Do I still need other credit cards if I already have the Capital One Venture X?

Many people wonder why bother with additional credit cards if they’ve already found the “perfect one”.

Maybe it’s too obvious for me to write out an entire article on it, so first, I’ll ask GPT. Then, I’ll tell you how accurate it was.

What does GPT say?

Here’s what Bing Chat (running on the same technology as ChatGPT) says:

The Capital One Venture X is a great travel rewards card that offers many benefits, such as double miles on every purchase, 10X miles on hotels and rental cars, 5X miles on flights, airport lounge access, annual travel credit, and more¹. However, there may be some reasons why someone would still want to get other credit cards even after they have the Capital One Venture X. Here are some possible scenarios:

• If you want to earn more points or miles in specific categories that the Capital One Venture X does not offer, such as dining, groceries, gas, or entertainment, you may want to consider getting a card that rewards you for those purchases. For example, the American Express® Gold Card offers 4X points at restaurants worldwide and at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per calendar year in purchases, then 1X), 3X points on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com, and 1X point on other purchases². The Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card offers 3% cash back on dining and entertainment, as well as popular streaming services and grocery stores (excluding superstores like Walmart and Target), and 1% cash back on other purchases³.
• If you want to take advantage of bonus offers that give you a large amount of points or miles after meeting a certain spending requirement, you may want to apply for a card that has a generous welcome bonus. For example, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening, which is worth $750 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®⁴. The Citi Premier® Card offers 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening, which can be transferred to 16 airline partners or redeemed for travel at a 25% higher value through the ThankYou® Travel Center⁵.
• If you want to have more flexibility and options when redeeming your rewards, you may want to get a card that allows you to transfer your points or miles to various travel partners, such as airlines or hotels. The Capital One Venture X allows you to transfer your miles to 15+ travel loyalty programs, but the transfer ratios vary and may not be favorable¹. Some cards offer better transfer rates and more partners, such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, which lets you transfer your points to 13 airline and hotel partners at a 1:1 ratio, and also gives you a 50% higher value when you redeem your points for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards®⁴. The Platinum Card® from American Express lets you transfer your points to 22 airline and hotel partners, mostly at a 1:1 ratio, and also gives you access to over 1,300 airport lounges worldwide, up to $200 in Uber credits annually, and up to $200 in airline fee credits annually².

These are just some examples of why someone might want to get other credit cards even after they have the Capital One Venture X. Of course, the best credit card for you depends on your spending habits, travel goals, and personal preferences. You should compare the features, fees, and rewards of different cards before applying for one. You can also use tools like NerdWallet’s credit card comparison tool³ or The Points Guy’s card match tool⁴ to find the best card for you.

What a human says

The above may all be correct, but I want to focus on the first bullet point. (The second bullet point is only relevant for churners and is not unique to the Venture X. Furthermore, the third bullet point is also inherently true for any other credit card with transfer partners—no credit card points currency is going to have all partners.)

Let’s first take a look at the bonus categories that the Venture X offers:

• 10x miles on hotels and rental cars booked on the Capital One Travel portal
• 5x miles on flights booked on the Capital One Travel portal

Then, you get 2x miles on all other purchases.

Well, the 2x miles is pretty fantastic in most cases, especially for purchases at Costco (since the VX is a Visa and Costco only accepts Visas). That’s better than most cards, which only give 1x points or 1% cash back. Furthermore, it’s better than even staple cards like the Chase Freedom Unlimited, which gives 1.5x points. Now that Capital One is increasing the value of miles, with the increasing number of airline transfer partners they offer, each mile is beginning to be worth more than 1¢. Thus, 2x is truly approaching 2¢ per $1.

But the 5x and 10x categories only include travel booked on Capital One Travel. That’s a pretty big limitation.

Alternative credit cards

Here’s a few credit cards that don’t feature such limitations, but give more than 2x on travel that’s not booked on their portals:

• The Chase Sapphire Reserve gives at least 3x back on all travel, no matter where it’s booked, as long as the purchase is coded as travel by Visa.
• The American Express Platinum Card gives 5x for flights booked either on its portal or directly through the airline.
• Similarly, the American Express Gold Card gives 3x for flights booked either on its portal or directly through the airline.

Other cards that give 2x points for travel include the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Bilt Rewards cards, both of which feature transferrable points.

Why does this matter so much?

Imagine you want to book train travel in Europe or Japan. Guess what? No extra points from Capital One. You can’t book trains on Capital One Travel, much less on trains in foreign countries.

Furthermore, when you book directly through a hotel, you get to earn their rewards points. When you do it through an online travel agency like Capital One, you can’t. Presumably, you’re also paying for the hotels with a credit card. If you use a credit card that lets you get extra points back, you get both credit card points and hotel points. I’ve been able to stack hotel points from Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott with my 2x or 3x back with my Chase Sapphire Preferred/Reserve for over 2 years now. I’ve redeemed over a dozen nights of award stays with Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott combined thanks to this points stacking mechanism.

Moreover, in my case, I work for a large corporation that has negotiated rates with most major hotel chains. That gives me a 10%-15% discount off the normal advertised rate. This is often lower than the rate available on online travel agencies like Expedia, Booking.com, Agoda, Capital One Travel, American Express Travel, Chase Travel, etc. Being forced to use the travel portals means I’m missing out on way more in discounts than the amount I get in points back.

It doesn’t just stop at hotels though. My company gets insanely cheap, negotiated rental car rates. We’re talking 50-75+% off regular rates. There is no way using Capital One Travel’s regular rental car pricing with 10x back is a better deal than using, say, a Chase Sapphire Reserve with just 3x back.

And this isn’t exclusive to those who work for major corporations. It also applies for anyone with an AARP or AAA membership.

Even for flights, where you still would earn both the airline’s frequent flyer miles and 5x Capital One miles, you’re missing out on a major benefit of booking directly with the airline: flexibility.

In case something goes wrong, you always want to be able to contact the airline directly. Booking through a travel agency means you always have to call the travel agency to make any changes through the airline. Any complicated re-routing or rebooking would require the travel agency to call the airline for guidance anyway. That wastes precious time and is definitely not what you want to be dealing with in a time-sensitive phone call to change your flight.

With my experiences doing this in the past, I can reassure you that it’s not worth the hassle unless there’s some serious discounts happening. Only Amex Travel offers such discounts. Good luck with getting any airfare discounts from Capital One Travel. And even the Amex Travel phone line was slammed with a long wait time during the busy holiday season. You’d have a better time directly calling the international phone lines of the airline… if you had the ability to do so, that is.

Closing thoughts

I am convinced that simply using a Venture X is a very bad deal if you are more than just an occasional traveler. Especially if you have access to discounts outside of the Capital One Travel portal (such as through AARP, AAA, or corporate rates), or if you’re using modes of transportation that are coded as travel but aren’t sold through the Capital One Travel portal, there’s no point in limiting yourself to just a Venture X. Consider adding a Chase Sapphire Reserve or American Express Gold/Platinum to your wallet.