Up to 110,000 Points for Capital One Venture Card

March 10, 2011

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3 min read

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I've received a ton of emails from readers asking for my thoughts on the new Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, which is offering a 20,000 point sign up bonus after $2,000 spent in the first 3 months and up to 100,000 points if you can prove you've earned that many miles with partner airline co-branded credit cards (listed below).

Promotion details:

Let's say you've earned 75,000 miles with an eligible airline credit card program.
Capital One would match your existing miles with 75,000 Venture points once you meet your minimum purchase requirement and submit your airline rewards statement.
That means your new Venture account would start with a total of 75,000 points (plus the 10,000 for signing up).

1-FOR-1 MILE MATCHING (1 VENTURE MILE PER 1 AIRLINE REWARDS MILE):

Alaska Airlines® Visa® Card
American Airlines® Card
Continental Airlines® Card
Delta® SkyMiles® from American Express®
Frontier Airlines® MasterCard®
Hawaiian Airlines® Visa Card
JetBlue® from American Express
Spirit Airlines® Free SPIRITâ„¢ MasterCard
United Mileage Plus® Visa Card
US Airways® Dividend Miles MasterCard
Virgin America® Visa Card

OTHER:

AirTran Airways® A+ Visa Card (1,000 Venture miles per A+ Rewards® Credit)
Southwest Airlines® Rapid Rewards® Visa Card (1,200 Venture miles per Rapid Rewards® Credit)

So, before you freak out over seeing a 6 digit sign-up bonus, keep these things in mind:

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1) Capital One is very strict/stingy about credit. Many people have reported being declined, even though they have perfect credit. People also report having hard inquiries from all three credit bureaus (most card issuers only pull one). The denial ratio on this card seems high, which bothers me.

2) Capital One points are not miles and cannot be transfered to airline frequent flyer program. In fact, I think they should be renamed cents. You can redeem them for whatever you want, but you will only get 1 cent per point. However, you earn 2 points per dollar spent, so that's not a bad ratio. But think - those amazing 110,000 points will equal $1,100 towards travel. That's certainly not bad, but you won't be jetting off in international first class anytime soon with Capital One points.

3) I believe that Capital One will want proof that you earned those 100,000 miles through credit card spend. Some people think that sending an American Airlines balance with 100,000 will get them the match. I think a lot of people will be disappointed.

Good things about Capital One:

1) No foreign transaction fee

2) You generally earn miles and elite status for the flights you redeem

3) The $59 annual fee is waived the first year (click here for all fee disclosures)

Overall, this is a pretty decent deal, but understand the card and its benefits before you apply (and risk possibly being denied). For more info, Gary Leff wrote about it on his blog and there is a lenthy discussion on Flyertalk.