Quote from TMISCUS : I want to refer someone in my family circle. But, the referral link states 75K miles not 90K miles for Venture.

I think it's only 75k for the Venture. Some folks have a 90k offer but it's for the Venture X which has a much higher annual fee. That annual fee might be worth it if you travel a lot or can realize the other benefits but that calculation is something you need to figure out.

Quote from localHero : I think it's only 75k for the Venture. Some folks have a 90k offer but it's for the Venture X which has a much higher annual fee. That annual fee might be worth it if you travel a lot or can realize the other benefits but that calculation is something you need to figure out.

The fee is usually worth it if you travel at all, given just the annual travel credit plus 15k extra signup points are worth more than the annual fee, plus you get the other benefits (PP and C1 lounges, GE/TSA fee, etc).

Even on an ongoing basis the X literally pays for itself if you travel at all- with just the travel credit and annual 10k bonus points on renewal, plus the other stuff as gravy.

The regular venture, to me anyway, is much more a one and done when there's a good SUB- while the X is generally worth hanging on to YoY.

Thanks and approved with higher 90k point offer.

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Saw 90k points with the limited numbers of referrals.

Quote from Knightshade : The fee is usually worth it if you travel at all, given just the annual travel credit plus 15k extra signup points are worth more than the annual fee, plus you get the other benefits (PP and C1 lounges, GE/TSA fee, etc). Even on an ongoing basis the X literally pays for itself if you travel at all- with just the travel credit and annual 10k bonus points on renewal, plus the other stuff as gravy. The regular venture, to me anyway, is much more a one and done when there's a good SUB- while the X is generally worth hanging on to YoY.

You're more on top of this than I am. I've not traveled much but expect to more starting next year. How to play the miles/points game is not easily understood to me though. Where is the best place to learn how this works? At The Points Guy site it mentions the 75k points being worth $1388 but I can't find anything on the cap1 site that explains that. My first trip will be on AA through DFW on the way to Oaxaca. It's not til Feb and I might be able to get the Venture X and hit the spend requirement on that one too if it makes enough sense. Is the $300 annual travel credit good for airline tickets?

Quote from localHero : You're more on top of this than I am. I've not traveled much but expect to more starting next year. How to play the miles/points game is not easily understood to me though. Where is the best place to learn how this works? At The Points Guy site it mentions the 75k points being worth $1388 but I can't find anything on the cap1 site that explains that. My first trip will be on AA through DFW on the way to Oaxaca. It's not til Feb and I might be able to get the Venture X and hit the spend requirement on that one too if it makes enough sense. Is the $300 annual travel credit good for airline tickets?

So the travel credit has to be used in the cap one portal- but it can be used for anything you can book there- including airfare.

Ideal used is either independent hotels (ie hotels where you don't care about loyalty benefits with a specific hotel chain) and next best would be flights you can't find a better/cheaper way to book via points.

On points the best value is usually transferring them to airlines and then booking an award ticket with the airline--- this is how folks come up with valuations for how much Cap One (or chase ,or amex, etc) points are 'worth'-- by estimating on average how much you can get for those points via transfers to airline (or airline and hotel for chase specifically) programs.

You can often get ballpark 1.5-2.5 cents per point that way for coach tickets (or Hyatt bookings with chase points)....and you can do much better than that (often 4-8 cents a point) booking premium class airline tickets after transferring.



If you're asking how to get best value for a specific destination you can often just google things like "best use of amex points to X" where X is where you want to go, and you can sub in C1, Chase, Citi, etc for amex in that search depending what points you want to use

You'll usually get hits on any reasonably common destination from TPG and a number of other popular travel/points blogs and it's worth reading at least several of them to see both where the agree and where they don't.


NOTE- booking reward seats, especially in business or first, you may get lucky, but usually but it will require at least a little flexibility in your travel (ie you're able to fly on say a tuesday instead of a Friday or whatever).

Personally since I have such flexibility that's usually the basis for figuring out my trip duration.... like for example I know I want to go to Japan for roughly 3 weeks... and I know roughly what time of the year I want to go... ok, among the several good ways to do that in business with a few airlines and points, which ones have any availability for roughly that time of year and roughly that length of time, and then I book that and fill in the days from there


With coach seats availability tends to be less troublesome in that regard but depends on flight/time/destination/etc.

Quote from Knightshade : So the travel credit has to be used in the cap one portal- but it can be used for anything you can book there- including airfare. Ideal used is either independent hotels (ie hotels where you don't care about loyalty benefits with a specific hotel chain) and next best would be flights you can't find a better/cheaper way to book via points. On points the best value is usually transferring them to airlines and then booking an award ticket with the airline--- this is how folks come up with valuations for how much Cap One (or chase ,or amex, etc) points are 'worth'-- by estimating on average how much you can get for those points via transfers to airline (or airline and hotel for chase specifically) programs. You can often get ballpark 1.5-2.5 cents per point that way for coach tickets (or Hyatt bookings with chase points)....and you can do much better than that (often 4-8 cents a point) booking premium class airline tickets after transferring. If you're asking how to get best value for a specific destination you can often just google things like "best use of amex points to X" where X is where you want to go, and you can sub in C1, Chase, Citi, etc for amex in that search depending what points you want to use You'll usually get hits on any reasonably common destination from TPG and a number of other popular travel/points blogs and it's worth reading at least several of them to see both where the agree and where they don't. NOTE- booking reward seats, especially in business or first, you may get lucky, but usually but it will require at least a little flexibility in your travel (ie you're able to fly on say a tuesday instead of a Friday or whatever). Personally since I have such flexibility that's usually the basis for figuring out my trip duration.... like for example I know I want to go to Japan for roughly 3 weeks... and I know roughly what time of the year I want to go... ok, among the several good ways to do that in business with a few airlines and points, which ones have any availability for roughly that time of year and roughly that length of time, and then I book that and fill in the days from there With coach seats availability tends to be less troublesome in that regard but depends on flight/time/destination/etc.

Thanks for the detailed answer. I'll be flying American Air which is the only reasonable choice coming from CHS and it looks like C1 doesn't partner with them. So I guess the logic is to buy the ticket with the C1 card and then get reimbursed via points at a 1to1 basis.

Quote from localHero : Thanks for the detailed answer. I'll be flying American Air which is the only reasonable choice coming from CHS and it looks like C1 doesn't partner with them. So I guess the logic is to buy the ticket with the C1 card and then get reimbursed via points at a 1to1 basis.

So when you don't have a direct transfer partner (and almost nobody transfers direct to AA) you look to partners for those awards.

For example you can transfer to Avios, which can be used to book AA partner flights with British Airways-- though that's MOST useful for shorter hail flights because Avios is distance based... (for example I just got used 7500 Avios for a RDU->PHL short notice ticket that would've been $350 in cash, so well north of 4 cents a point in value).

Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Finnair, or Qantas also potentially offer ways to book AA flights using C1 points

This has a bit of info -- but you'll need to do some googling for the details on each option in more detail to see if any work for you.

https://awardwallet.com/blog/comp...-partners/

Quote from Knightshade : So when you don't have a direct transfer partner (and almost nobody transfers direct to AA) you look to partners for those awards. For example you can transfer to Avios, which can be used to book AA partner flights with British Airways-- though that's MOST useful for shorter hail flights because Avios is distance based... (for example I just got used 7500 Avios for a RDU->PHL short notice ticket that would've been $350 in cash, so well north of 4 cents a point in value). Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Finnair, or Qantas also potentially offer ways to book AA flights using C1 points This has a bit of info -- but you'll need to do some googling for the details on each option in more detail to see if any work for you. https://awardwallet.com/blog/comp...-partners/

This is a little overwhelming to someone who's new to the game. After going through several Awardwallet posts, Brittish Air site and Expert Flyer I think I'm more confused than ever. Does anyone host a site whereby one could list the number and source of airline miles along with flight plan and get a "best use" scenario? That would be a really useful if it exists, I'd think and something I'd pay for.

Quote from localHero : This is a little overwhelming to someone who's new to the game. After going through several Awardwallet posts, Brittish Air site and Expert Flyer I think I'm more confused than ever. Does anyone host a site whereby one could list the number and source of airline miles along with flight plan and get a "best use" scenario? That would be a really useful if it exists, I'd think and something I'd pay for.

So, upfront, it absolutely can be very confusing.

But it's one of those things that once you get a grasp of the basic ideas, it's just a question of doing a couple quick specifics-searches for any given trip.

I don't think there's a service quite like you describe because there's a few difference pieces to the puzzle and it'd be tough to automate all of them.

awardhacker.com is KIND of a place to start though.

It'll give you kinda best possible scenario ideas-- for example I just threw in CHS to OAX, economy roundtrip, using C1 points.

It shows options for Cathay Pacific, Avianca, British Airways, Quantas, Air Canada, and EVA... with Cathay standard awards being the "best" at 20k points roundtrip on American Airlines metal.

After that there's a bunch of 30-40k options on both AA and United metal


again though these are what's POSSIBLE--simply tying together existing award charts and transfer alliances--- not what's available for your specific dates and situation.

It's a starting point.

Then you'd move to a different tool (the airline website possibly, or something like point.me or expertflyer if you wanted a paid service that's easier/better to find what's available for your specific trip dates.

Quote from daj : How many personal Capital One credit cards can one have? I heard they have a limit of 2 ? Thanks

I have three but one is BJs that was sold to Capital One last year. And my credit is consistently in the 600 - low 700s and i was approved for all three over the past 10 years. Seems shady that so many with excellent credit were denied.

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Quote from boyzclub : I think Venture X is still the best bet... For $395 fee.... you are getting $300 in travel back... and another 10000 points ($100) value every year... and also the same 75000 bonus points.

Plus better lounge access to boot

Quote from ph00nster : Plus better lounge access to boot

+ 95K points after spending 4K in 3 Months!

Quote from Avinashkn : + 95K points after spending 4K in 3 Months!

As long as you travel once a year, annual fee pretty much cancels out. Not to mention if you frequent airports with their lounge, it's not too shabby either