Our Honest Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card® Review: How Our Family Actually Uses the Card
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card® was my first premium travel card—and today, our household has two of them.
We've used the annual travel credits to help cover family flights, use the card for everyday spending, enjoyed our first real airport lounge experiences, and even gained access to a presale that allowed me to buy tickets to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour for my daughter and me.
But our experience with the card hasn't been perfect.
One of the benefits we originally loved has become much less valuable to our family, while other benefits are the reason we still plan to keep both cards.
So rather than give you another list of card benefits, we're sharing how our family actually uses the Venture X, what we love about it, and what we don't.
Why I chose the Venture X as my first premium travel card
Before the Venture X, I had never had what I considered a premium travel card.
The $395 annual fee initially gave me pause. But I knew we traveled frequently enough that we could naturally use the card's $300 annual Capital One Travel credit.
That was important to me.
We don't believe in spending extra money just to use a credit card benefit. If a card gives us a credit toward something we weren't going to buy anyway, we don't automatically consider that savings.
Travel, however, is already a major priority in our family budget.
I knew we would book flights and hotels throughout the year, so I felt confident that the $300 annual Capital One Travel credit was something we could use without changing our normal travel habits.
My husband now has his own Venture X as well. Because we each have our own card account, we each have access to our own card benefits, including the annual Capital One Travel credit.
For our family, that has been genuinely useful.
How we used our travel credits for our family trip to Roatán
One of my favorite examples is our family trip to Roatán.
We needed return flights home for our family of four. Because my husband and I each had our own Venture X account, we had two separate $300 annual Capital One Travel credits available.
We used both credits toward our return flights and combined them with United TravelBank credits we already had.
Together, those credits covered most of the cost of our family's return flights.
This is a good example of what our real travel rewards strategy often looks like.
It's not always one huge miles redemption that makes an entire trip free.
Sometimes it's using miles for one part of a trip, a travel credit for another, airline credits somewhere else, and cash when it makes the most sense.
For us, learning how to combine different tools has been just as important as learning how to earn miles.
Why we use the Venture X for everyday spending
When we aren't working toward a welcome offer on another card, the Venture X is one of our go-to cards for everyday spending.
The reason is pretty simple: we like simple.
The card earns 2 miles per dollar on everyday purchases. We don't have to think about rotating categories or remember which card earns more for every single purchase.
Could we optimize every dollar by carrying several cards and choosing a different one for every possible spending category?
Probably.
Do we always want to do that?
No. 😂
We have jobs, kids, school schedules, activities and trips to plan.
There are times when we want to be very strategic about which card we're using. There are also times when we want to use one card and know we're earning 2 miles per dollar on everyday purchases.
For us, the Venture X fills that role well.
Our first real airport lounge experience
When I first opened the Venture X, lounge access was one of the benefits we were most excited to try.
Our visits to the Capital One Lounge at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport were our family's first real introduction to airport lounges.
And we loved it.
Having somewhere comfortable to sit, relax and eat together changed the way we thought about time at the airport. The food quickly became one of our favorite parts of the experience.
At that time, we could bring our children into the lounge without an additional charge under the guest-access rules then in effect.
For a family of four, that made the benefit genuinely valuable to us.
But that has changed.
The biggest downside for our family: lounge access
This is the part of our Venture X experience where our opinion has changed the most.
Because we travel primarily as a family, lounge access isn't nearly as valuable to us if bringing our children comes with an additional cost.
We don't travel without our kids often enough for individual lounge access to be a major reason for us to keep the card.
That's disappointing because we genuinely loved our experiences at the Capital One Lounge at DFW. When I first opened the card, lounge access felt like one of the most exciting benefits for our family.
Today, we no longer consider lounge access one of the main reasons we keep our Venture X cards.
That doesn't mean the benefit has no value. Someone who frequently travels alone or as a couple may look at it very differently.
But for our family, its value has changed.
And that's something we think is important to remember when evaluating any travel card:
A benefit can sound amazing on paper and still not be particularly valuable for the way you actually travel.
The completely unexpected experience: taking my daughter to the Eras Tour
Not every memorable experience I've had as a Capital One cardholder involved a flight, hotel or airport lounge.
In 2024, I was able to access a Capital One cardholder presale for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour.
And somehow, I got tickets.
I truly never thought it would happen.
My daughter is a huge Swiftie, and I never in a million years thought I would actually get the chance to take her to the Eras Tour. But I was able to purchase tickets to the New Orleans show through the cardholder presale.
To be clear, the tickets were not free. We paid for them ourselves. My eligible Capital One card gave me access to the presale where I was able to purchase the tickets.
That was a past presale experience, and similar future ticket access isn't guaranteed.
But as a mom, it ended up being one of the most memorable experiences I've had access to as a cardholder.
And it had absolutely nothing to do with earning miles.
Sometimes the value we remember most isn't the value that's easiest to calculate.
Why we still plan to keep both of our Venture X cards
Even though the lounge benefit is no longer as valuable to our family, we still plan to keep both of our Venture X cards.
At the time of publishing this article, the Venture X card has a $395 annual fee, but we know we can naturally use the $300 annual Capital One Travel credit because travel is already part of our normal budget.
We also value the 10,000 anniversary miles we receive each year beginning with our first account anniversary.
For us, the annual travel credit offsets most of the annual fee, and the anniversary miles add additional value. We also continue to use the card for everyday purchases when we aren't working toward another welcome offer.
When we look at how our family uses the card, we continue to find enough value to justify keeping it.
That doesn't mean everyone will come to the same conclusion.
If we weren't traveling regularly or couldn't naturally use the Capital One Travel credit, our answer might be very different.
Who we think the Venture X makes sense for
Based on our own experience, we think the Venture X is worth considering for travelers who travel enough to naturally use the annual travel credit, value earning 2 miles per dollar on everyday purchases, and will actually use enough of the card's travel benefits to justify the annual fee.
We don't think someone should choose a premium travel card simply because it has a long list of benefits.
The important question is:
Will you actually use them?
If you find yourself spending extra money just to use a credit or benefit before it expires, that benefit may not be worth its full face value to you.
For us, the Venture X fits because travel is already part of our lifestyle and budget. The benefits we value most are benefits we use naturally.
Our honest bottom line
The Venture X was my first premium travel card, and today we have two of them in our household.
We've used the annual travel credits toward family flights. We use the card for everyday spending. It introduced our family to airport lounges. And, in one completely unexpected turn of events, having an eligible Capital One card gave me access to a presale where I was able to buy tickets and take my daughter to the Eras Tour.
We've also watched one of our favorite benefits become much less valuable to us as a family.
That's why our opinion isn't simply:
Everyone needs this card.
Our opinion is that the Venture X continues to make sense for us because we naturally use the travel credits, value the anniversary miles, and like earning 2 miles per dollar on everyday purchases without having to think about spending categories.
For a family that rarely travels or wouldn't naturally use the card's benefits, the math could look very different.
The best travel card isn't necessarily the one with the longest list of benefits.
It's the one whose benefits fit the way you actually travel.
Editorial Disclosure
Opinions expressed here are the authors' alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within this post.
