How To Use The Capital One Travel Portal

Link: Apply now for the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (this is the best publicly available offer for the card, and we appreciate your support if you use our link)

With the recent launch of the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, there’s a lot of new interest in Capital One’s travel rewards cards. Capital One Travel is Capital One’s online travel portal, and understanding it is a key part of maximizing the Capital One Venture X. In this post I wanted to take a closer look at how the Capital One Travel portal works.

What is the Capital One Travel portal?

Capital One Travel is an online travel portal through which you can book flights, hotels, and rental cars. Most of the major credit card companies have portals like these — think of it like a credit card company’s version of an online travel agency, like Expedia, Orbitz, etc.

Generally speaking these travel portals can be a win-win:

• Credit card companies get a commission when you book your travel through one of these portals, and often you’ll pay the same you’d pay if booking direct
• Credit card companies often offer additional rewards to cardmembers when booking through their travel portal, and in some cases give significant incentives for using it

Which credit cards get you access to the Capital One Travel portal?

The Capital One Travel portal is available to customers who have any of the following credit cards issued in the United States:

You can access the Capital One Travel portal through this link, by logging in with your Capital One online account credentials. Note that after being approved for a card, it can take a few days before you’ll be able to access the portal, so don’t expect you’ll have access to it the second you’re approved for one of the above cards.

Why should you use the Capital One Travel portal?

There are a few reasons it can make sense to book your travel through Capital One Travel. Let’s use the Capital One Venture X as an example:

• The card offers a $300 annual travel credit valid for any purchase through Capital One Travel (the card also offers 10,000 bonus miles on the account anniversary every year, and those can be redeemed through Capital One Travel, but can also be redeemed in different ways)
• The card offers bonus miles on Capital One Travel purchases, as you earn 10x miles for hotel and rental car bookings, and 5x miles on flights; I value Capital One miles at 1.7 cents each, so to me that’s like an 8.5-17% return on Capital One Travel purchases, which is huge