Late last year, Capital One launched its first-ever premium travel card called the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card with lounge access, annual travel credits. After an even bigger launch, it now offers a 75,000-mile bonus after spending $4,000 in three months.
It’s putting pressure on other premium credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and the Platinum Card® from American Express. But with an annual fee of $395 and an easy way to come out ahead, it's even competing with lower annual fee travel credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card as well.
From annual fees to bonuses to lounge access and more, there are plenty of differences to dissect between these two cards. So keep reading for a full breakdown of the Capital One Venture X vs Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.
- Comparing Venture X & Sapphire Preferred Annual Fees
- Venture X vs Sapphire Preferred Lounge Access
- Venture X vs Chase Sapphire Preferred Welcome Offers
- Earning Points with Venture X and Sapphire Preferred
- Venture X and Sapphire Preferred Annual Travel Credits
- Using Points to Book Travel
- Venture Miles vs Ultimate Rewards Transfer Partners
- Travel & Rental Car Insurance
- Adding Authorized Users
- Venture X vs Sapphire Preferred: Which Wins?
Comparing Venture X & Sapphire Preferred Annual Fees
The annual fee on the new Capital One Venture X card is $395, while the annual fee on the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card clocks in at just $95.
On paper, that is a stark difference and clearly looks like a win for the Chase Sapphire Preferred. After all, it's $300 cheaper each and every year. But the story doesn't end with just the out-of-pocket cost.
Both cards offer credits and other benefits that can easily make the annual fees worth it. And yes, that includes the seemingly steep $395 annual fee on the Venture X Card.
But if we are just comparing the annual cost on paper, there is a clear winner in this category.
Winner: Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
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Venture X vs Sapphire Preferred Lounge Access
This one couldn’t be any easier.
While Venture X has an annual price tag of $395, the card comes with some incredible perks that can easily offset that out-of-pocket cost. And perhaps nowhere is that clearer than with lounge access.
Venture X cardholders get access to the brand new Capital One Lounges. Right now, just the brand new lounge in Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW) is open, but the bank will open additional lounges in both Denver (DEN) and Washington D.C. – Dulles (IAD) later this year. And they don't plan to stop with just those three lounges.
If you ask us, the new Dallas (DFW) lounge is at the top of the list of the nicest airport lounges you'll find in the country. Drinks, food, and even to-go snacks are complimentary. And you'll be able to bring up to two guests in with you on each visit for no additional cost.
Even Venture X card authorized users will get their own lounge membership with the ability to bring two complimentary guests in with them.
On top of the Capital One Lounge access, Venture X cardholders also get a Priority Pass Select membership. This provides access to another 1,200+ airport lounges around the world, plus access to a growing list of airport restaurants where you will get credits to put towards the cost of meals.
What you'll find with Priority Pass lounges can vary greatly. Some are great and others are just average – but at the end of the day, just about any lounge will beat sitting at the gate.
Finally, in June 2022, Capital One also added access to Plaza Premium Lounges, opening the doors to dozens more lounges abroad and at home. The Plaza Premium name also includes Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse lounges in four U.S. airports like New York City (JFK) and Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD); several lounges at the Cancún (CUN) airport; and Avianca lounges throughout Colombia. Here’s the full list of new lounges.
As it stands, the Chase Sapphire Preferred does not provide any sort of lounge access. For that, you'd need to hold the Preferred card's premium sibling, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® which provides the same Priority Pass lounge access as the Venture X, but comes with an annual fee price tag of $550 a year. It's a big part of the reason we feel that Venture X has made the Sapphire Reserve irrelevant.
It is worth noting that Chase plans to make an entrance into the airport lounge wars later this year. Will Sapphire Preferred cardholders be able to buy their way into these new lounges? Or will they only be available for Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders? Time will tell.
But for now, the Venture X card is a clear choice if airport lounge access is a top priority.
Winner: Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Click Here to learn more about the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Venture X vs Chase Sapphire Preferred Welcome Offers
When you sign up for a travel credit card, it’s all about that initial welcome bonus offer. When comparing the Capital One Venture X and Chase Sapphire Preferred, there is a clear winner – at least for now.
With the Capital One Venture X Card, you’ll earn 75,000 Capital One Venture Miles after spending $4,000 in the first three months of card membership – worth a minimum of $750 towards travel. Considering you earn 2x on every dollar you spend, that bumps your total earnings to 83,000 once you complete the required spending – worth at least $830 toward travel.
With the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you'll currently earn 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4,000 in the first three months of card membership. That amount is worth at least $750 towards travel.
But let's be clear: While points are nice, credit cards are serious business. Whether it requires $500, $4,000, or $10,000 in spending, if you can't responsibly do it without going into debt, you shouldn't try. Any interest you pay on a balance you rack up will negate the benefits of these points.
However, if you can responsibly meet either of the spending requirements, both cards will give you a ton of value.
Winner: Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Click Here to learn more about the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Earning Points with Venture X and Sapphire Preferred
Both the Venture X and the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card give you a reason to keep swiping your cards after earning the bonus. But just which one is better depends on where you’re spending money.
On the Capital One Venture X, you’ll earn 2x miles on each and every purchase. That’s tough to beat. Beyond that, you’ll earn 5x points on flights and 10x on hotels and car rentals, but only when booking through the new Capital One Travel Portal.
With the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you'll similarly earn 5x points for purchases made through Chase Travel℠, 3x points per dollar spent on dining (including eligible delivery services), 3x points per dollar spent on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs like Costco and Sam's Club), 3x points per dollar spent on select streaming services, 2x point per dollar spent on travel, and 1x point per dollar spent on everything else.
So here’s what it comes down to: Which is better? 2x on every single purchase with the Venture X? Or earning 3x on dining, online groceries, and streaming, and 2x on travel with the Sapphire Preferred?
We’d call this one a draw, but your own spending habits could sway you one way or the other … at least until you make it to a second year with the card.
That's when the new Venture X has a serious advantage. Every cardmember anniversary, Capital One automatically gives cardmembers 10,000 Venture Miles each year. At a bare minimum, those points are worth another $100 toward travel.
With the Sapphire Preferred, starting in your second year, you’ll earn bonus points equal to 10% of your total purchases made the previous year. That means if you spend $25,000 on purchases, you’ll get 2,500 bonus points.
Unless you are spending a ton of money in categories that earn a bonus on the Sapphire Preferred Card, we think the edge goes to the Venture X.
Winner: Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Click Here to learn more about the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Venture X and Sapphire Preferred Annual Travel Credits
Both the Capital One Venture X and the Chase Sapphire Preferred offer credits that can drastically offset their annual fees.
Let’s start with the Venture X Card. Each and every year you’ve got the card starting right from the time you open it, you’ll receive a $300 annual credit. Right off the bat, that essentially brings your cost for holding the card from $395 a year down to $95 a year.
Read more: Why the Capital One Venture X Annual Fee Shouldn’t Scare You
However, that credit is only valid for purchases you make within the new Capital One Travel Portal. Capital One has improved its travel portal with a handful of new features that could incentivize you to use their portal to book your travel.
They partnered with Hopper to give cardholders price freeze options, refunds if your flights drop in price after booking, and other predictive and powerful analytics. Plus, you earn up to 10x on travel on those purchases – even when using your $300 annual credit. Just charge your travel purchase to your Venture X Card and voila – it kicks in automatically.
You'll also get up to a $100 credit every four years to cover the cost of a TSA PreCheck or Global Entry membership. Membership in either program is good for five years.
Add up those three credits and you've got up to $400 in value in your first year with the card. Not bad for a card with a $395 annual fee.
With the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you'll get up to a $50 credit for hotel bookings made through Chase Travel℠. While not nearly as big, it cuts your effective annual fee from $95 down to $45 each year if you can put it to use – and that shouldn't be hard.
In pure dollar figures, the Venture X Card is the winner here. You have the ability to use up to $600 in credits in year one and then $300 annually each year after that. With the Sapphire Preferred, you'll get $50 to spend on hotels each and every year.
Winner: Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Click Here to learn more about the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Using Points to Book Travel
When it comes to booking travel, let’s compare what you get with both Capital One Venture Miles and Chase Ultimate Rewards. We’ll start at the easiest level.
Both Chase and Capital One run their own travel portals that allow you to book flights, hotels, and rental cars using your points and miles. With Capital One, your Venture Miles will always be worth one cent each through the Capital One Travel Portal. That means a $500 flight, hotel, or rental car will cost you 50,000 Venture Miles.
With Chase, your points will be worth a little bit more when you use Chase Travel℠. With the Sapphire Preferred, each point is worth 1.25 cents each towards travel booked through their portal. That means that the same $500 flight, hotel, or rental car booking would only cost 40,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
But Venture X has an ace-in-the-hole: Capital One Purchase Eraser, the easiest and most straightforward way to book travel using points and miles. Rather than searching through portals, you can simply book a flight, hotel, or any other travel expense with your card, then go back and erase the purchase using your miles. Once again, every 1 Venture Mile = 1 cent toward your travel purchase.
Read More: 9 Unique Ways to Use the Capital One Purchase Eraser for Travel
The ease and flexibility of redeeming Venture Miles gives the Venture X Card another win here.
Winner: Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Click Here to learn more about the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Venture Miles vs Ultimate Rewards Transfer Partners
You can go beyond travel portals or purchase erasers and get even more value out of your points and miles by leveraging transfer partners. For years, Chase has reigned supreme when it comes to transfer partners. But Capital One is closing the gap.
A few years ago, Capital One launched its own stable of airline transfer partners. But it wasn’t a great deal: In most cases, you’d have to transfer 2 Venture Miles to get 1.5 airline miles in return. That meant 50,000 Venture Miles would get you just 37,500 miles with your airline of choice. All Chase transfers, meanwhile, are on a 1:1 basis.
But as it geared up for the launch of the Venture X card last fall, Capital One improved drastically, adding more options, a few hotel chains, and making almost all of them 1:1 transfer partners. This puts their transfer partner network on a more level playing field with Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Check out the full list of Capital one transfer partners.
| Program | Type | Ratio | Transfer Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aeromexico | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| Air France/KLM | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| Avianca LifeMiles | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| British Airways | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles | Airline | 1:1 | Up to five business days |
| Emirates | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| Etihad | Airline | 1:1 | Up to 1 day |
| EVA Air | Airline | 2:1.5 | Up to five business days |
| Finnair | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| Qantas | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| Singapore | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| TAP Air Portugal | Airline | 1:1 | Same day |
| Turkish Airlines | Airline | 1:1 | Same day |
| Virgin Red | Other | 1:1 | Same day |
| Accor | Hotel | 2:1 | Up to two business days |
| Wyndham | Hotel | 1:1 | Same day |
| Choice Hotels | Hotel | 1:1 | Same day |
Read up on Capital One transfer partners, how transferring works, and your best options!
There’s a lot of overlap between which airlines you can send your points to between Chase and Capital One, but Chase still stands out in a few ways.
| Program | Type | Transfer Ratio | Transfer Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aer Lingus | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| Air France/KLM | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| British Airways | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| Emirates | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| Iberia Plus | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| JetBlue | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| Singapore Air | Airline | 1:1 | 12-24 hours |
| Southwest Airlines | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| United Airlines | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| Virgin Atlantic | Airline | 1:1 | Instant |
| World of Hyatt | Hotel | 1:1 | Instant |
| IHG | Hotel | 1:1 | 1 day |
| Marriott Rewards | Hotel | 1:1 | 2 days |
Read up on Chase transfer partners how transferring works, and your best options!
First, Chase has the ability to transfer points to United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and even jetBlue. Capital One doesn’t have a U.S. airline transfer partner, which is no doubt a weakness.
Next, while Capital One has hotel transfer partners, Chase's are simply stronger, including the World of Hyatt – the single most valuable hotel loyalty program out there, and arguably the strongest Chase transfer partner, period.
Read More: 5 Ways to Use Chase Points to Book Hotels
This is close, but the ability to transfer to several U.S. airlines and Hyatt gives Chase the edge here.
Winner: Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
Learn more about the *chase sapphire preferred*
Travel & Rental Car Insurance
The best travel credit cards help protect you when things go wrong – and help you avoid paying for add-on coverage. The Chase Sapphire Preferred and Venture X cards are no different.
Both the Venture X Card and Sapphire Preferred offer strong travel insurance coverage when booking flights like trip interruption and delay insurance. And both cards will offer primary rental car insurance, making them two of the best options for rental car coverage. But the Venture X offers slightly better coverage.
Read more about the Capital One Venture X rental car insurance benefits!
Charge your rental car to your Venture X, and you get of the strongest rental car insurance you’ll find. Decline the rental car agency’s policy and you’ll have a strong insurance policy that will cover most damages or even the theft of the vehicle. It applies to rentals in the U.S. as long as 15 days and in most foreign countries for up to 31 days.
Additionally, Venture X provides cell phone protection insurance – something you won't find on the Sapphire Preferred.
As long as you pay your cell phone bill with your Capital One Venture X card, you can get reimbursed up to $800 for repair or replacement if your cell phone is stolen or damaged.
Here is what you need to know about how this cell phone coverage works:
- This insurance benefit applies if you’re a Venture X cardholder and pay your monthly cell phone bill with the card.
- You must have paid with your card in the billing cycle before the month the incident occurs.
- The cell phone coverage applies to all lines listed on the account. So if you have a family of four, all lines are covered.
- You will need to pay a $50 deductible for each claim
- The benefit can be used twice in any 12-month period, and you are eligible for reimbursement of up to $800 per claim.
- It’s supplemental coverage, so if you have an insurance policy through your carrier or through the device manufacturer itself, this coverage would not be valid.
- If your device has been stolen, a police report must be filed within 48 hours of the event to be eligible for coverage.
Read more: Travel Insurance Protections Provided by the Capital One Venture X Card
Winner: Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Click Here to learn more about the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Adding Authorized Users
Adding an authorized user to your credit card account can make sense for many reasons, including the fact that an authorized user will receive some of the benefits extended to the primary cardholder.
With the Capital One Venture X, authorized users will get their own lounge membership with the ability to bring in up to two of their own guests. Additionally, Venture X authorized users will also get a complimentary Hertz Presidents circle membership which allows you to skip the counter when you rent a car from Hertz, and many other benefits.
Best of all? Authorized users are completely free on the Capital One Venture X. Better yet, you can add up to four users at no additional cost. Compare that to other premium travel credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Platinum Card from American Expresss which charge $75 and $175 to add an authorized user respectively.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card also allows you to add free authorized users, but they will not receive any of their own card benefits. This is pretty standard for cards that fall into the no or low annual fee category.
Winner: Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Click Here to learn more about the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Venture X vs Sapphire Preferred: Which Wins?
Add it all up, and the Venture X card wins in a landslide based on these categories. But that's not the full story.
Everybody can (and should) weigh these categories differently. If your only priority is a low annual fee, you may pick up the Chase Sapphire Preferred and be done with it. If you want lounge access and free Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, it's not even worth considering the Preferred Card.
At the end of the day, you can't go wrong with either card: They're among the best travel rewards credit cards out there. In fact, we think these two cards can make a ton of sense to hold together – assuming you have the budget for a $395 and a $95 annual fee credit card.
The Venture X provides many of the same benefits that make the Sapphire Reserve enticing at a much lower price point. That's why we think Venture X has largely made the Sapphire Reserve irrelevant.
Instead of the Reserve, you could hold both the Venture X and the Sapphire Preferred and your annual fees would be $490 a year ($395 for Venture X and $95 for the Sapphire Prefered). That's still $60 less than just holding the Sapphire Reserve and allows you to diversify your points balances across two very valuable flexible points currencies.
Bottom Line
When comparing Venture X vs Chase Sapphire Preferred, there is a lot to consider.
At the end of the day, these cards are both great and you can't go wrong with either option. In fact, we think they can make a great tandem in any traveler's wallet – as long as you have the appetite and budget for paying two credit card annual fees … and the know-how to come out ahead on those fees anyway.