Capital One Venture Rewards Card: $1,000 Bonus Offer

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Overview
Kiplinger’s opinion
How to spend your miles
Where to go with miles
Downsides
Pros and cons
Miles transfer partners
Fees and terms
How green is the card?
Dos and don'ts

Disclaimer

This article evaluates the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card bonus offer. We may get compensation if you visit partner links on our site. We may not cover every available offer. Our relationship with advertisers may impact how an offer is presented on our website. However, our selection of products is made independently of our relationship with advertisers.
Rates updated as of January 20, 2026.

Overview: Capital One Venture Rewards Card

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card has launched a fabulous limited-time deal: Enjoy $250 to use on Capital One Travel in your first cardholder year, plus earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening - that’s equal to $1,000 in travel.

You can redeem bonus miles through the Capital One travel portal, or you can swap them on a 1:1 basis for several airline frequent flyer programs.

This intro bonus equals, or bests, most of its competition among rival rewards credit cards. Once you’ve hit the trigger spend, you then earn two or five miles per dollar spent so you keep on earning. Moreover, it’s a good card to take abroad as there are no foreign transaction fees.

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Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
This card earns 5X miles on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.

And you can transfer miles to 15+ travel loyalty programs. For a limited time, enjoy $250 to use on Capital One Travel in your first cardholder year, plus earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening - that’s equal to $1,000 in travel.

The card offers generous travel perks to sweeten the deal. You can skip the dreaded rental car counter with Hertz Five Star^® status, get a $50 travel credit to spend on hotels each year, and enjoy complimentary car rental damage waiver and travel accident insurance.

With no foreign transaction fee, this is a great card for international travel.

Kiplinger’s Opinion: Capital One Ventures Reward card

The Capital One Venture Reward card is an ideal card for consumers who want simplicity and flexibility, not the bother of following complicated earning and redemption rules.

In addition to the generous bonus offer, cardholders can accrue miles quickly, especially if they use the card to book hotels or car rentals through the Capital One travel portal.

There is no limit to the reward miles you can earn, and they never expire as long as you have an open Capital One rewards tier credit card.

How will the merger with Discover impact cardholders?

Recently, it was announced that Capital One Financial Corporation would acquire Discover Financial Services, resulting in two giant credit card companies becoming one.

What does this mean for cardholders moving forward? It will remain business as usual in the interim. The $35.3 billion dollar deal is expected to finalize on May 18.

Once the merger goes through, Capital One cardholders shouldn't expect any changes to customer service, account access or any changes to their card terms, unless notified by Capital One.

How does Capital One compare to other card programs?

The Capital One Venture Rewards program outperforms many of its competitors for ease of use and the value of its miles. In fact, a recent study comparing credit card rewards programs by WalletHub named the Capital One program best overall for the seventh year in a row.

Capital One’s limited-time bonus is to enjoy $250 to use on Capital One Travel in your first cardholder year, plus earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening - that’s equal to $1,000 in travel.

Capital One revamped its credit card travel portal in 2021 by partnering with the tech start-up Hopper. This move added helpful features to the portal, like predictive pricing and price comparisons using artificial intelligence.

If you book a flight on Capital One’s portal and the price drops within ten days, you can request a $50 credit to your account. If you find a better price for your trip within 24 hours of booking, Capital One will match the price. You can also set a price alert, allowing you to jump on cheaper fares as soon as possible.

One of the travel card's biggest perks is flexibility. You can transfer your Capital One miles to any of its fourteen airline partners and two hotel chains at a one-to-one rate. That way, you can shop around for the best travel deals, without worrying about remaining loyal to a single airline or hotel chain.

How to spend your bonus miles

You may use the 75,000 bonus miles in several ways.

Book travel through Capital One’s portal ($750 value): redeem miles on the company’s travel portal on a 1:1 basis. This is the simplest way to get the full value of your bonus miles.
Transfer miles to a partner frequent flyer or hotel program ($750+ variable value): Capital One partners with 16 airlines and three hotel chains at a 1:1 ratio, so you can easily transfer your bonus miles to your preferred partner program. Since miles and points on these partner programs may vary in value depending on how and when you use them, the actual value of your transferred Capital One miles may be more or less than 1:1. Before you transfer miles, make sure the travel you want to book is available.

Two other transfer partners redeem Capital One miles at less than a 1:1 ratio. The French hotel chain, Accor, only offers a 2:1 ratio, meaning you only get fifty cents to the dollar on miles transferred.
Redeem miles for expenses on a past trip ($750 value): Book your travel through your preferred travel website or travel agent using your Capital One Rewards card. Then, within 90 days from the date your travel purchase posts to your account, sign in to your account at capitalone.com and select Cover Your Travel Purchases. It may take a couple of months for the credit to post to your account.
Shop at Amazon.com ($600 value): You may redeem purchases at Amazon for 0.8 cents for each mile. Although this is slightly better than opting for cash back, it is still well below the redemption rate of many cash back credit cards.
Cash Back ($375 value): You should avoid redeeming your bonus for cash back, as it delivers the lowest value of any redemption type. By logging into your Capital One reward account, you will see options for cash back at the rate of one-half penny for each mile. You may redeem any amount for a check in the mail or an account credit.

Where to go with your bonus miles

A scenario for using the bonus miles:
Imagine you are planning to use the 75,000-mile bonus on an upcoming trip. Once you’ve spent at least $4,000 in the first three months of owning the card, you may need to wait several weeks for the bonus miles to post to your account, so don’t plan on redeeming them immediately.

Let’s say you have a frequent flyer account with British Airways, where miles or points are called “Avios.” You may transfer the bonus 75,000 miles to your British Airways account, adding the equivalent of 75,000 Avios. Or you book your flight through the Capital One Rewards portal, with the added benefit of price protection and price alerts. You could also use your 75,000 Avios to book travel on one of British Airways' partners, such as American Airlines.

Could you find cheaper hotels and flights than those offered on the Capital One portal? Quite possibly.

You’d also find more variation in hotels, and be more likely to get off the beaten tourist track if you find a small hotel or B&B that’s not affiliated with a credit card brand.

But still, you just got yourself a vacation for the card’s annual fee of $95, and that’s a good deal anyway you look at it.

Downsides

There are a few limitations to the card you should consider before you apply.

Limited and lower value redemption. You only get 5x miles when booking rental cars, vacation rentals and hotels through the travel portal. Airfare doesn't earn the same elevated rate. Neither does travel booked outside the portal. So this redemption level is difficult to attain. That said, the 1.25x miles earned on all other purchases is slightly higher than most competitor cards.

Limited transfer partners for air travel and hotel. Although there are a good number of transfer partners, there are no big-brand domestic airline or hotel companies, such as United Airlines, Hilton or Marriott. The exception is Wyndham properties. That doesn’t mean you won’t find good deals on air and hotel travel, but if you have already racked up miles or points on one of these better-known brands, you likely won’t be able to transfer Capital One miles to them. That said, some of the transfer partners are valuable to U.S. customers. The Virgin Red program, for example, partners with Delta Airlines, and British Airways partners with American Airlines.

Weak cash back options. If you decide not to travel, your cash back options have a lower redemption value, at only 0.5 cents per mile. So, if you have 10,000 miles to redeem, you will get only $50 in cash back, compared to $100 for travel.

Pros and cons

Pros:

Generous bonus offer
Unlimited miles that do not expire
Flexibility (transfer miles to partner loyalty programs or redeem miles for past travel purchases)
No foreign transaction fee
Many perks designed for travelers, including price match, price alert, and more

Cons:

Annual fee of $95 (unless pre-approved for the $0 annual fee for good or excellent credit)
Most travel partners are based abroad
Low redemption value when redeeming miles for cash
Capital One and Discover are merging, which could change credit card terms for both companies' products.

Capital One Rewards transfer partners

The Capital One Venture rewards program has partnerships with 16 airlines, allowing cardholders to transfer Capital One Venture miles to the partner rewards programs. These partners cover destinations across much of the globe, including off-the-beaten-path destinations like Istanbul, Turkey and Barbados.

Capital One Venture rewards miles are worth one point on most of these carriers when you log in to your Capital One account, transfer Capital One miles to the frequent flyer account of a partner, and book your travel on the partner's website. These Capital One transfer partners are as follows:

When you transfer 1,000 Capital One miles to any of these transfer partners, you’ll receive 1,000 miles or points with the following travel loyalty programs:

Aeromexico Club Premier (based in Mexico)
Air Canada - Aeroplan^®
Cathay Pacific - Asia Miles (based in Hong Kong)
Avianca LifeMiles (based in Colombia)
British Airways Executive Club
Emirates Skywards (based in Dubai)
Etihad Guest (based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)
Finnair Plus (based in Finland)
Flying Blue (for Air France and for KLM, based in the Netherlands)
Qantas Frequent Flyer (Australia)
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
TAP Miles&Go (based in Portugal)
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
Virgin Red (based in the U.K. but partnered with Delta Airlines)
EVA Air - Infinity MileageLands (based in Taiwan).
This program carries a 2:1.5 transfer ratio, so 1,000 Capital One miles are only worth only 750 miles when using this loyalty program.
Jet Blue - You'll earna 5:3 ratio. It means if you transfer 1,000 Capital One miles, you'll receive 600 TrueBlue points.

The Capital One Venture rewards program also partners with three hotel chains. Capital One miles are worth one point at each of these hotels, but are worth half as much if booked with Accor hotels chain.

Choice Privileges^®
Wyndham Rewards
ALL - Accor Live Limitless, with a 2:1 transfer ratio. When you transfer 1,000 Capital One miles to this transfer partner, you’ll receive 500 points with its travel loyalty program.

Overview of fees and terms

Limited-time offer: Enjoy $250 to use on Capital One Travel in your first cardholder year, plus earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening - that’s equal to $1,000 in travel
Interest rate: 19.49% - 28.49% (Variable)
Annual fee: $95
Foreign transaction fee: None.
Rewards: Five miles per dollar spent on hotel stays, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel; three miles per dollar spent on dining; all other spending earns two miles per dollar; limited airport lounge access and other benefits apply.
Redemption: Redeem miles at a rate of a penny each for statement credits on travel purchases or to book a new travel reservation through Capital One; or transfer miles to any of more than 15 travel loyalty programs.
Perks: Price match within 24 hours of booking if you find a cheaper fare, and a top-rated mobile app

How green is the card?

The Capital One Venture Rewards card sponsors two new tree plantings through each qualified travel booking made on its travel portal, Hopper. In this way, each booking benefits the non-profit Eden Reforestation Projects, which works with local communities to plant native trees.

In Madagascar, for example, Eden planted millions of mangroves to offset the loss of these key members of the wetlands ecosystem.

So, will these efforts offset your greenhouse gas emissions when traveling? Probably not, as many offset programs have been disparaged for promoting this approach. Critics argue that offset programs fail to lessen emissions in the near term, may prolong the use of dirtier technology and are difficult to measure and monitor.

Still, when done properly, these programs, including Eden’s, can increase biodiversity, lessen erosion and bring community benefits. Bottom line, this is a nice-to-have perk when booking your trip, but should not be a major consideration.

Rewards cards dos and don'ts

As with any rewards credit card, be sure to weigh these benefits against fees — a $95 annual fee in this case — and make sure you understand how to use the card effectively. That said, $95 is a relatively small price to pay if you max out the benefits.

In addition, while reward credit cards are great if you use them wisely, always pay them off in full each month to avoid interest which can quickly dwarf the rewards. And only spend any more than usual to hit any trigger; otherwise, rewards cards can be a false economy as you’d be overspending.

Disclaimer

As an independent publication dedicated to helping you make the most of your money, the article above is our view of the best deals and is not the opinion of any entity mentioned such as a card issuer, hotel, airline etc. Similarly, the content has not been reviewed or endorsed by any of those entities.

Ellen writes and edits retirement stories. She joined Kiplinger in 2021 as an investment and personal finance writer, focusing on retirement, credit cards and related topics. She worked in the mutual fund industry for 15 years as a manager and sustainability analyst at Calvert Investments. She earned a master’s from U.C. Berkeley in international relations and Latin America and a B.A. from Haverford College.