Was thinking about another Travel card and got an offer for the 100,000 bonus miles instead of the widespread 75,000 bonus miles offer out right now. It got me thinking:

Have a Southwest card for when we fly out of Austin-Bergstrom.
Have Chase Business Ink cards and Sapphire Preferred Card.
Have American Airlines card for flying out of DFW.

Stationed in College Station and was hoping to find another travel card that makes flying out of IAH better.

Any thoughts on this VentureX Card?

I have the Venture card (and have had it for years). I have not upgraded to X because there aren't enough benefits to justify the cost.

The biggest benefit of the Venture and Venture X cards is you can redeem points to "erase" travel purchases to the tune of 2% cash back. Basically, you use your points to get statement credits for travel purchases.

Points earn for the Venture is 2 points for every $ spent, and I believe X is the same. You can earn 5 miles per dollar on flights booked through Capital One Travel and 10 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. But the travel portal sucks, and I can usually find better deals elsewhere.

IAH is my main airport, and I don't get any benefits that make that experience better. The main airline is United, which doesn't have a partnership with Capital One. And the only Capital One lounge in Texas is at DFW, which we almost never fly through (although the lounge is really nice).

If you plan to fly mostly United out of IAH, I would go for the United card over Venture or Venture X. Or maybe Am Ex, if you want access to the Am Ex lounges (also nice).

The Venture cards are best suited to travelers who spend a significant amount on travel but have no loyalty towards any one airline, hotel chain, or other travel rewards program.

With the $300 yearly travel credit and 10,000 annual points bonus it essentially pays for itself, so I'd recommend because of that regardless, but not sure what about it will make travelling out of IAH better. It would benefit you more when flying through DFW since you can take advantage of the Capital One Lounge there.

nkc1981 said:

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With the $300 yearly travel credit and 10,000 annual points bonus it essentially pays for itself, so I'd recommend because of that regardless, but not sure what about it will make travelling out of IAH better. It would benefit you more when flying through DFW since you can take advantage of the Capital One Lounge there.

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Thanks to you and Transplant for the feedback. I have Admirals Club lounge access through my AA status and Credit Card so the lounge at DFW is not much of a consideration.

Since stationed in CS, DFW is 3 hour drive away (sure I can fly out of Easterwood but connecting flights are harder with kids), so I am looking to make IAH a possible hub for us when we fly instead of always DFW.

We have Venture X, United Club, and Southwest cards and use depending on where/what we are doing. We are in CS but usually fly IAH or Austin. Rarely out of CS.

befitter said:

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We have Venture X, United Club, and Southwest cards and use depending on where/what we are doing. We are in CS but usually fly IAH or Austin. Rarely out of CS.

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When you fly out of IAH, what is your main airline of choice from there?

Yes, I have been looking at the United MileagePlus cards. Their Club card is akin to the AA World Elite card that I have - not sure if I am looking for another one with that fee structure, but maybe their MileagePlus card.

United. We fly United more than any other airline.

I've been a long time fan of the Capital One Venture X Card and flying out of DFW is great with lounge access....except....

The lounge is always busy and has had a wait on random tuesday afternoons, thursday mornings, etc. Its becoming less and less desirable. So they're going to fix that in early 2026 with major limitations on the card that will require families to pay to either have an authorized user gain access at $125/year, or pay for each family member (including kids) who go in with you. At that point, the crowds will decrease because I think many families will question the cost to get in at that point.

Without the lounge, the benefits are the travel credit and the 10k points boost each year. The rest of the benefits are generally covered by your other cards.

If lounge access at IAH is a priority and you plan to fly United, isn't the $695 Club Card the only real option?

If going to make a move - A United card seems like the best option. What tier of United card is another question.

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Here's a Cap1 referral if you need it.

https://capital.one/3Npklho

Greener Acres said:

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I've been a long time fan of the Capital One Venture X Card and flying out of DFW is great with lounge access....except....

The lounge is always busy and has had a wait on random tuesday afternoons, thursday mornings, etc. Its becoming less and less desirable. So they're going to fix that in early 2026 with major limitations on the card that will require families to pay to either have an authorized user gain access at $125/year, or pay for each family member (including kids) who go in with you. At that point, the crowds will decrease because I think many families will question the cost to get in at that point.

Without the lounge, the benefits are the travel credit and the 10k points boost each year. The rest of the benefits are generally covered by your other cards.

If lounge access at IAH is a priority and you plan to fly United, isn't the $695 Club Card the only real option?

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The $75,000 spend threshold for authorized user access to the Capital One lounges should hopefully make them a little more accessible. My biggest complaint is that they removed the authorized user Priority Pass benefit altogether. I rarely travel without my wife, so lounge access for one isn't a benefit. I've thought about getting the United club card as well, but we tend to fly SWA domestically and UA internationally. I fly UA enough to have gold status, so we have lounge access on the bulk of our flights anyway.

I would also argue that if you can use the $300 travel credit and 10k points each year then the card is effectively net $0 cost and you get the lounge access perks and 2x everywhere as a benefit. Wife and I use it as a catch all card to get 2% back on categories we can't do any better on.

At the very least get it for the 100k sign up bonus. Don't let other users fool you into thinking the points are only good as a 'travel eraser'. You can still transfer points to airline partners. For example can transfer to Air Canada and then use that to book United flights through their partnership. We have used the $300 travel credit to great success the last two years on unique hotels on trips to Europe that we otherwise couldn't book through a larger chain. For example a small family owned hotel in a town in Tuscany for 3 nights for free.

If you're focusing on United at IAH, just as a reminder you can use your stash of Chase points to transfer to United and book through them. Get a united card for the sign up bonus and you can top off with Chase if needed.

Some clever hacks regarding the transfer partner stuff. I have just started using the Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer capability to partners. So far I have only used it for Hyatt points, but will keep transferring to United in mind for the future. Yes, only reason I am ticking about the Venture X card is because the special 100k bonus miles. For the AA lounges, as long as they are booked under my same reservation my wife and kids get in with me. With the Venture X lounge access, is my wife and kids permitted to enter with me as well. Thanks for the feedback!

Just to be clear, I wasn't trying to "fool" anyone into thinking the only way to use Venture points is to erase travel purchases.

I highlighted that as the main benefit, particularly for people who have no loyalty to any one travel rewards program.

You can transfer points to other travel providers, but the selection of loyalty programs is limited. If you just want 2% cash back on travel purchases and not have to strategize moving points around (or trying to use the awful Cap One travel portal), then this would be a good card.

If you want perks on an airline like United, then I would not recommend this card. It's much easier to use Chase points to book airline tickets, if you want to use points that way (I also have a Chase card).

FWIW, both the Venture and the Venture X are 2 points for every dollar spent. The only way to get 10X or 5x points is to book travel through the Capital One travel portal (which sucks).

I've also had very bad luck booking tickets through "partner" airlines, so I just book directly with airlines now. It's not worth the hassle to be passed back and forth when you have a problem.

I will say, my view of X is skewed because I still only pay $59/year for my card (I've had it so long, my rate was grandfathered in). Since I don't like using the Cap One travel portal, the $300 credit isn't very useful to me. And I've flown through DFW exactly one time since having this card, so I can't take advantage of the lounge.

Sorry, poor choice of words on my part. I didn't mean to imply you were trying to fool them, only that if someone isn't aware of transfer partners then they might very well think the value caps out at that 1 cent per point.

I don't disagree on airline specific perks not being a highlight of the card, nor that the transfer partners aren't the best compared to Chase or Amex (although transferring to Wyndham was really valuable for booking Vacasa rentals until they announced this week that it was going away...)

I'd say if they can, to get the X for the sign up bonus, and then in a year see if they can downgrade to the lower fee card if they don't end up using the travel portal to the extent that it can be used.

My experience with booking flights with partners has been hit and miss. For the most part it has been pretty good luck (for example when Amex was doing backdoor transfers to Alaska through Hawaiian, I transferred a lot of points. I'm based in DFW so short-haul flights on American for 4,500 points flat has been great for me).

I will say the Cap1 lounge at DFW is spectacular. My wife and I have made a habit of kicking off vacations by getting to the airport an hour early and enjoying the lounge. However this summer when we attempted it the lounge was so crowded that the wait time was 3 hours (tell me how that makes sense when they won't let you in until 3 hours before your flight). I'm not looking forward to authorized users losing access to the lounge, but if it cuts down on the families of 8 coming in and staking out an entire corner then I'm all for it.