How to Use Capital One Venture X Travel Credits?

Venture X from Capital One is the new player in the premium credit cards that has gotten everyone’s attention.

Capital one essentially pays you $5 every year to keep it active. What’s there not to like?

I signed up for the card in December and pretty much used it every day to complete the signup bonus. This past weekend I used a portion of its $300.00 travel credit at the Fairfield Marriott, Rhode Island. In this post, I will share the process of using this credit.

TL:DR; Book your stay using the Capital One travel portal – capitalonetravel.com. Hotel status is not honored; an airline loyalty program can be used. Wait 1-2 weeks for the statement credit. It can be multiple bookings for the $300 credit.

Jump to detailed steps ⤵

Cue last year, I tried to apply for a Quicksilver 1.5% cash back card and was denied due to too many cards in recent times. I called the recon a couple of times and was unsuccessful in getting approval.

Usually, I am not a big fan of annual fee credit cards. Using points and miles is a lot of work, but it has perks. In November 2021, when the Venture X card was released, I found it to be an attractive card due to the fact it has:

• $300 travel credit via Capital One travel portal.
• 10,000 bonus miles (equal to $100 towards travel) every year, starting on your first anniversary.
• 100,000 bonus miles once you spend $10,000 on purchases within the first 6 months from account opening.
• $200 Vacation Rental Credit (limited offer)

The signup bonus alone covers 3-4 years worth of annual fees.

Since I got rejected 3-4 months ago with Capital One, I did not want to risk another hard pull.
I asked my sister, a Chase Sapphire Reserve holder for the last 5-6 years, to apply for Venture X. The annual fee increase and a couple of terrible experiences with Chase customer service convinced her to apply for Venture X. She was approved instantly.

After her approval, I was even more interested in this card! I looked at many approval data points on Reddit and decided to close my eyes and apply. I was approved with $20k available credit! This card is my favorite 2X card now as the miles can go a bit further than cashback once travel fully resumes.

Redeeming the $300 Venture X Travel Credit

First, here are the rules for the travel credit:

• You will receive this credit as a statement credit.
• It will take about 1-2 weeks to receive the credits on your statement.
• You can split the credits into multiple bookings, i.e. one booking for $170 for a plane ticket and another booking for $130 for a hotel.
• Booking has to be made through the Capitol One Travel portal – capitalonetravel.com

Step 1:

Log into the Capital One travel portal, enter your stay details, and hit search. Below is a dummy booking example.

Step 2:

Pick your hotel/flight from the results and confirm your booking. Note: hotel booking status is not honored, and you won’t earn points for your stay. However, you can enter your airline loyalty ID/details to earn miles. Be sure to select Venture X as the payment method for your booking.

Step 3:

Confirm and book your stay. You will get a confirmation email shortly. In this email, you will get all the details about your stay/flight, including cancellation policy, date and more. If you need to cancel or change your reservation, you can do it online. I changed my hotel 2-3 days before my trip, and it went smoothly.

Step 4:

Wait for the credit redemption confirmation email. I got my credit within a week. If you don’t get your credits within two weeks, give Capital One a call. This email also tells you how much credit you have left if you did not utilize the total credit amount.

The credit also shows up on your statement like the screenshot below.

I hope this step by step was valuable. If you are looking for an airfare booking/video tutorial, here is a tutorial from Mark Reese. He also shared an additional airfare hack that you might find helpful.

If you want to sign up for the card, the link (referral) is here. I plan to create a guide soon about using the $200 vacation rental credit (Airbnb, Turnkey, Vacasa, and VRBO) as this is a limited one-time offer.