If you're researching the best travel rewards credit cards, you've definitely heard of the Chase Sapphire Reserve (rates and fees), 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.
Here's what to know if you're trying to decide between the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve®.
$550
N/A
20.24% - 28.74% Variable
Earn 60,000 bonus points
Good to Excellent
Pros
Cons
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.
Chase Sapphire Reserve- Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- $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 Travel℠ 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 Travel℠. 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 $120 application fee credit every four years for Global Entry, NEXUS, or TSA PreCheck®
- Count on Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance, Auto Rental Coverage, Lost Luggage Insurance and more.
- Member FDIC
Annual fees and value
Both cards come with significant value to offset hefty annual fees.
Annual fee
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.
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 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 TravelSM Portal or via Pay Yourself Back.
Welcome bonus offer
Here's the welcome bonus that you'll get with both cards:
- Chase Sapphire Reserve — 60,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 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
Points earning on travel and dining
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 TravelSM Portal purchases) and dining, along with 5x points on Lyft rides until September 2027, 5x points on flights purchased through Chase TravelSM, and 10x points on hotels and car rentals booked through Chase TravelSM. 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 and vacation rentals booked the same way. Everything else earns 2 miles per dollar.
Points earning on other purchases
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.
Travel redemption through Chase Travel and Capital One Travel
You can also book travel through Chase TravelSM and Capital One Travel. You'll earn elevated points on each dollar spent through the issuer's booking site.
Transfer partners
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
Chase Sapphire Reserve
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.
Capital One Venture X
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.
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
Airport lounge access
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 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 two free guests (subject to capacity) into Priority Pass lounges. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® has a maximum limit of two free guests.
In addition, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card allows the cardholder and two guests access to Capital One airport lounges.
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):
| Benefit | Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card | Chase Sapphire Reserve® |
| Primary car rental insurance | Up to $75,000 on eligible rentals | Up to $75,000 on eligible rentals |
| Trip cancellation/interruption | Up to $2,000 per person (cardholder and immediate family) | Up to $10,000 per covered trip (cardholder and immediate family) |
| Travel accident insurance | Up to $1,000,000 | Up to $1,000,000 |
| 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 | Up to $3,000 per covered trip (cardholder and immediate family) | Up to $3,000 per person per trip (cardholder and immediate family) |
| Purchase protection | Up to $10,000 in reimbursement per claim, and up to $50,000 per account, within 90 days of purchase | Up to $10,000 in reimbursement per claim, and up to $50,000 per account, within 120 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 | 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 | Up to $500 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) | N/A |
| 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 | Up to $100,000 |
| Emergency medical and dental insurance | N/A | Up to $2,500 ($50 deductible) |
| Roadside assistance | N/A | Up to $50 per event, up to four events per year |
| Travel and emergency assistance services | Yes (all costs are cardholder responsibility) | Yes (all costs are cardholder responsibility) |
Annual $300 credit
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.
Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit
Both cards also offer a statement credit toward the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® 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
Anniversary bonuses
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.
Authorized users
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.
Rental car elite status
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.
Additional statement credits
Chase also added a $5 monthly DoorDash in-app credit to the card which could help defray the annual fee if you order from DoorDash frequently.
Making the decision
If you're still conflicted about your card choice after all this, consider these two points for making the final decision.
Preferences for travel benefits
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 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.
Considerations based on spending and travel habits
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.
The rise of premium credit cards
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.
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.
Chase Sapphire Reserve vs. Capital One Venture X frequently asked questions
How do the annual fees compare between Capital One Venture X and Chase Sapphire Reserve?
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card has a $395 annual fee. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® has a $550 annual fee.
Which card offers better rewards on travel and dining?
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 TravelSM and Capital One Travel.
What are the key travel benefits of each card?
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.
Can points be transferred to airline and hotel partners?
Yes, both Capital One and Chase have more than a dozen airline and hotel partners that can accept reward transfers.
Which card is better for someone who values luxury travel perks?
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers better travel insurance benefits and a more flexible travel annual credit.
Editorial Note: Any opinions, analyses, reviews, or recommendations expressed in this article are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Read our editorial standards.
Please note: While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they're subject to change at any time and may have changed, or may no longer be available.
**Enrollment required.
***Terms, conditions, and exclusions apply. Refer to your Guide to Benefits for more details. Travel Accident Insurance is not guaranteed, it depends on the level of benefits you get at application.
For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the benefits may be provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply.
Upon enrollment, accessible through the Capital One website or mobile app, eligible cardholders will remain at that status level through the duration of the offer. Please note, enrolling through the normal Hertz Gold Plus Rewards enrollment process (e.g. at Hertz.com) will not automatically detect a cardholder as being eligible for the program and cardholders will not be automatically upgraded to the applicable status tier. Additional terms apply
