TLDR: The Capital One Venture X Business card offers premium travel perks like a $300 annual credit and lounge access that can easily offset its $395 fee, making it a strong choice for business travelers.
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Are you a small business owner? Do you need to travel a lot, or do your employees need to make frequent business trips to support your business? If you answer yes to either question, you might find it worth considering adding a new business credit card to your wallet: the Capital One Venture X Business.
Like its normal consumer counterpart, the Venture X Business is one of the most popular business travel credit cards on the market, right up there with the Sapphire Reserve for Business℠.
If you already have the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card in your wallet, you’ll easily see why the Venture X Business is a great card to pair with your other cards if you’re a business owner/employee and need to travel.
To start it off, the Capital One Venture X Business offers new cardholders a solid introductory offer that can be hard to pass up if you’re already considering getting the card. You can earn 150,000 miles after spending $30,000 within the first three months from account opening.
You can do a number of things with 150,000 miles, including flying yourself across the world in business class. If you take advantage of your Capital One miles by transferring them to any of Capital One’s transfer partners, you can really stretch the value of your miles. The boundaries can be endless.
As a travel-rewards credit card, the Capital One Venture X offers a competitive earn rate for travel-related expenses, earning increased bonus miles whenever you need to make any purchases towards booking your travel itinerary. Here’s how the earn rate breaks down:
This structure allows cardholders to rack up miles quickly if they make expenses in the bonus categories frequently. Additionally, since the card earns 2x miles on every purchase instead of the standard 1x point found on most credit cards, business owners who need to spend a lot on resources for their business may greatly benefit from accruing bonus miles quickly.
Notably, while the card does earn an eye-popping number of miles in certain categories, I don’t know if I would necessarily recommend purchasing through the portal.
For example, when booking travel through a credit card portal such as Capital One Travel, your booking is treated as a third-party booking with the airline, leaving you subject to headaches if you encounter issues with your trip, such as a flight cancellation or severe delay.
The Venture X Business comes with a hefty $395 annual fee, but it makes up for its annual fee through the benefits it provides cardholders. To start off with, you’ll receive an annual $300 credit for bookings made through Capital One Travel.
For example, I will use the $300 travel credit for booking independent chain hotels where I don’t have status. I have a conference to visit in Santa Barbara, and the mega chain hotels there were too expensive/too far. For example, a Hyatt was running $500+ a night! Instead, I used my travel credit on an independent chain hotel that cost around $200 through the Capital One portal.
If you’re able to use the $300 credit every year, you’ll effectively reduce the net cost of the card down to $95, which could make the card well worth it considering the various other benefits it provides.
On top of this, you’ll receive 10,000 bonus miles every year, starting on your first card anniversary. If you choose to redeem these miles via Capital One Travel, you’ll get 1 cent per mile, or $100. While I don’t typically advocate for people to use their miles this way, it’s still an admittedly easy way to “cash out” your miles.
I would much rather transfer those miles to airlines like Air France or Virgin Atlantic. For example, I was once able to book a flight from San Francisco to France for just 15,000 Capital One miles one way.
Combining both the $300 travel credit and the 10,000 bonus miles means you can essentially “profit” by owning the card? Kind of weird, you’d be getting $400 of value out of a $395 annual fee card.
Every four years, you can receive a statement credit of up to $120 for either a Global Entry application or an application for TSA PreCheck.
I recommend applying for Global Entry since it comes with TSA PreCheck included. Having membership in these two programs can really streamline your experience when traveling domestically or internationally.
I’ve saved hours of waiting in line at customs with Global Entry, so I find great value and use out of this credit. If you already have Global Entry, I’ve found that it makes for a pretty good gift for folks who like to travel a lot.
The Venture X Business card grants you complimentary entry to Capital One’s growing network of modern lounges, known as Capital One Lounges.
These lounges are currently located at Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Washington Dulles (IAD), and Denver (DEN), with more locations in the pipeline. These lounges offer chef-inspired meals, craft cocktails, quiet workspaces, and even shower suites, making them some of the nicest options for lounges available in U.S. airports.
With the Venture X Business card, you’ll be given a complimentary membership for Priority Pass™ Select. Priority Pass is a lounge network of more than 1,300+ airport lounges worldwide, allowing you to access lounges before your flight.
I’ve visited lounges almost every time I fly somewhere, and it’s always nice to have somewhere to relax and eat for free. I highly recommend getting Priority Pass if you haven’t yet, and getting your membership via the Venture X Business can help further reduce the net cost of the card.
However, it’s worth noting that a lot of US credit cards give access to Priority Pass, which means the benefit can be slightly diluted here. For instance, if you travel out of San Francisco (SFO), you’ll know Terminal 1’s “The Club” is notoriously overrun. Likewise, Chicago ORD’s Swissport and JFK T4’s Primeclass lounges are by no means "luxurious."
With the Venture X Business,you receive Hertz President Circle status. With Hertz President Circle, you will have a wide variety of benefits. You will get guaranteed vehicle availability, one car class upgrades and earn 50% bonus points on all Hertz rentals.
This is a particularly useful benefit if you don’t already have the card because it allows you to skip the counter at airports. My name always shows up as Presidents Circle, meaning I literally just walk over to the car pickup area and find the car I want. Saves time and energy.
One of the most powerful features of the Capital One Venture X Business is the ability to transfer your Capital One miles to a wide range of partners. This feature is ideal for travelers who want to maximize the value of their points by leveraging airline and hotel loyalty programs. Capital One has different ratios when transferring to airline and hotel loyalty programs. Here’s a list of airline partners that offer a 1:1 conversion ratio:
JetBlue has a 5:3 transfer ratio which means when you transfer 1,000 Capital One miles you receive 600 TrueBlue JetBlue points. EVA Air has a 2:1.5 transfer ratio which means when you transfer 1,000 Capital One miles, you receive 750 Infinity Mileage EVA Air miles.
1. Accor Live Limitless (2:1 transfer ratio)
2. Choice Privileges (1:1 transfer ratio)
3. Wyndham Rewards (1:1 transfer ratio)
This card is a well-rounded travel rewards card that offers significant value for its $395 annual fee. Between the generous sign-up bonus, competitive earn rate, $300 annual travel credit, $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck, flexible redemption options, and comprehensive travel insurance benefits, it’s easy to see why this card is a favorite among travelers.
If you’re someone who spends heavily in travel, dining, or streaming categories and wants a card that offers both rewards and protection, the Capital One Venture X Business is definitely worth considering. Its combination of perks and flexibility makes it a strong contender in the travel rewards space.
Just make sure you can spend enough to hit the welcome offer. $30,000 is not chump change (in 3 months nonetheless) and it can be somewhat difficult to hit that bar. But, if you can do it, you’ll be rewarded pretty handsomely with a pool of miles.
