The best duo to have: Capital One Venture X + Capital One Savor Cash

Rewards and Additional Benefits

Rewards:

On the rewards side, the Savor on one hand generates 3% cashback on groceries, dining, entertainment, and streaming services, and the Venture X generates 2 miles per dollar on all our purchases, without limit. Although, it also generates 10x on hotels and rental cars and 5x on hotels booked within the Capital One Travel portal. But to keep it simple, we are going to focus on the 2 miles per dollar that it gives on everything outside of Capital One Travel. 

That means that just by using these 2 cards we can get between 2x and 3x per dollar spent on absolutely all our purchases, and that can translate into thousands of points year after year, especially considering that most people tend to spend considerably on groceries, dining, and entertainment. 

Let's say you have the following average monthly expenses: 

Using each card in the appropriate category, we would be generating 6,000 miles every month, which would be 72,000 miles a year just from our habitual spending, without needing to spend an extra dollar.

No Foreign Transaction Fees:

We will see some examples of what we can do with these miles in a moment, but staying on the benefits of the cards, beyond being able to generate between 2x and 3x unlimitedly for our purchases, neither of them charges foreign transaction fees, so we can use them all over the world and generate additional points in the process. 

Did you go on vacation to Europe for 15 days and spent $1,500 on dining? There you have 4,500 points for paying with your Savor and you didn't pay anything extra. 

Did you go to the movies, concerts, amusement parks, sports events, multi-city tours and spent $1,000? There you have 3,000 additional points. 

Did you have to buy something at the pharmacy because you felt sick? You pay with your Venture X and get 2x per dollar without paying extra fees of any kind.

Welcome Bonuses:

The Venture X comes with a bonus of 75,000 miles when you spend $4,000 during the first 3 months and the Savor with a $200 dollar bonus which would be equivalent to 20,000 miles when you spend $500 dollars in the first 3 months.

Just with the welcome bonuses, we would accumulate 95,000 miles, which would be equivalent to at least $950 dollars for travel.

Additional Benefits:

Beyond that, the Venture X offers a $300 dollar annual travel credit from the first year the account is opened to be used through Capital One Travel for flights, hotel stays, or car rentals. 

Personally, we like to use this credit for cheap flights that are not worth paying with miles, stays at independent hotels that do not belong to big groups like Hyatt, IHG, Marriott, or Hilton since we wouldn't get additional benefits by booking this way, or for renting cars as long as the price is convenient through this portal.

This credit does not have to be used all at once, it can be consumed little by little if you wanted, but if it is not used during the year, it is lost, it is not cumulative. 

With this $300 dollar credit we get annually, the card has an effective cost of just $95 dollars. ($395 cost - $300 in travel credits = $95).

But, additionally, we receive 10,000 bonus miles each anniversary with the card, which are equivalent to at least $100 dollars for travel. This means that, at least for now, just for having the card we get a net gain of $5 dollars each year, which is incredible. 

From personal experience, the $300 credit updates immediately each year upon card renewal, while the 10,000-mile bonus usually takes between 1 and 2 billing cycles after the anniversary date.

The $300 credit in my account immediately after the $395 annual fee was charged

Not only that, but it also offers a $120 dollar credit for the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® application every 4 years, and a complimentary Priority Pass membership that allows the account owner to enter thousands of VIP lounges in airports all over the world unlimitedly, as well as unlimited access to Capital One's own lounges.

Unfortunately starting in 2026, it is not possible to bring complimentary guests to either Priority Pass or Capital One lounges. The benefit applies only to the account owner.

All this for just $395 dollars a year! The value obtained through this card is truly amazing and that is why it has been for several years and continues to be our travel favorite.

What Can We Do with These Miles? Travel! 

You have the option to redeem them at $0.01 each to use them either through the Capital One Travel portal or by applying the miles to "cancel" travel transactions from your billing statement. 

You can also transfer them to different hotel and airline loyalty programs partnered with Capital One and possibly get a value higher than $0.01 per point if you use them strategically. 

Let's say you apply for the Savor, earn the welcome bonus, accumulate your rewards, and at 6 months you apply for the Venture X, also earn your welcome bonus and automatically the $300 credit.

Mind you, it does not have to be in this order. In fact, I applied for the Venture X first and then, after 2 years (!) was when I applied for the Savor. You can imagine that along the way there were several other cards applied for too. 😉

Going back to the example: between the welcome bonuses you would have 95,000 miles (75,000 points on the Venture and 20,000 points on the Savor), and let's assume that additionally from your day-to-day purchases you accumulated about 60,000 additional miles after 9 months, for a total of 155,000 Capital One Miles. 

These points are considered flexible or transferable points, so we can use them in different ways:

First, it would be the equivalent of $1,550 dollars for travel either through the Capital One portal or by erasing travel transactions. For example, if you spent $400 on a hotel stay, you can apply 40,000 miles to cover that transaction and your balance is reduced by $400, ending up “free” by having applied the miles. 

I can use 12,175 miles to completely cover a $121.75 train expense

But as we already know, we also have the option to transfer them outside of Capital One, and that is the most important thing about this type of points: we have flexibility and different redemption options.

If it suits us better to use them at $0.01 each through Capital One, we can do so, but if it suits us to transfer them to a particular program, we also have that option. 

Capital One transfers to 15 airline and 3 hotel programs, personally we consider the best and worth considering to be Flying Blue (Air France and KLM), Virgin Atlantic, Air Canada Aeroplan, Avianca Lifemiles, Finnair, British Airways, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, and Wyndham. Why? Because it is highly possible to get a value greater than $0.01 through these programs. 

For example, we could fly in business class with the airline Air France departing from Washington D.C. to Paris booking through Virgin Atlantic for just 48,500 miles and $297.

In this case, we would have to transfer points from Capital One to Virgin Atlantic to fly with Air France because it is at a better price through this program than with Air France itself. This will not always be the case, but in this example, it is.

This same flight would cost us $3,153 if we decided to pay in cash:

There are many people who pay these amounts to fly business class.

We could pay for it with our Venture X, generate 6,306 points for the purchase (if purchased outside Capital One Travel) and apply 315,300 miles to this transaction and cover 100% of the trip, but as you can see, this is a terrible option having the possibility of using just 48,500 miles and paying $297 which we could later erase by applying 29,700 miles if we wanted, or simply cover it on our own.

By paying just 48,500 miles, we are getting a value per point of 5.8 cents, incredibly higher than 1 cent per point booking through Capital One Travel or applying our miles to erase travel transactions.

Does it mean using miles like this is wrong? Not at all.

If you took a train trip, stayed at an Airbnb or similar and want to erase the transaction at 1 CPP, it's better than paying in cash. In the end, this hobby is about traveling more and better while paying less money, and as long as we are traveling more and paying less, the mission is accomplished. 🫰

Best of all, since you'll be generating thousands of points every year without modifying your spending habits, you can take trips like these over and over and over again, without even having to get more credit cards.