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When the Chase Sapphire Reserve® was launched in 2016, it quickly became popular — in fact, Chase initially ran out of metal to make the cards as customers rushed to apply. Despite its Chase Sapphire Reserve® annual fee, the Reserve continues to hold steady as one of the top premium credit cards on the market, with generous travel benefits and a lucrative rewards structure.
But now there’s a card that’s giving the Chase Sapphire Reserve® some stiff competition. The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card comes with a higher welcome bonus, similar travel credits and protections, and a much lower Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card annual fee.
Capital One Venture X and Chase Sapphire Reserve sign-up bonus offers
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card: Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.Chase Sapphire Reserve®: Chase Sapphire Reserve®.
Both are Visa Infinite cards, which are a step above Visa Signature cards in the benefits they offer. And each comes with up to $300 per year in travel credits — but with different restrictions.
Apart from the gap in annual fees and bonuses, there are other significant differences to be aware of. Here’s what to know if you’re trying to decide between the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve®.
We’re focused here on the rewards and perks that come with each card. These cards won’t be worth it if you’re paying interest or late fees. When using a credit card, it’s important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay.
Welcome bonuses
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card has an advantage over the Chase Sapphire Reserve® in terms of sign-up bonus. New Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card holders can earn Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.
Meanwhile, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers Chase Sapphire Reserve®.
Off the bat, Capital One miles are worth 1 cent apiece when you redeem them toward travel purchases, so the 75,000-mile welcome bonus is worth Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card in travel.
When you redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points through the Chase Travel portal, they’re worth 1.5 cents apiece — so 50,000 Chase points are worth Chase Sapphire Reserve® in travel. That’s right on par with the travel value you’d get from the Venture X bonus.
However, it’s possible to potentially get even more value from each of these bonuses when you transfer your rewards to airline and hotel partners. We estimate that Capital One miles value is 1.7 cents each when using them this way — and Chase Ultimate Rewards points are worth 1.8 cents. Therefore, each sign-up bonus could potentially be worth:
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card – Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit CardChase Sapphire Reserve® – Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Insider’s points and miles valuations peg Chase Ultimate Rewards points as worth, on average, 1.8 cents apiece. Capital One miles have a slightly lower average value of 1.7 cents each, largely due to Chase’s transfer partners being more useful for average travelers.
Overall, you stand to get more value from the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card bonus. And both cards present the exact same minimum spending requirement.
Ongoing rewards earning
If you spend a lot on travel and restaurants, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is a good choice. It earns 3x points on travel (other than Chase Travel portal purchases) and dining, along with 10x points on Lyft rides until March 2025, 5x points on flights purchased through Chase Travel, and 10x points on hotels and car rentals booked through Chase Travel. All other purchases earn 1 point per dollar.
You’ll get similar travel portal categories with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card — 10x miles on car rentals and hotels booked through Capital One Travel, 10x miles when booking on Turo (offer ends May 16, 2023), and 5x on flights booked the same way. Everything else earns 2 miles per dollar.
If your typical spending patterns don’t involve travel or dining, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is a better bet, earning a minimum of 2 miles per dollar on everything you buy. Otherwise, you may do better with the Chase Sapphire Reserve®.
Statement credits
Travel credit
Both cards come with up to $300 in annual travel credits which can help offset much of their annual fees. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® is the most flexible, because the travel credit is automatically applied to the first $300 a year you spend on travel, including:
Airlines (including airfare, baggage fees, taxes and fees on award tickets, and most other incidental fees)Hotels (including room rate, resort fees, and taxes and fees on award stays — and in practice, some vacation rentals, like Airbnb, will trigger the credit too)MotelsTimesharesCar rental agencies (including third-party sites such as Autoslash)Cruise linesTravel agencies (including online travel agencies like Orbitz and Expedia)Discount travel sites (like Hotwire)CampgroundsPassenger trains (including subways)Buses (including local transit)Taxis (including ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft)LimousinesFerriesToll bridges and highways (including prepaid tolls like E-Zpass and SunPass)Parking lots and garages
The $300 travel credit offered by the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is more restrictive — you can only apply it to flight, hotel, and car rental purchases made through Capital One Travel. That’s not an issue if you would normally make these purchases through a third-party site anyway, but again keep in mind you probably won’t earn points or have your elite status recognized on hotel and car rental bookings.
Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit
Both cards also offer a statement credit toward the Global Entry ($100) or TSA PreCheck ($85) application fee every four years. If you’re already a member of one of these trusted traveler programs, you can pay for a friend or family member’s application fee with your card and still receive the credit.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® goes a step further and also includes NEXUS as an option for this credit. NEXUS costs $50 for five years and is a trusted traveler program that gets you Global Entry and TSA PreCheck, as well as expedited customs and immigration into Canada.
Transfer partners
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve® earn flexible rewards you can transfer to airline and hotel partners in their respective programs. However, each program has different partners (although there is some overlap).
For most travelers, the Chase Ultimate Rewards program is a little more useful, with 14 partners that include domestic airlines like United, Southwest, and JetBlue, and hotel partners Marriott, IHG, and Hyatt. All Chase airline and hotel partners offer a 1:1 transfer ratio:
Chase transfer partners
Aer Lingus AerClubAir Canada AeroplanAir France-KLM Flying BlueBritish Airways Executive ClubEmirates SkywardsIberia PlusJetBlue TrueBlueSingapore Airlines KrisFlyerSouthwest Airlines Rapid RewardsUnited MileagePlusVirgin Atlantic Flying ClubIHG Rewards ClubMarriott BonvoyWorld of Hyatt
For its part, Capital One actually has more transfer partners (18 in total) with a few unique options including Accor, Wyndham, Turkish Airlines, and Cathay Pacific. All transfers are at a 1:1 ratio unless otherwise noted:
Capital One transfer partners
Aeromexico Club Premier Air Canada Aeroplan Air France-KLM Flying Blue ALL – Accor Live Limitless (2:1 ratio)Avianca LifeMiles British Airways Executive Club Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Choice PrivilegesEmirates Skywards Etihad Guest EVA Infinity MileageLands (2:1.5 ratio)Finnair Plus Qantas Frequent Flyer Singapore KrisFlyer TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Virgin Red Wyndham Rewards
However, Capital One doesn’t have any domestic airline partners, so it’s less useful if you tend to travel within the US.
That said, if you’re willing to do a bit of legwork, it’s still possible to book award flights on most major airlines with either program thanks to partnerships and alliances. For example, United Airlines partners with Chase but not Capital One. You can still book United flights with Capital One miles by transferring rewards to programs like Air Canada Aeroplan or Singapore Airlines, then booking flights with their miles. Because these airlines are all part of Star Alliance, you can use miles from any of them to book award flights on any other partner.
Anniversary bonuses
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card comes with a 10,000-mile bonus each year on your account anniversary. Because Capital One miles are worth 1 cent each when you redeem them toward travel purchases (and potentially more when you transfer to partners), this bonus is worth at least $100 in travel.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® doesn’t offer any sort of anniversary points bonus.
Airport lounge access
Both the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve® offer Priority Pass Select membership, which allows you and up to two guests access to over 1,300 airport lounges worldwide. This includes airport restaurants that are part of the Priority Pass network.
In addition, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card allows the cardholder and two guests access to Capital One’s new airport lounges, the first of which recently opened at Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), with a second lounge in Denver (DEN) opening in 2022. It also comes with access to Plaza Premium Lounges worldwide.
Chase will also be opening its own branded lounges at New York-LaGuardia (LGA) Terminal B, Boston (BOS) Terminal B to C connector, San Diego (SAN) Terminal 2 West, Phoenix (PHX) Terminal 4 South 1, and Hong Kong (HKG) Terminal 1, but it hasn’t released exact information about opening dates or details about lounge amenities just yet. Chase does say these lounges will offer “access to exceptional, authentic and regionally inspired food, drink, art, entertainment, and wellness.”
Chase Sapphire Reserve® cardholders — as well as all Priority Pass members — will have access to these lounges when they open. So you won’t necessarily need a Chase Sapphire Reserve® to get in — the Priority Pass membership from the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card would make you eligible, too.
Authorized users
This is where the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is a clear winner. You can add authorized users to the card for free, and they get many of the same excellent perks as the primary cardholder, including:
Priority Pass and Capital One airport lounge access (cardholder and up to two guests)Hertz President’s Circle elite statusCell phone protection
Meanwhile, it costs $75 to add an authorized user to the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, although those users will receive their own Priority Pass airport lounge access as well.
Travel and purchase protections
As Visa Infinite cards, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve® come with excellent travel and purchase protections, including primary car rental insurance, trip cancellation/interruption insurance, and trip delay insurance.
These benefits and their coverage limits vary by card, and there are some perks that aren’t common across both. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of some of the cards’ key benefits (be sure to check the Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits guide and Capital One Venture X benefits guide for important terms and exclusions):
Benefit
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Primary car rental insurance
Up to $75,000 on eligible rentals
Up to $75,000 on eligible rentals
Trip cancellation/interruption
Up to $2,000 per person (cardholder and immediate family)
Up to $10,000 per covered trip (cardholder and immediate family)
Travel accident insurance
Up to $1,000,000Up to $1,000,000
Trip delay reimbursement
Up to $500 per ticket (cardholder and immediate family) for delays of six hours or more
Up to $500 per ticket (cardholder and immediate family) for delays of six hours or more
Lost luggage reimbursement
Up to $3,000 per covered trip (cardholder and immediate family)Up to $3,000 per person per trip (cardholder and immediate family)
Purchase protection
Up to $10,000 in reimbursement per claim, and up to $50,000 per account, within 90 days of purchase
Up to $10,000 in reimbursement per claim, and up to $50,000 per account, within 120 days of purchase
Extended warranty
Extends the time period of a US manufacturer’s warranty on eligible items by an additional year, on warranties of three years or less
Extends the time period of a US manufacturer’s warranty on eligible items by an additional year, on warranties of three years or less
Return protection
Up to $300 per item and an annual maximum of $1,000 per account, within 90 days of purchase
Up to $500 per item and an annual maximum of $1,000 per account, within 90 days of purchase
Cell phone protection
Up to $800 in coverage per claim with a maximum of two claims and $1,600 per 12-month period ($50 deductible)
N/A
Baggage delay insurance
N/A
Up to $100 per day for up to five days if your bags are delayed six hours or more
Emergency evacuation and transportation insurance
N/A
Up to $100,000
Emergency medical and dental insurance
N/A
Up to $2,500 ($50 deductible)
Roadside assistance
N/A
Up to $50 per event, up to four events per year
Travel and emergency assistance services
Yes (all costs are cardholder responsibility)
Yes (all costs are cardholder responsibility)
Rental car elite status
If you rent cars frequently, you could get additional perks and discounts with the car rental elite status each card provides. You’ll get elite status with Avis, National, and Silvercar car rental agencies when you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, and the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card comes with elite status at Hertz.
Depending on your rental car company of choice, you may want to choose one card over the other if this perk is important to you.
Annual fees
Because they’re both premium cards, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card charge high annual fees — but with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, it’s easier to get a concrete value that can offset all of the annual fee and then some.
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card annual fee on the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card can be completely erased with just two perks — the annual $300 Capital One Travel credit and the 10,000-mile anniversary bonus (worth at least $100 in travel). That’s not counting the value of other perks like airport lounge access and cell phone insurance.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® annual fee on the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is a little harder to justify. After you subtract the $300 annual travel credit, you’re still left with a $250 net cost.
However, the higher annual fee on the Chase Sapphire Reserve® could be worth it if you put a high value on premium travel protections like evacuation insurance, or if you plan to redeem points at a rate of 1.5 cents each through the Chase Travel portal or via Pay Yourself Back. Chase also added a $5 monthly DoorDash in-app credit to the card from April 2022 to December 2024, which could help defray the annual fee if you order from DoorDash frequently.
Comparison: Capital One Venture X vs Chase Sapphire Reserve
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Annual fee
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Chase Sapphire Reserve®Welcome bonus
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Rewards rate
10x miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
10x miles when booking on Turo (offer ends May 16, 2023)
5x miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel
2x miles on all other purchases
5x total points on air travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards (after earning the $300 travel credit)
10x total points on hotels and car rentals purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards (after earning the $300 travel credit)
10x points on Lyft rides through March 2025
3x points on other travel and dining
1 point per dollar on everything else
Card benefits
Priority Pass and Capital One airport lounge access
10,000-mile bonus each account anniversary
Complimentary elite status with Hertz car rental
Primary car rental insurance
Travel accident insurance
Cell phone protection
Trip cancellation/interruption insurance
Return protection
Extended warranty
Visa Infinite concierge
Complimentary year of Lyft Pink membership when you activate by March 31, 2022
Complimentary DoorDash DashPass membership when you activate through December 31, 2024
$5 monthly DoorDash in-app credit from April 2022 to December 2024
$10 per month in Gopuff credit through December 2023
Priority Pass and Chase Sapphire by the Club airport lounge access
Primary car rental insurance
Complimentary elite status with Avis, National, and Silvercar car rental agencies
Trip interruption/cancellation insurance
Trip delay insurance
Baggage delay insurance
Lost luggage reimbursement
Extended warranty
Purchase protection
Return protection
Travel and emergency assistance services
Travel accident insurance
Roadside assistance
Emergency evacuation and transportation insurance
Emergency medical and dental benefit
Visa Infinite concierge
Statement credits
Up to $300 per year in statement credits toward Capital One Travel bookings
Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit
Up to $300 in statement credits each cardmember year toward travel purchases
Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS application fee credit
Foreign transaction fee
No
NoReview
Capital One Venture X Rewards credit card review
Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card review
Bottom line
In terms of value, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is a good choice if lowering your out-of-pocket costs is important to you. While the $300 travel credit is more restrictive than the Chase Sapphire Reserve® credit, it should be easy for most travelers to use — and an additional 10,000 miles each account anniversary helps offset the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card annual fee.
While the Chase Sapphire Reserve® charges an annual fee that’s much higher, it could still be worth it if you value the extra travel benefits and range of transfer partners the Ultimate Rewards program offers. Be sure to factor in the cost of any authorized users ($75 on the Reserve versus $0 on the Venture X), and keep in mind this card doesn’t offer cell phone protection like the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card does.
Ultimately, your travel preferences, spending habits, and ability to maximize each card’s benefits are the most important factors in deciding which is right for you.