How to use and maximize your miles for your travels with Capital One Venture Card? This is a timely question since many ads for credit cards pop up on Facebook and Instagram this time of year.

I honestly fell in love with this card since I started working in 2015.  Since I first applied with Capital One on my own, I had to get the Capital One Venture One Card instead of the Capital One Venture card. I loved my Capital One Venture One, but it only gave me 1.25% back from other purchases other than travel, which did not add up to much. Capital One Venture card, however, gives 2% back on every purchase. My husband was a die-hard fan of the Capital One Quicksilver card, which gave him 1.5% cashback on every dollar he spends. It took me many years to prove my point to him that the Capital One Venture Card would be better. This year I won! LOL, We finally got the Capital One Venture Card.

What makes me excited about this Capital One Venture Card is their partnership with Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines. This means we can use our miles every time we go home to the Philippines. You can book through Capital One’s travel portal. Their website is so easy to use. For people like me who are not very tech-savvy, the website is easy to figure out. Trust me; you’ll like it!

Why I love Capital One Venture Card?

• It gives you 2% miles in every $ you spend on any purchases.
• I love to travel and go home to the Philippines every few years, which will help us with our travel expenses.
• Having a travel general card is a great option. It gives you flexibility in managing your budget. You can book directly to their Capital One Travel portal for airline tickets, hotel stays, transfer your miles to their airline’s partners, and/ or convert your miles into cash to help pay your current Capital One Venture One/Capital One Venture Card.
• If you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months on your card, Capital, One will give you 60, 000 miles bonus, equivalent to $840 in cash. That’s a big amount to use for your travels or use to pay your current bill. I have used the money in the past to pay my bill, but honestly, I wouldn’t recommend it as it is not the best value. 
• Capital One $95 annual fee for the first year. You have the option to cancel the card the following year if you want to. Take note that the 60,000 miles, equivalent to $840, already pay for your eight-year annual fee. 
• If you spend $5,000 annually, it evens the $95 annual fee. Spending $10 000 annually, you get $100 as a profit for having a card. Here is more explanation from creditcardinsiders. For you to help decide if it makes sense with your expenses.
• You received $100 Global Entry or TSA PreCheck if you use your venture card.

How to maximize your miles with Capital One Venture Card?

A. Cover Your Travel Purchases between Booking A Trip

It is better to use your point through Cover Your Travel Purchases than using it to Booking A Trip through Capital One travel because some of the things you’ll book the cost of the hotels, car rental or airline tickets is higher in booking through their portal it means you’ll use more of your points. The price difference in each business differs from $1- $38 or even more but try to check the pictures below. It is the comparison between Hotels.com and Capital One Travel portal. While in booking through Cover Your Travel Purchases, the numbers of miles are fixed. By seeing this comparison, I would rather find a great deal on other websites, purchase it with my Capital One Venture card, and use the Cover Your Travel Purchase eraser after maximizing the miles I earned.

The pictures below are a comparison of the Cambria Hotel In Nashville. I put the same dates, and that’s the price difference between the two sites. Booking a trip through Capital One Venture Travel costs $335, while if you book it on Hotels.com, the price is $297. That’s a big difference! 

Answer: Cover your travel purchases is better!

Capital One Travel Portal

Hotels.com booking portal

Using your miles to erase your travel expenses.

B. Cover Your Travel Purchases between Amazon

I tried to look for a similar price in Amazon and tried it out on my card and see how many miles they will get for a similar amount.  As you noticed above, if I’ll try to use my miles to redeem my travel purchase of $160.42, it will cost me 16 042 miles, while if I buy something on Amazon for $161.76, it will cost me 20 220 rewards. The total price isn’t the same, but the $1.34 difference with the total price and the total number of miles difference is 4 178 miles. That’s a lot of miles wasted.

Answer: Cover Your Travel Purchases still is the best way to go.

Total miles for Amazon shopping

C. Transfer Your Rewards With Airline Partners

After one year of owning the Capital One Venture Card, we finally tried the miles transfer in one of their airline partner JetBlue. We have a total of 130 000 miles in our Capital One Venture card, and when I transferred, it totaled 97 500 JetBlue miles.

I also checked how much the equivalent is in cash, and it is around $600 plus. But when I used my 97 000 JetBlue miles to purchased a plane ticket from Rochester, New York, to Los Angeles, California, we were able to book a total of three roundtrip tickets for 94 000 miles, and the total cost of the flights are around $1, 174.26.

Note: Don’t book the total number of persons in one booking if the flights’ total value exceeds the number of your miles because they will charge you a whopping fee if you do that.

For example: For ours, I tried to book a total of four persons in one booking, and our total miles is 97, 500 JetBlue miles, and the cost of the total miles of a round trip flight from Rochester, New York, to Los Angeles, California is 125, 000 Jet Blue miles. They will take all my 97 500 miles plus charge us $900 plus for the difference. Instead, I changed it to three persons and booked my own ticket separately, and I only paid $391 plus tax instead of the $900 plus as stated on my first try.

Advantages Of Having A Capital One Venture Card

• Having the flexibility on how to use the card is the number one advantage.
• The 2% miles in other purchases is a great deal compared to other cards.
• The Capital One Venture can now be transferred to 15 travel partners. If you want to read more about their partners, it’s here.
• Their partnership with JetBlue got better in the year 2020.
• As long as your venture card is open, your miles will always be there, and no limit to how much you can earn.
• New partnership with Accor Live Limitless and Wyndham Hotel partners last year 2020. Check their site for more information about the partnership.
• The money you spend for the first 3 months justifies the total bonus miles they will give you back for a total of eight years.
• No foreign transaction fees are among the perks you want to have in your credit card for international travel.
• Global Entry’s benefits worth $100 and or TSA Precheck worth $85 good for five years, and you can get and renew the statement again within four years. Having this opportunity to speed up the security and immigration process for having a venture card is another good perks.
• You can use it in shopping on Amazon.com.

Summary

No wonder they named Capital One Venture Card as one of the best credit cards of the year 2021 and the best Capital One credit card because of the many benefits of this card, including the freedom to use it on any purchases earn 2% back. After their partnership with Hotels.com in 2020, Capital One Venture steps up for their travel rewards with JetBlue, a 2:1.5 ratio. Their new partnership with Accor Live Limitless and Wyndham rewards last 2020, which have thousands of properties around the USA and other countries, is another addition.

The 2% miles back on all purchases is already a big bonus compared to the other cards. After all, it will be based on how you spend your money and your lifestyle. If you need more explanation, here is one.

The following are some of my articles on how to save money or budget for travel.

13 Lists On How To Look For A Family Getaway On A Budget

Southeast Asia: Saving Tips and Itinerary

Short Noticed International Trips? Planning and Minimizing The Costs!

Disclaimer: This article is all my opinion based on my own research and understanding. If you have any other questions, please contact the bank for further details. Some links in this article are affiliate links, which means that I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you if you purchase through them. This helps cover the cost of running this blog. Thanks for your support!

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