Capital One Enterprise Rewards Credit score Card assessment: Nice newbie card with a 75,000-mile bonus

Editor’s note: This post has been updated with current information.

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card continues to innovate, attracting new customers and rewarding existing ones.

The card effortlessly blends fixed-value redemptions along with over 15 airline and hotel transfer partners. Its modest annual fee and solid return on everyday spending make this card a keeper once you’re approved for it. Card rating*: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

*Card rating is based on the opinion of TPG’s editors and is not influenced by the card issuer.

The world of award travel is incredibly complex, with airline miles, hotel points and award charts to keep track of, let alone credit card programs that allow you to transfer your rewards to various partners.

But it shouldn’t be challenging to earn and use credit card rewards. The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is an excellent antidote to the complexity of travel rewards, offering both simple earning and redemption options for beginners and high-value transfer options for the more experienced points and miles collector.

And with a welcome offer of 75,000 bonus miles after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening, now is a great time to apply.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Capital One Venture card.

Application link: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card with 75,000 bonus miles

While you won’t get airline-specific perks such as free checked bags or priority boarding with this card, you get a pair of complimentary passes to Capital One’s airport lounge each year.

What’s more, instead of depending on spotty award availability with a particular airline or hotel loyalty program, you can redeem the miles you earn with this card at a rate of 1 cent apiece for travel purchases, either as statement credits or by booking via Capital One Travel. That means using your miles is as easy as making a reservation.

That said, you can still take advantage of transfer partners in all three major airline alliances (Star Alliance, Oneworld and SkyTeam) at other times if that suits you better. The flexibility to choose between tickets paid for at a fixed value with Venture miles and award tickets or nights booked by transferring your miles to the lineup of airline and hotel programs that partner with Capital One makes it even easier for you to stay on top of the best deals.

The Capital One Venture card comes with a solid sign-up bonus of 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 on the card within the first three months of account opening. This sign-up bonus isn’t the highest we’ve ever seen from Capital One, but it’s a solid offer for the relatively low spending requirement.

Based on TPG valuations, Capital One miles are worth 1.85 cents each when they’re transferred to the issuer’s loyalty program partners, which include Air Canada Aeroplan and Air France-KLM Flying Blue. In other words, this 75,000-mile bonus can be worth $1,388 (valuation not provided by the issuer).

Related: Redeeming Capital One miles for maximum value

Main benefits and perks of the Capital One Venture

The standout benefits of the Capital One Venture are:

These are solid perks for a card with a reasonable annual fee — though if you’re looking for enhanced benefits, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card could be a better fit for your wallet (more on that later).

* Benefits are only available to accounts approved for the Visa Signature card. Terms apply.

You’ll earn 2 miles for every dollar you spend with the card on every transaction, which means you’re getting 2 to 3.7 cents’ (factoring in TPG’s latest valuations) worth of travel rewards for every dollar in purchases, with no annual cap.

However, there are also a pair of bonus categories that can get you even more miles:

• Earn 5 miles per dollar spent on hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One Travel.
• Earn 5 miles per dollar spent on cars booked through Turo (through May 16).

It’s easy to zero in on high-powered and popular bonus categories for dining or travel, but you might spend a lot of money outside of defined bonus categories. Adding a card like the Venture Rewards card to your wallet can help you mop up all those extra miles and ensure you aren’t leaving anything on the table when paying for non-bonus purchases.

1. Pay off travel purchases made in the past 90 days on your statement without having to worry about the complexities of many loyalty programs.
2. Transfer miles to airline and hotel partners.

This second option is the way to get the most value from your miles. In 2021, Capital One expanded its 1:1 transfer ratio to almost all of its travel loyalty program partners, putting the program much closer to other transferable rewards currencies.

Here are some examples of how you can maximize your Capital One miles:

• Booking Lufthansa business class with no fuel surcharges through Avianca LifeMiles.
• Booking American Airlines business-class flights to Europe through Etihad Guest.
• Booking United Airlines business-class transcontinental flights through Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles.
• Booking U.S. domestic flights on various airlines through partners, like redeeming Singapore KrisFlyer or Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles miles for United tickets, or Flying Blue miles for Delta tickets.

If you’re confused about how to transfer Capital One miles to airline and hotel partners, here’s a guide on how to do it.

Which cards compete with the Capital One Venture?

No card perfectly replicates the Capital One Venture, but here are a few cards that offer similar benefits:

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card:

• 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening.
• 5 points per dollar on travel booked through the Chase travel portal.
• 3 points per dollar on dining, select streaming services and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs).
• 2 points per dollar on all travel not booked through the Chase travel portal.
• 1 point per dollar on other purchases.
• The ability to transfer points to valuable airline and hotel partners.
• Book travel through the Chase travel portal at a value of 1.25 cents per point.
• $95 annual fee.

Related: Starter card showdown: Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. Capital One Venture

Amex EveryDay® Preferred Card from American Express:

• 15,000 Amex Membership Rewards points after you spend $2,000 on qualifying purchases within the first six months from account opening.
• 3 points per dollar on the first $6,000 you spend each year at U.S. supermarkets (then 1 point per dollar).
• 2 points per dollar at U.S. gas stations.
• 1 point per dollar on all other qualifying purchases.
• 50% points bonus when you make at least 30 purchases in a billing statement.
• Ability to transfer Amex Membership Rewards to valuable airline and hotel partners.
• $95 annual fee.

The information for the Amex EveryDay Preferred Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

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.
• 10 miles per dollar on hotels and car rentals booked via Capital One Travel.
• 5 miles per dollar on flights booked via Capital One Travel.
• 2 miles per dollar on everything else.
• Up to $300 back in statement credits annually for bookings made through Capital One Travel.
• 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary, starting on your first anniversary (worth $100 toward travel).
• Complimentary access for cardholders, authorized users and up to two guests per visit to Capital One Lounges and Plaza Premium lounges and for all guests traveling with the cardholder to more than 1,300 Priority Pass lounges worldwide.
• Up to four authorized users can be added at no charge, and AUs get Capital One Lounge access with up to two guests.
• Up to $100 in statement credits for either TSA PreCheck or Global Entry.
• $395 annual fee.

The Capital One Venture Rewards Card earns miles at a consistent rate and can facilitate simple, fixed-rate redemptions along with more complicated awards by transferring your miles to hotel and airline partners. This card packs a lot in for a $95 annual fee, and it even makes the cut as one of our best travel credit cards.

Official application link: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card with 75,000 bonus miles

Additional reporting by Ryan Wilcox, Stella Shon, Joseph Hostetler and Eric Rosen.