Official application link: Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card with a 50,000-mile bonus.

The award travel world is incredibly complex, with transfer partners to keep track of and a never-ending stack of acronyms to memorize that TPG’s Richard Kerr calls the complexity of an ever-present devaluation. The Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card is a great answer to this problem, offering simple earning and redemption options for beginners and high-value transfer options for the more experienced.

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is one of the best rewards credit cards as it earns 2x miles on every purchase, has no foreign transaction fees, includes an application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, and sports an easily defensible $95 annual fee after the first year, among various other benefits and perks.

Official application link: Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card with a 50,000-mile bonus.

Who Is This Card For?

The Venture Rewards has historically been best for people who want to keep things simple, since until recently there were no transfer partners. However, now that you can move your miles over to several airline programs, the card’s appeal changes a bit. It’s still a great option for using miles to cancel out travel purchases on your statement without having to worry about the complexities of many loyalty programs, but it’s now also a strong choice for diversifying your portfolio of loyalty currencies and redeeming with some hidden-gem airline programs.

As such, I think there are two main groups of people who would benefit from this card. The first is people who are new to the points and miles world. If you’re able to learn how to maximize Capital One’s transfer partners in time for your next vacation that’s great, but if not, you can always fall back on the fixed-value redemptions.

The second group is more advanced award travelers looking to add a fixed-value card to their wallets. Even if you get your flights and hotels for free with points, having a fixed-value card to help you cancel out other ancillary charges, such as rental cars and maybe even certain tours, can help keep your travel as close to free as humanly possible.

Sign-Up Bonus: Worth $700

The Capital One Venture Rewards comes with a sign-up bonus of 50,000 miles after you spend $3,000 in purchases within the first three months. With transfer partners now available, Capital One Venture miles are no long worth a flat 1 cent apiece — or they don’t have to be, that is. Instead, they’re worth 1.4 cents each based on our valuations. We came up with that number based on our analysis of the current lineup of airline transfer partners and the redemption options available through each. With that number in mind, the 50,000-mile bonus is worth $700.

You’ll still have the option to redeem your miles for 1 cent apiece as a statement credit toward travel purchases, so while you can definitely maximize your 50,000 miles from the sign-up bonus to get more than $500 in value, you don’t have to jump through those hoops if you’d rather not. If you go the route of redeeming miles toward statement credits, the sign-up bonus would be worth $500. And the card’s $95 annual fee is waived for the first year, so if this is a card you think might be right for you, you can get it, earn the sign-up bonus and try it out essentially for free for a year to see if it fits your needs.

Official application link: Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card with a 50,000-mile bonus.

Main Benefits and Perks

The Venture Rewards card stands out for offering an application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck — many other cards that offer this benefit have annual fees above $400. The TSA/Global Entry application fee credit is worth up tp $100. Remember that you can gift this perk to a friend or family member if you don’t need it for yourself.

For regular travelers, the Venture Rewards card has a decent, though not top-of-the-market, suite of Visa Signature travel benefits, including travel accident insurance up to $250,000, lost luggage reimbursement up to $3,000 and secondary auto rental coverage.

When making everyday purchases, you’ll also get extended warranty protection, which doubles the manufacturers warranty up to one extra year for warranties of three years or less, with a maximum of $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per cardholder. And you’ll get purchase security, which replaces, repairs or reimburses you for purchases in the event of theft or damage within 90 days of the purchase date, up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per cardholder.

For international travelers, the Venture Rewards has no foreign transaction fees, so you can use the card overseas without accumulating extra charges just because you’re out of the country. And Capital One recently introduced a metal version of this card, which you’ll automatically receive if you’re approved as a new cardholder.

As of Dec. 12, 2019, Capital One has added another redemption option with Amazon Shop with Points. Eligible customers can use rewards to cover part or all of an Amazon order. Generally, we don’t recommend using your points or miles on Amazon, since there are usually more valuable redemption options. But, some cardholders value simplicity over maximization.

Official application link: Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card with a 50,000-mile bonus.

How to Earn Miles

Earning miles on the Venture Rewards card is pretty straightforward, which is what makes the card useful to folks who just don’t want to spend a lot of mental bandwidth swapping credit cards in and out for different types of merchants. You’ll earn 2 miles for every dollar you spend with the card on every transaction, which means you’re basically getting 2-2.8 cents (factoring in our new valuation) in travel for every dollar in purchases, with no annual cap.

The Best Card for Free Agent Travelers

While I think most people would do well to have a Venture Rewards card in their wallet, there’s a specific group who can get even more value out of the unique way this card is set up. Free agent travelers, or those who aren’t inherently loyal to a single hotel chain or airline, can take full advantage of the flexibility that this card offers.

While you won’t get any airline-specific perks like free checked bags or priority boarding with this card, you’ll be able to use your rewards to jump on the cheapest cash ticket to wherever you’re going, while still taking advantage of transfer partners in all three major alliances (Star Alliance, Oneworld and SkyTeam).

Bottom Line

The Capital One Venture Rewards Card is a more compelling card than ever, thanks to the addition of airline transfer partners. Between a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck application fee credit and some intriguing redemption options through the transfer partners, this card packs a lot in for a $95 fee that’s waived the first year.

Official application link: Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card with a 50,000-mile bonus.

This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. For an explanation of our Advertising Policy, visit this page.