5 Myths About Capital One Venture X, The New Premium Card

After a propulsive launch, the Capital One Venture X card is now in wallets.

The new premium card launched a first of its kind product into the marketplace, with a price point that sits well below the most shocking annual fees, but above entry level cards, thanks to unique benefits – like price drop protection on flights.

As with any “new” launch, information on places like Reddit and Facebook flies around faster than confirmed answers and that lead to quite a few things that just aren’t true, which are worth knowing about if you’re considering the card.

Here’s a little bit of clarity on a few key benefits.

Myth #1: You Can Only Book Economy Flights

One of the most lucrative elements of the Capital One Venture X card is the ability to earn 5X points on flights and 10X on hotels and car rentals when you book via the new Capital One Travel Platform.

Because of an early design kink, the layout made people feel like they couldn’t book first or business class flights using Capital One Travel. Spoiler alert: you totally can. And with price drop protection, plus 5X points, you probably should?

Capital One’s price drop protection in partnership with Hopper allows you to track flight prices, and if Capital One Travel suggests to book — but the price later drops — you get a partial refund of the difference in fare.

Myth #2 Only Capital One Lounges Included

Let’s be clear, even if Capital One Lounges were the only lounges included, the card could still be more than worthwhile to most people, but that’s just not the case.

Capital One opened its first bespoke airport lounge at Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) at the end of October and has more on the way in Denver, Washington DC and more, in the months to come.

Many people grumbled that it doesn’t cover “enough” airports, so they wouldn’t be taking part, but a key detail that’s been widely overlooked is that in addition to totally comp’d access to Capital One Lounges for cardmembers and guests, Priority Pass is also included, which means there’s thousands of lounges included globally, too.

Myth #3 Better Travel Prices Are Available

Many banks launched travel portals in recent years to try and win bookings from cardmembers away from online travel agencies. Chase has worked with Expedia and other partners and Amex has their own setup as well.

Without naming names, some credit travel booking sites have unfortunately featured inflated prices on everything from hotels to car rentals and flights, which lead to low uptake and confidence.

To avoid this pitfall, Capital One is offering price matching on prices found on its Capital One Travel Platform, from day one. If you find a lower price offered with the same terms, Capital One is matching prices on flights, hotels and cars, which helps to get more of the 5-10X points earning value out of the card.

Myth #4 Points Don’t Transfer 1:1 To Partners

This myth is a bit easier to understand, given that most Capital One Points Transfer Partners once involved a bit more math than might be ideal, and weren’t 1:1. For the most part, that’s no more.

Circa October 21′, Capital One made big waves once again, moving more than 15 of their airline transfer partners to a 1:1 points ratio. Since you earn at least 2 miles per dollar spent, that means you can earn 2 airline miles on all purchases, and sometimes more!

There are a couple holdovers of different transfer ratios, but 15 of the airline transfer partners transfer 1:1, so that 100,000 point bonus can be 100,000 airline miles, or if you luck out with a transfer bonus, more!

Myth #5 The Extra $200 Airbnb Bonus Is Over

When the card first launched in November, the already “easy” to justify card was even more so, thanks to an additional $200 credit for VRBO or Airbnb purchases, on top of the 100,000 point welcome bonus, $300 travel credit and other enticements.

Because blogs will be blogs, and forums will be forums, a rumor got around pretty quickly that most links didn’t include the additional $200 credit, or that the offer had been pulled.

In reality, that incredible offer still exists and you can still sign up for the card and earn the same juicy bonus as day one people. Here’s a look at how approvals are going!

Final Words: Capital One Venture X

There’s not much more that can be said about this card that hasn’t already been said, but there was a lot which the internet made less clear than it could be.

The Capital One Venture X is GSTP’s pick for best card of the year, and in reality, in many years probably too. It’s one of the easiest cards to recoup your annual fee and then some each year, with truly phenomenal points earning potential too.

You can check out the 100,000 point offer, here.