Capital One Venture X vs. Amex Platinum Card

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and The Platinum Card® from American Express both come with generous rewards programs, plenty of perks for frequent travelers and high annual fees. But despite their similarities, the cards do differ in key ways, from the size of their welcome bonuses to the ways in which you earn rewards.

Trying to determine which of these cards is best for you? Here’s a look at the key differences between these two high-end travel cards.

Capital One’s Venture X Rewards card vs. the Platinum Card from American Express

Both the Venture X Rewards card and the Platinum Card are good choices for frequent travelers. That’s because you can earn rewards quickly with both cards’ generous rewards programs, which you can turn into free hotel stays, airline miles and rental cars.

Which card is the best fit for you will depend on your spending habits, how much you charge each month and how many of the perks that come with the cards you’re likely to use.

Neither card is cheap – with the Platinum card charging a $695 annual fee and the Venture X Rewards $395 – so it’s important to earn enough rewards and use enough of the perks to cover their costs each year. Here’s a glance at the card basics:

Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card	The Platinum Card® from American Express
Annual fee $395	Annual fee $695
Welcome bonus 75,000 miles when you spend $4,000 in first 3 months from account opening	Welcome bonus 80,000 Membership Rewards points if you spend $6,000 in first 6 months
Rewards 10 miles for every dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel 5 miles for every dollar on flights booked through Capital One Travel 2 miles for every dollar charged on all other purchases	Rewards 5 points for every dollar on flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel (on up to $500,000 per calendar year) 5 points for every dollar on prepaid hotels booked on American Express Travel 1 point for every dollar on general purchases
APR 19.99%-26.99% variable	APR 19.74%-26.74% variable with Amex’s Pay Over Time

Earning rewards

You can earn rewards quickly with both the American Express Platinum Card and Venture X Rewards card from Capital One.

Regular rewards

With the Venture X Rewards, you’ll earn 10 miles for every dollar you charge on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. You’ll also earn 5 miles for each dollar you charge on flights booked through Capital One Travel. You’ll earn 2 miles for every dollar on all other purchases.

With the Platinum Card, you’ll earn 5 points for every dollar you charge on flights booked directly with airlines or through American Express Travel on up to $500,000 of these purchases during a calendar year. You’ll earn 5 points for every dollar charged on prepaid hotels booked through American Express Travel and 1 point on other purchases.

Welcome bonus

The Venture X Rewards card offers a solid welcome bonus: You’ll receive 75,000 bonus miles if you charge $4,000 on purchases within three months of opening your account.

The Platinum Card has its own valuable welcome bonus, with a higher reward and  spend threshold. You’ll earn 80,000 Membership Rewards points if you charge $6,000 with your card in the first six months of opening your account.

Redeeming rewards

Redeeming your miles and rewards points are easy for both the Platinum Card and Venture X Rewards, and they both offer a variety of transfer partners.

You can turn your miles earned from the Venture X Rewards card into flights with more than 15 partner airlines. You can also use your points to book flights and hotels through Capital One Travel and pay off travel purchases made in the last 90 days with your card. You can redeem your miles for gift cards or turn them into statement credits.

You can turn the Membership Rewards points you earn with your Platinum Express card into flights or hotel stays with more than 20 American Express travel partners. You can also use your points to upgrade your seat at airlines, as a statement credit or to shop a selection of merchants at American Express’ site. You can also use your points to pay for purchases made online at retailers such as Amazon and Walmart or turn them into gift cards. You can even use your points to make a donation to charity.

Annual fees

Neither the Venture X Rewards card nor the American Express Platinum Card comes free. The Platinum Card charges an annual fee of $695, while the Venture X Rewards card’s annual fee is $395. That’s why it’s so important to apply for these cards only if your spending history will allow you to earn enough rewards points to easily cover these fees each year.

Travel benefits and statement credits

Both the Platinum Card and the Venture X Rewards card are strong choices for those who travel frequently.

Platinum Card travel perks

The Platinum Card offers a variety of credits and perks related to travel. One of the more valuable is $200 back in statement credits each year on select prepaid hotel bookings that you make through the American Express Travel online portal with your Platinum Card.

You also get up to $200 a year in statement credits that you can use to pay for incidental airline fees, including fees for checked bags, inflight entertainment and inflight refreshments.

In addition, you can sign up for a CLEAR® membership and receive a touchless ID based on your biometrics. You can then move faster through security at select airports and stadiums in the U.S. If you pay for your membership with your Platinum Card, you’ll receive a $189 credit each year.

The Platinum Card also offers car rental loss and damage insurance, as long as you pay for your rental with your card and decline your rental company’s damage waiver. You can take advantage, too, of American Express’ Global Assist Hotline, which provides 24/7 medical, legal, financial or other emergency coordination and assistance services.

The Platinum Card offers trip delay insurance, which pays out up to $500 a trip up to two times during a period of 12 consecutive months if a covered reason delays your trip for more than six hours. These payouts will help cover the cost of renting a hotel room, paying for meals or other expenses you incur because of the delay.

If your trip is canceled due to covered reasons, the Platinum Card’s trip cancellation insurance will reimburse any nonrefundable expenses purchased with the card. You’ll be covered for up to $10,000 a trip and up to $20,000 a card for a period of 12 consecutive months.

And if you need a break from the crowds while at the airport? The Platinum Card gives you access to more than 1,400 airport lounges in 140 countries.

Venture X Rewards travel credits and benefits

The Venture X Rewards card doesn’t come with quite as many travel perks as The Platinum Card, but it does offer plenty for its lower annual fee.

The most valuable is the up to $300 in statement credits you’ll receive each year when booking travel through the Capital One Travel online portal. And each year on the anniversary of opening your account, you’ll receive 10,000 bonus miles, which is worth $100, according to Capital One.

During your first year of opening your account, you’ll receive up to $200 in statement credits for any vacation rentals you charge to your Venture X Rewards card.

You can escape the crowds at airports, too, by enrolling in the Capital One Venture X Priority Pass program. This gives you access to more than 1,300 airport lounges and dining spots in more than 600 cities and 148 countries.

Additionally, you’ll receive up to a $100 credit each year on Global Entry or TSA PreCheck at airports when you use your Venture X card to pay for these services. And the card  qualifies you for President’s Circle status with Hertz. When you rent a car from Hertz, you’ll be able to skip the lines and choose from a wider selection of rental cars.

The Venture X Rewards card comes with 24-hour travel assistance. If your card is lost or stolen, Capital One will send you a cash advance and replacement cards. Like the Platinum Card, it offers rental car collision and damage insurance, as long as you pay for your rental car with your card and refuse your rental company’s damage waiver.

If you pay for your air, bus, cruise or train transportation with your card, you’ll qualify for accidental death or dismemberment insurance coverage of up to $1 million. You’ll also get trip cancellation insurance, which will entitle you to reimbursement for up to $2,000 a person for prepaid, nonrefundable tickets if your trip is canceled for an eligible reason.

The Venture X Rewards card comes with trip-delay coverage, too: If your trip is delayed by six hours or more, you can qualify for reimbursement of up to $500 a person on expenses such as hotel stays, meals or clothes that you charge to your card.

Other perks

The perks with these cards don’t end with travel benefits. Keep reading to see what else you can get from them:

Venture X Rewards perks

The Venture X Rewards card comes with extended warranty protection. This policy extends the warranty on all eligible items that you purchase with your card by an additional year. Note: This applies only to warranties of three years or less.

The card’s purchase protection program will reimburse you up to $10,000 a claim and up to $50,000 an account if an item you purchase is stolen or damaged within 90 days of your purchase. You must, of course, buy the item with your Venture X Rewards card.

You can also add additional cardholders to your account at no charge. You’ll then earn rewards on every dollar that these cardholders charge.

Platinum Card perks

As you’d expect from a card with such a high annual fee, the Platinum Card from American Express offers plenty of additional perks. To start, you’ll receive an entertainment credit of up to $20 a month when you pay for streaming service Peacock, a subscription to the New York Times, podcasts from Audible or SiriusXM satellite radio.

If you buy a Walmart Plus monthly membership, you’ll qualify for a yearly credit of $155 to cover this cost. You’ll also receive $15 in Uber Cash each month that you can spend on Uber rides or Uber Eats orders in the U.S. Each December, you’ll receive an additional $20 Uber Cash bonus. You’ll also receive up to $100 in statement credits each year for purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue or at Saks.com.

If you use your Platinum Card to pay for an eligible membership at an Equinox gym or Equinox+ app, you’ll receive up to $300 back each year in a statement credit (enrollment required).

The Platinum Card also comes with return protection. If you want to return an eligible item within 90 days of buying it with your card and the merchant won’t take it back, Amex might refund the full purchase price up to $300 an item for a maximum of $1,000 a calendar year.

The Platinum Card’s purchase protection will pay out if an item you purchased within the last 90 days with your card is lost, stolen or damaged. This protection pays up to $10,000 an occurrence and $50,000 in a calendar year.

The card offers extended warranty protection, too, on purchases made with your card in the U.S. This protection will extend your warranty for up to one additional year. It applies to existing warranties of five years or fewer.

Venture X Rewards card: Best for frequent travelers on a more limited budget

The Venture X Rewards card offers a surprising number of perks and a generous rewards program for its $395 annual fee. If you’re not used to paying annual fees, that figure might sound high. But for the number of benefits that come with this card, the annual fee is on the lower end.

If you travel often and use your card to book flights, hotels and rental cars, you should earn more than enough in rewards points to overcome that $395 annual fee.

The card is a simple one to use, too. If you’re not using it to charge hotel stays, flights or rental cars, you’ll earn 2 miles for all other purchases. That’s not a lot to keep track of, which makes this an attractive option for travelers who don’t want to spend too much time calculating how to maximize their rewards.

Platinum Card from American Express: Best for those who want a premium travel card

The Platinum Card doesn’t come cheap. But that $695 annual fee gets you a lot of statement credits, travel and shopping perks, plus a strong rewards program.

If you take advantage of the wide range of statement credits – everything from credits for hotel stays and airline fees to credits for the money you charge on streaming services and Uber rides – and use your card to book flights and hotel stays, you’ll recoup your annual fee  plus some with ease.

The Platinum Card is best for consumers who travel frequently and aren’t shy about using their credit card perks to make their travel more enjoyable. If you watch where you spend, you’ll rack up the rewards points quickly with this card.

Bottom line

Both the Venture X Rewards and Platinum Card are solid choices for travelers. Which card is the best fit for you? That comes down to how often you travel, how high of an annual fee you’re comfortable paying and how many of these cards’ perks you’ll use.

If you’re a homebody who travels fewer than three times a year, these might not be the right cards for you. But if you spend plenty of time in airports and checking into hotels, either card will make a nice addition to your collection.