Capital One: Why would any idiot 'upgrade' their 1.5% rewards credit card for a 1.25 miles travel credit card?

[JEDI]

I have the $0 annual fee 1.5% Quicksilver rewards credit card.
I get 1.5% cash back on everything i buy.

When i logged into my acct, i got an offer to UPGRADE for free to a Venture One:
Earn 1.25 miles for every dollar spent, $0 Annual Fee

If this is their idea of Upgrade, then i hate to read the emails that offer to SAVE me money...

 

[MtnMan]

I have the $0 annual fee 1.5% Quicksilver rewards credit card.
I get 1.5% cash back on everything i buy.

When i logged into my acct, i got an offer to UPGRADE for free to a Venture One:
Earn 1.25 miles for every dollar spent, $0 Annual Fee

If this is their idea of Upgrade, then i hate to read the emails that offer to SAVE me money...

You realize that Capital One is a for-PROFIT company... right... well that should be self-evident based on their outrageous interest rates.

They are not your friend, they just want your money.

 

[snoopy7548]

Because they're an idiot.

 

[Exterous]

Given that you can transfer those miles to airline partners its not that hard to get well beyond a 1.5% cash back rate with an award flight redemption and that is their no fee travel card. Granted I like the Venture X a lot better but thats a different market segment given its $395 annual fee (Which is mostly offset by a $300 annual travel credit).

So not necessarily right for you but not out of left field either

 

[purbeast0]

I've been getting free flights for like 10+ years and I've explained to about a dozen people how I do it just by shuffling credit cards and getting their bonuses.

Literally 1 person has done it and just one time. It was my brother to get the companion pass like 2 years ago right around covid and since then he hasn't done it anymore.

IMO, the idiots are the ones who don't like free money and free flights. People often ask me how we can afford to travel so often but when you are saving thousands of dollars each vacation on flights alone, it really helps.

 

[JEDI]

Given that you can transfer those miles to airline partners its not that hard to get well beyond a 1.5% cash back rate with an award flight redemption and that is their no fee travel card. Granted I like the Venture X a lot better but thats a different market segment given its $395 annual fee (Which is mostly offset by a $300 annual travel credit).

So not necessarily right for you but not out of left field either

how much $ can that 1.25miles turn into?

I've been getting free flights for like 10+ years and I've explained to about a dozen people how I do it just by shuffling credit cards and getting their bonuses.

Literally 1 person has done it and just one time. It was my brother to get the companion pass like 2 years ago right around covid and since then he hasn't done it anymore.

IMO, the idiots are the ones who don't like free money and free flights. People often ask me how we can afford to travel so often but when you are saving thousands of dollars each vacation on flights alone, it really helps.

Is the Venture One the best free airline miles card?


i dont fly often, maybe 5 times in the past 10 yrs.
i do have like 20k points in my free Amex everyday blue card just sitting there.
Can it be used for partial payment for a flight if i xfer the points to that airline's rewards program?

 

[purbeast0]

how much $ can that 1.25miles turn into?


Is the Venture One the best free airline miles card?


i dont fly often, maybe 5 times in the past 10 yrs.
i do have like 20k points in my free Amex everyday blue card just sitting there.
Can it be used for partial payment for a flight if i xfer the points to that airline's rewards program?

Best airline cards are Southwest cards, Sapphire Reserve, or United. At least for me they are since I have a SW and United hub within a 40 min drive. With the Sapphire Reserve you get Chase Ultimate Reward points but can convert them straight up to United or SW points if need be, or they are worth $1.20 per point when used for travel on their portal. But United has a lot of deals that are better directly on their site than on the CUR site.

I rarely transfer em to SW since I have a lot of SW points and they are more valuable as United points though.

Then being able to alternate companion passes every other year with my wife is making it super valuable especially now that our second son is about to be 2 in August so we will have to book 4 tickets instead of 3. If we have 2 people with companion passes, we only have to "purchase" 2 tickets (with points too) and then our kids fly for free as companions.

 

[Exterous]

how much $ can that 1.25miles turn into?

Is the Venture One the best free airline miles card?

i dont fly often, maybe 5 times in the past 10 yrs.
i do have like 20k points in my free Amex everyday blue card just sitting there.
Can it be used for partial payment for a flight if i xfer the points to that airline's rewards program?

Depends on how you value them and what your goals are. There is the absolute cost which can be huge. I took a trip for 140,000 miles that United wanted $12k for paid tickets. Now would I have paid $12k to go to Australia in business class? No. Would I have considered paying $3-4k? Yes. Would other people pay $3-4k for business when they can get economy for $1100-$1500? No. So the value of those points is different for different people in that one scenario.

To be honest unless you're supplementing your points earning with sign up bonuses or have a huge annual spend you're not likely to get much more than the occasional domestic economy ticket out it it.

Best airline cards are Southwest cards, Sapphire Reserve, or United. At least for me they are since I have a SW and United hub within a 40 min drive. With the Sapphire Reserve you get Chase Ultimate Reward points but can convert them straight up to United or SW points if need be, or they are worth $1.20 per point when used for travel on their portal. But United has a lot of deals that are better directly on their site than on the CUR site.

I rarely transfer em to SW since I have a lot of SW points and they are more valuable as United points though.

Then being able to alternate companion passes every other year with my wife is making it super valuable especially now that our second son is about to be 2 in August so we will have to book 4 tickets instead of 3. If we have 2 people with companion passes, we only have to "purchase" 2 tickets (with points too) and then our kids fly for free as companions.

The Venture X card is a very strong entry into the premium card market from Capital One. It's got some quirks but with some thought it can be very valuable. The signup bonus at launch was 100k points plus a $200 AirBnB\VRBO credit in addition to their $300 travel credit, 10k bonus miles on anniversary and 2 miles\$ everywhere. It gives a normal Priority Pass membership (aka not the hobbled Amex Plat version) with 2 free guests. Best of all, for groups or families, Authorized Users are free and they can also get 2 free guests. I already signed my wife up so we can guest our two friends in for our Alaska trip free of charge.

So those quirks - they don't have any 'traditional' US based carriers like AA or United. But they do have their partners like Star Alliance members Aeroplan, Turkish, LifeMiles. Aeroplan has a lot of partners outside of Star Alliance so it tends to give more award options than United can and award prices are a bit of a wash - sometimes they are a little more expensive sometimes less. You lose the excursionist perk option but gain the ability to add a stop-over for 5,000 points (except for the US and Canada). Soptovers can be on one ways so you lose the upside of the Excursionist Perk, which requires a round trip, but gain a ton of flexibility (Chase is also an Aeroplan transfer partner). Turkish airlines has 7.5k mile economy award redemptions on United domestic US flights including to Hawaii and Alaska. Business is 12.5k if you can find them. LifeMiles also has the 7.5k domestic US economy awards (although I think they might price Hawaii differently?) LifeMiles charges no fuel surcharges and has some really unique quirks like mixed cabin First Class awards becoming surprisingly cheap. They have Etihad for One World (Iberia, Quantas and BA Avios are there too) which charges 50k miles to Europe from the US compared to 57500 for AA

 

[purbeast0]

Depends on how you value them and what your goals are. There is the absolute cost which can be huge. I took a trip for 140,000 miles that United wanted $12k for paid tickets. Now would I have paid $12k to go to Australia in business class? No. Would I have considered paying $3-4k? Yes. Would other people pay $3-4k for business when they can get economy for $1100-$1500? No. So the value of those points is different for different people in that one scenario.

To be honest unless you're supplementing your points earning with sign up bonuses or have a huge annual spend you're not likely to get much more than the occasional domestic economy ticket out it it.



The Venture X card is a very strong entry into the premium card market from Capital One. It's got some quirks but with some thought it can be very valuable. The signup bonus at launch was 100k points plus a $200 AirBnB\VRBO credit in addition to their $300 travel credit, 10k bonus miles on anniversary and 2 miles\$ everywhere. It gives a normal Priority Pass membership (aka not the hobbled Amex Plat version) with 2 free guests. Best of all, for groups or families, Authorized Users are free and they can also get 2 free guests. I already signed my wife up so we can guest our two friends in for our Alaska trip free of charge.

So those quirks - they don't have any 'traditional' US based carriers like AA or United. But they do have their partners like Star Alliance members Aeroplan, Turkish, LifeMiles. Aeroplan has a lot of partners outside of Star Alliance so it tends to give more award options than United can and award prices are a bit of a wash - sometimes they are a little more expensive sometimes less. You lose the excursionist perk option but gain the ability to add a stop-over for 5,000 points (except for the US and Canada). Soptovers can be on one ways so you lose the upside of the Excursionist Perk, which requires a round trip, but gain a ton of flexibility (Chase is also an Aeroplan transfer partner). Turkish airlines has 7.5k mile economy award redemptions on United domestic US flights including to Hawaii and Alaska. Business is 12.5k if you can find them. LifeMiles also has the 7.5k domestic US economy awards (although I think they might price Hawaii differently?) LifeMiles charges no fuel surcharges and has some really unique quirks like mixed cabin First Class awards becoming surprisingly cheap. They have Etihad for One World (Iberia, Quantas and BA Avios are there too) which charges 50k miles to Europe from the US compared to 57500 for AA

That is good to know. We are going to Italy most likely next summer for my wife's 40th so I may grab the Venture X card after I get another SW card to get the companion pass. That way I'll just have a bunch of points by next year. I am only on 160k CUR points right now but that balance is about to go down like 100k+ soon.