Earn up to 100,000 miles on the Capital One Venture Rewards credit card

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At TPG, a credit card that offers ongoing benefits and value is a card that we like to keep in our wallets. But, big welcome bonuses help to get the card into our wallets to start with.

Count the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card as a card that currently has a huge bonus and great ongoing benefits. The card offers 2x Capital One miles on virtually anything you buy with the ability to either use those points to offset a wide variety of travel charges on your statement or transfer those miles to airline and hotel partners, making it an excellent addition to your credit card rotation.

For a limited time, you can also add an incredible sign-up bonus to its value proposition, too.

New Venture Rewards cardholders can now earn 100,000 bonus miles after spending $20,000 on purchases within the first 12 months of account opening. Alternatively, you can still receive an ongoing bonus of 50,000 miles if you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first three months of the account opening if spending $20k on the card in the first year is a bit much for your situation.

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The Capital One Venture Rewards card was already a great all-around pick for everyday spending, and now it’s increased its value even more.

In This Post

How the 100,000-mile sign-up bonus works

The up to 100,000-mile sign-up bonus on the Venture Rewards card is as high as the bonus for this card has gone. We last saw public 100k offers for this card almost a decade ago in 2011 and 2012, and even then, there were hoops to jump through to document how many points you’d earned on another card to get the full 100k. So, this bonus really is about as good as it has ever been.

First 50,000 miles

First, you’ll earn 50,000 miles if you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening.

That’s certainly a solid ongoing offer with miles that you can transfer to 15 airline or hotel partners — or redeem for statement credit against eligible charges at a fixed rate.

© The Points Guy
This ANA First Suite was booked using Avianca LifeMiles, a Capital One transfer partner. (Photo by Chris Dong/The Points Guy)

Related: Redeem Capital One miles for food delivery and streaming for a limited time

… and another 50,000 miles (for a total of 100,000 miles)

However, you have an opportunity to earn 50,000 more miles by spending a total of $20,000 on purchases within the first 12 months of account opening. (This amounts to $17,000 in additional spending beyond the first $3,000 needed to trigger the initial 50k miles.)

According to TPG valuations, the full 100,000-mile bonus is worth a whopping $1,400, easily making it onto our list of best credit card offers. That valuation takes into account the current lineup of transfer partners and the redemption options available through each.

If you spend $20,000 on the card to earn the full bonus, that spending equates to another 40,000 earned miles at 2x miles per dollar. This means you’d earn a total of 140,000 total miles in that first year. But be warned — some may find the $20,000 in spending within 12 months on the card (around $1,666 a month) to get the full 100,000-point sign-up bonus tough to reach.

Earning Capital One miles

Earning on the Venture Rewards card is very straightforward: 2x miles per dollar spent on almost everything. While there may be some travel credit cards that have higher bonuses on select categories, the draw here is the simplicity — and guarantee — of earning 2x on almost anything that you buy.

© The Points Guy
You’ll earn 2x miles on everything. (Photo by Eric Helgas/The Points Guy.)

Venture cardholders also earn unlimited 5x miles on all food delivery and pickup orders with Uber Eats (through January 31, 2021). In addition, Venture cardholders earn unlimited 5x miles on hotel and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.

What can Capital One miles get you?

Your total value from this sign-up bonus depends on how you redeem your miles. There are several options, which include:

Transfers to these travel companies range from a ratio of 2:1.5 miles to a ratio of 2:1, depending on the partner.

You may wonder why Capital One bases its transfer ratio on 2x miles instead of 1x. This is because the Venture Rewards card earns 2x miles on all purchases. So, for every dollar you spend on either card, you’re getting 1.5 points or miles when transferred to most transfer partners.

Of course, if you don’t want to deal with transferring your miles to these transfer partners, you can always redeem your miles toward travel charges, food delivery or streaming at a rate of 1 cent each. These redemptions can be very handy in a world where you may be renting RVs, booking vacation home rentals or simply staying in your own home more than you’re out booking flights and hotels.

Related: How to redeem Capital One miles at a fixed value

What other benefits and perks are there?

The Venture Rewards card doesn’t offer the same perks as many of the premium travel rewards cards — but for its modest $95 annual fee, it offers some useful ones.

You’ll get a statement credit of up to $100 every four years when you charge a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee to your card. If you already have a card that offers this benefit, you can pay for someone else’s application fee and be reimbursed every four years.

© The Points Guy
(Photo by alexfan32/Shutterstock)

You’ll be covered by additional extended warranty protection when you purchase items with an original manufacturer’s warranty of three years or less using your card. The Venture Rewards card also provides benefits when you travel, including secondary car rental insurance and travel accident insurance. There are no foreign transaction fees.

Related: Starter card showdown: Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. Capital One Venture

Bottom line

The Capital One Venture has officially joined a small elite group of cards that are offering 100,000-mile bonuses. With the ability to transfer miles to travel partners or simply use the miles to cover the cost of whatever travel charges you wish, this is an exciting bonus for a card that has increased its value over the years.

Of course, it’s important to evaluate whether that second 50,000-mile bonus is worth a total of $20,000 in spending. On the one hand, it’s a lot of cash on one card. On the other, averaged out over a year, it’s potentially more doable than it may seem at first glance. Regardless, paying your balance in full each and every month is the first commandment of travel rewards cards. But if you can hit the threshold — and are new to the Venture card — you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better overall bonus for everyday spending.

Apply now for the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card with up to a 100,000-mile bonus. 

Want to learn more about the card? Read our in-depth review of the Capital One Venture card. 

Additional reporting by Katie Genter. 

Featured photo by Isabelle Raphael / The Points Guy.

Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.