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Introduction If you're researching the best travel rewards credit cards , you've definitely heard of the Chase Sapphire Reserve, one of the best in the industry and Business Insider's top choice travel credit card for consumers. But the relative newcomer Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card will appeal to those who balk at premium credit card annual fees for its significantly lower cost. When the Chase Sapphire Reserve® was launched in 2016, it quickly became popular — in fact, Chase initially ran out of metal to make the cards as customers rushed to apply.
Despite its $550 annual fee, the Reserve continues to hold steady as one of the top premium credit cards on the market, with generous travel benefits and a lucrative rewards structure. But now there's a card that's giving the Chase Sapphire Reserve some stiff competition. The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card comes with similar travel credits and protections, and a much lower $395 annual fee ( rates and fees ).
Both cards have Visa Infinite benefits, which are a step above Visa Signature cards in terms of complimentary coverage. Both cards also come with $300 each year in travel credits, but they have very different usage restrictions. Apart from the gap in annual fees, there are other significant differences to be aware of.
Here's what to know if you're trying to decide between the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve®. Earn 5x points on flights and 10x total points on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase TravelSM immediately after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually. Earn 3x points on other travel and dining & 1x point per $1 spent on all other purchases.
$550 N/A 22.49% - 29.49% Variable Earn 60,000 bonus points Good to Excellent Check mark icon A check mark.
It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Annual travel credit can effectively shave $300 off the annual fee if you use it Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction.
Strong travel insurance Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Strong bonus rewards on travel and dining con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'.
Very high annual fee If you're new to rewards credit cards you may want to start elsewhere, but if you know you want to earn Chase points and you spend a lot on travel and dining, the Sapphire Reserve is one of the most rewarding options. Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $900 toward travel when you redeem through Chase TravelSM.
$300 Annual Travel Credit as reimbursement for travel purchases charged to your card each account anniversary year. Earn 5x total points on flights and 10x total points on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase TravelSM immediately after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually. Earn 3x points on other travel and dining & 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases Get 50% more value when you redeem your points for travel through Chase TravelSM.
For example, 60,000 points are worth $900 toward travel. 1:1 point transfer to leading airline and hotel loyalty programs Access to 1,300+ airport lounges worldwide after an easy, one-time enrollment in Priority PassTM Select and up to $100 application fee credit every four years for Global Entry, NEXUS, or TSA PreCheck® Count on Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance, Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver, Lost Luggage Insurance and more. Member FDIC Earn unlimited 10 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.
Earn 5 miles per dollar on flights booked through Capital One Travel. Earn unlimited 2 miles on all other purchases. $395 N/A 19.
99% - 29.99% variable Earn 75,000 bonus miles Excellent Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction.
Excellent welcome bonus and miles earning Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Premium perks including airport lounge access and credits for certain purchases Check mark icon A check mark.
It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Visa Infinite benefits including travel and shopping protections con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. High annual fee con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'.
Annual travel credits only apply to Capital One Travel purchases The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is one of the best credit cards for frequent travelers, with top-notch benefits and a wide range of built-in protections. It comes with a generous welcome bonus and credits that can help offset the annual fee — which is much lower than similar premium cards. Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel Receive a $300 annual credit for bookings through Capital One Travel, where you'll get Capital One's best prices on thousands of trip options Get 10,000 bonus miles (equal to $100 towards travel) every year, starting on your first anniversary Earn unlimited 10X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and 5X miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel Earn unlimited 2X miles on all other purchases Unlimited complimentary access for you and two guests to 1,300+ lounges, including Capital One Lounges and the Partner Lounge Network Use your Venture X miles to easily cover travel expenses, including flights, hotels, rental cars and more—you can even transfer your miles to your choice of 15+ travel loyalty programs Elevate every hotel stay from the Premier or Lifestyle Collections with a suite of cardholder benefits, like an experience credit, room upgrades, and more Receive up to a $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® Annual fees and value Both cards come with significant value to offset hefty annual fees.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve annual fee will set you back $550 each year, while the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card annual fee is significantly lower at $395 ( rates and fees ). Because they're both premium cards, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card charge high annual fees — but with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, it's easier to get a concrete value that can offset all of the annual fee and then some. The $395 annual fee ( rates and fees ) on the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card can be completely erased with just two perks — the annual $300 Capital One Travel credit and the 10,000-mile anniversary bonus (worth at least $100 in travel).
That's not counting the value of other perks like airport lounge access and cell phone insurance. The $550 annual fee on the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is a little harder to justify. After you subtract the $300 annual travel credit, you're still left with a $250 net cost.
However, the higher annual fee on the Chase Sapphire Reserve® could be worth it if you put a high value on premium travel protections like evacuation insurance, or if you plan to redeem points at a rate of 1.5 cents each through the Chase Travel SM Portal or via Pay Yourself Back . Here's the welcome bonus that you'll get with both cards: Chase Sapphire Reserve — 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card — 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening Reward earning potential If you spend a lot on travel and restaurants, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is a good choice.
It earns 3x points on travel (other than Chase Travel SM Portal purchases) and dining, along with 10x points on Lyft rides until March 2025, 5x points on flights purchased through Chase Travel SM , and 10x points on hotels and car rentals booked through Chase Travel SM . All other purchases earn 1 point per dollar. You'll get similar travel portal categories with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card — 10 miles per dollar on car rentals and hotels booked through Capital One Travel and 5x on flights booked the same way.
Everything else earns 2 miles per dollar. If your typical spending patterns don't involve travel or dining, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is a better bet, earning a minimum of 2 miles per dollar on everything you buy. Otherwise, you may do better with the Chase Sapphire Reserve®.
Redemption options You can book travel directly with either credit card. Just pay with the card, and your issuer will award bonus points for each eligible dollar spent on travel. You can also book travel through Chase Travel SM and Capital One Travel .
You'll earn elevated points on each dollar spent through the issuer's booking site. It's possible to potentially get even more value from rewards on these cards when you transfer your points or miles to airline and hotel partners. We estimate that Capital One miles value is 1.
7 cents each when using them this way — and Chase Ultimate Rewards points are worth 1.8 cents . Therefore, based on our valuations, each welcome bonus could potentially be worth: Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card - $1,275 Chase Sapphire Reserve® - $1,080 Capital One miles have a slightly lower average value of 1.
7 cents each compared to Chase's 1.8 cents, largely due to Chase's transfer partners being more useful for average travelers. The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve® earn flexible rewards you can transfer to airline and hotel partners in their respective programs.
However, each program has different partners (although there is some overlap). For most travelers, the Chase Ultimate Rewards program is a little more useful, with 14 partners that include domestic airlines like United, Southwest, and JetBlue, and hotel partners Marriott, IHG, and Hyatt. All Chase airline and hotel partners offer a 1:1 transfer ratio.
Aer Lingus AerClub Air Canada Aeroplan Air France-KLM Flying Blue British Airways Executive Club Emirates Skywards Iberia Plus JetBlue TrueBlue Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards United MileagePlus Virgin Atlantic Flying Club IHG Rewards Club Marriott Bonvoy World of Hyatt For its part, Capital One actually has more transfer partners (18 in total) with a few unique options including Accor, Wyndham, Turkish Airlines, and Cathay Pacific. All transfers are at a 1:1 ratio unless otherwise noted: However, Capital One doesn't have any domestic airline partners, so it's less useful if you tend to travel within the U.S.
Aeromexico Club Premier Air Canada Aeroplan Air France-KLM Flying Blue ALL - Accor Live Limitless (2:1 ratio) Avianca LifeMiles British Airways Executive Club Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Choice Privileges Emirates Skywards Etihad Guest EVA Infinity MileageLands (2:1.5 ratio) Finnair Plus Qantas Frequent Flyer Singapore KrisFlyer TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Virgin Red Wyndham Rewards That said, if you're willing to do a bit of legwork, it's still possible to book award flights on most major airlines with either program thanks to partnerships and alliances. For example, United Airlines partners with Chase but not Capital One.
However, you can still book United flights with Capital One miles by transferring rewards to programs like Air Canada Aeroplan or Singapore Airlines, then booking flights with their miles. Because these airlines are all part of Star Alliance, you can use miles from any of them to book award flights on any other partner. Travel benefits and perks Both the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve® offer Priority Pass Select membership , which allows you and your guests access to over 1,500 airport lounges worldwide.
This includes airport restaurants that are part of the Priority Pass network. With the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, you can bring unlimited free guests (subject to capacity) into Priority Pass lounges. But the Chase Sapphire Reserve® has a maximum limit of two free guests, so if you frequently travel in a larger group, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card may be a better pick.
In addition, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card allows the cardholder and two guests access to Capital One airport lounges. It also comes with access to Plaza Premium Lounges worldwide. Chase also offers its own branded lounges for Chase Sapphire Reserve® cardholders and Priority Pass members.
Some locations don't even require a Chase Sapphire Reserve® to get in — the Priority Pass membership from the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card would make you eligible for at least one or two visits a year. Travel credits and protections As Visa Infinite cards, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve® come with excellent travel and purchase protections , including primary car rental insurance, trip cancellation/interruption insurance, and trip delay insurance. These benefits and their coverage limits vary by card, and there are some perks that aren't common across both.
Here's a side-by-side comparison of some of the cards' key benefits (be sure to check the Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits guide and Capital One Venture X benefits guide for important terms and exclusions): Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card Primary car rental insurance Up to $75,000 on eligible rentals Trip cancellation/interruption Up to $2,000 per person (cardholder and immediate family) Travel accident insurance Trip delay reimbursement Up to $500 per ticket (cardholder and immediate family) for delays of six hours or more Up to $500 per ticket (cardholder and immediate family) for delays of six hours or more Lost luggage reimbursement Purchase protection Up to $10,000 in reimbursement per claim, and up to $50,000 per account, within 90 days of purchase Extended warranty Extends the time period of a US manufacturer's warranty on eligible items by an additional year, on warranties of three years or less Return protection Up to $300 per item and an annual maximum of $1,000 per account, within 90 days of purchase Cell phone protection Up to $800 in coverage per claim with a maximum of two claims and $1,600 per 12-month period ($50 deductible) Baggage delay insurance N/A Up to $100 per day for up to five days if your bags are delayed six hours or more Emergency evacuation and transportation insurance N/A Emergency medical and dental insurance N/A Roadside assistance N/A Travel and emergency assistance services Yes (all costs are cardholder responsibility) Both cards come with $300 in annual travel credits which can help offset much of their annual fees. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® is the most flexible, because the travel credit is automatically applied to the first $300 a year you spend on travel, including: Airlines (including airfare, baggage fees, taxes and fees on award tickets, and most other incidental fees) Hotels (including room rate, resort fees, and taxes and fees on award stays — and in practice, some vacation rentals, like Airbnb, will trigger the credit too) Motels Timeshares Car rental agencies (including third-party sites such as Autoslash) Cruise lines Travel agencies (including online travel agencies like Orbitz and Expedia) Discount travel sites (like Hotwire) Campgrounds Passenger trains (including subways) Buses (including local transit) Taxis (including ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft) Limousines Ferries Toll bridges and highways (including prepaid tolls like E-Zpass and SunPass) Parking lots and garages The $300 travel credit offered by the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is more restrictive — you can only apply it to flight, hotel, and car rental purchases made through Capital One Travel. That's not an issue if you would normally make these purchases through a third-party site anyway, but again keep in mind you probably won't earn points or have your elite status recognized on hotel and car rental bookings.
Both cards also offer a statement credit toward the Global Entry ($100) or TSA PreCheck ($85) application fee every four years. If you're already a member of one of these trusted traveler programs, you can pay for a friend or family member's application fee with your card and still receive the credit. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® goes a step further and also includes NEXUS as an option for this credit.
NEXUS costs $50 for five years and is a trusted traveler program that gets you Global Entry and TSA PreCheck, as well as expedited customs and immigration into Canada. Additional card benefits The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card comes with a 10,000-mile bonus each year on your account anniversary. Because Capital One miles are worth 1 cent each when you redeem them toward travel purchases (and potentially more when you transfer to partners), this bonus is worth at least $100 in travel.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® doesn't offer any sort of anniversary points bonus. This is where the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is a clear winner. You can add authorized users to the card for free, and they get many of the same excellent perks as the primary cardholder, including: Priority Pass airport lounge access (cardholder and unlimited guests) Capital One airport lounge access (cardholder and up to two guests) Hertz President's Circle elite status Cell phone protection Meanwhile, it costs $75 to add an authorized user to the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, although those users will receive their own Priority Pass airport lounge access as well.
If you rent cars frequently, you could get additional perks and discounts with the car rental elite status each card provides. You'll get elite status with Avis, National, and Silvercar car rental agencies when you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, and the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card comes with elite status at Hertz. Depending on your rental car company of choice, you may want to choose one card over the other if this perk is important to you.
Chase also added a $5 monthly DoorDash in-app credit to the card from April 2022 to December 2024, which could help defray the annual fee if you order from DoorDash frequently. It also added a complimentary year of Instacart+ membership and up to $15 per month in statement credits toward Instacart purchases (activation required by July 31, 2024). Plus, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® now comes with a two-year complimentary Lyft Pink All Access membership, which gets you perks like ride discounts, free bike rides, and priority pickup.
This membership normally costs $199 per year, and activation is required by December 31, 2024. Making the decision If you're still conflicted about your card choice after all this, consider these two points for making the final decision. In terms of value, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is a good choice if lowering your out-of-pocket costs is important to you.
While the $300 travel credit is more restrictive than the Chase Sapphire Reserve® credit, it should be easy for most travelers to use — and an additional 10,000 miles each account anniversary helps offset the $395 annual fee. While the Chase Sapphire Reserve® charges a much higher annual fee, it could still be worth it if you value the extra travel benefits and range of transfer partners the Ultimate Rewards program offers. Be sure to factor in the cost of any authorized users ($75 on the Reserve versus $0 on the Venture X), and remember that this card doesn't offer cellphone protection like the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card does.
Ultimately, your travel preferences, spending habits, and ability to maximize each card's benefits are the most important factors in deciding which is right for you. Chase Sapphire Reserve vs. Capital One Venture X frequently asked questions The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card has a $395 annual fee.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® has a $550 annual fee. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® earns 3 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on dining, while the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card earns 2 Capital One miles per dollar spent on any purchase. Both cards earn bonus points on travel booked through their respective issuer portals, Chase Travel SM and Capital One Travel.
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve® both offer airport lounge access, travel insurance, and annual travel credits. However, their benefits differ in scope and usage. Yes, both Capital One and Chase have more than a dozen airline and hotel partners that can accept reward transfers.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers better travel insurance benefits and a more flexible travel annual credit..
