You know what they say, failing to prepare is preparing to fail. In the world of award travel, failing to prepare is equivalent to paying full fare for your plane tickets or hotel stay when you could have probably just paid a fraction of the amount through credit card points and rewards.
Lets take it even a bit further, it’s like paying less than $10 dollars to fly business or first class versus paying full fare to fly the middle seat across the Atlantic Ocean on a 10 hour flight. While this example may be on the extreme end of the spectrum, the purpose is to show you that traveling in comfort and luxury can be obtained by anyone really. If you don’t believe me, I will present you exhibit A. Myself. I am currently a graduate student and I have traveled to Paris, London, and Vegas within the past year and half and all of my trips have been paid for through credit card points and perks. Now let’s make it happen for you too.
If you have travel plans in the fall, now is a perfect time to start applying for a credit card to book your travel through points. Let me introduce to you the Capital One Venture X credit card. Before I continue, it is important to note that this card requires an excellent credit score in order to obtain approval. If your credit score is not excellent you should not apply for this card or if you are on the fence and not entirely sure you will obtain approval, you can utilize the pre-approval feature. Below is the link for that.
https://www.capitalone.com/credit-cards/preapprove/venture-x/
Here are some reason you should apply for this card
- The Signup Bonus is currently at an all time High: The card is currently offering 75k bonus miles after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening. Using the 1 cent per mile formula, that is equivalent to $750 dollars in value.
- The $300 Annual Travel Credit: This is about the easiest way to obtain value. The $300 dollars come back in the form of statement credit for bookings through capital one travel. Also on a side note the card offers a price match but it’s important to note that it has to be the same exact itinerary.
- The $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA precheck: This is a perfect way to skip the long airport lines and get straight to your gate.
- Hidden Gem feature that I like the most: 2X miles on all purchases. This to me is a game changer. Having every single swipe earn 2X miles is an excellent feature which allows you to generate miles quickly and using it on your everyday expenses.
- The Lounge Access: Let me just make a disclaimer that I love airport lounges so this may be a biased opinion. The card offers lounge access through their priority pass network and plaza premium network giving you access to over 300 lounges worldwide.
How much travel value you can obtain for hotels and flights
The total travel value you can obtain from just booking hotels and flight is $655. It’s important to note that this is after deducting the $395 annual fee. Depending on where you are traveling to, this amount can easily cover your hotel stay or your flight costs.
