Veterx seems like a prime candidate for a refresh of some kind because it really is a card that's felt too good to be true for a long time. And unfortunately, in the credit card game, one rule that I've come to understand over the past decade is that cards typically don't stay too good for too long. At the end of the day, the credit card companies are here to make money. And I'm not saying that the Venture X is losing money for Capital 1 because I don't know what the situation is. But when you look at how easy they make things with just those two credits that can fully offset a 395 annual fee every year, I just think we're going to see some sort of an update at some point in 2026 or maybe 2027 at the latest. Still though, I've got no proof of that happening. So, I'm just purely speculating here. So, maybe Capital 1 is going to prove me wrong and they'll keep the card the way it is, or at least keep the 395 annual fee. Or maybe right now they're focusing on other products first because there's also been some rumors for some kind of a Saver X card to be released sometime soon. We'll just have to wait and see how the rest of this year plays out. But that is going to lead me to my second controversial opinion here, which is that as 2026 goes on, we're going to see the Venture X battle with an unexpected new competitor in the Built Palladium card. So, the Built Palladium is one of three new credit cards that launched with the major Built 2.0 update at the start of February 2026. And as soon as you look at the Palladium card next to the Venture X, it's easy to see that there's a clear comparison that can be made. They both earn 2x points or miles per dollar on everything as a catch-all card. They both have an annual fee of under $500, and they both have credits that can be used in the respective travel portal to help offset their annual fees. However, there's going to be pros and cons to each that can push or pull certain people to one side or the other. So, the Venture X has a much simpler structure in terms of how the $300 travel credit and the 10,000mi anniversary bonus work to justify the cheaper $3.95 annual fee, whereas the Built Palladium card has up to $400 in built travel hotel credits, but those are going to be split up into two semianual $200 credits to keep track of, and they can only be used on stays that have a twoight minimum. So, the advantage goes to Capital 1 in terms of simplicity and how easy it is to offset the annual fee. But built offers the ability to turn any of the 2x everyday spend you put on the Platium card into additional points unlocked on your rent or mortgage. It's kind of confusing to understand exactly how it works, but it does mean that people could technically earn above 2x points per each dollar spent with built on that Palladium card. So, my opinion here is that we're going to see a lot of people get value from the built paladium this year despite how messy of a roll out built 2.0 was. And Capital 1 is going to have to be very careful with any updates they might decide to make to the Venture X if that is something they're working on behind the scenes. I think the average person is still more likely to view the Venture X as being the better choice right now over the built Padium purely because of simplicity. Even though the Palladium card is potentially the more valuable option in 2026 for people like myself because there's also a 50k signup bonus that's attached to it. But it is going to be very interesting to see where things end up once we reach the end of this year and start heading into 2027 between these two competing credit cards. Now, if you're considering the Capital 1 Venture X, but you still kind of want to understand how it might compare to Bill 2.0 know and that palladium card when it comes to earning points on your rent or mortgage, then make sure to go ahead and check out this video over here on the screen next. That video dives into the math of how everything works and I tried to break it down in a way that I think is a bit easier to understand. But let me know what you guys think about the Venture X in 2026. Is it still worth it after these lounge access changes? And are you going to be using it as a catch all card yourself? Let me know down below in the comments section. But as always, thanks so much for watching.