How to Use Capital One Venture X $300 Travel Credit

Capital One Venture X Credit Card offers a $300 annual travel credit. Therefore, if you are able to use the travel credit each year, this benefit can lower the card’s annual fee from $395 to only $95. 

How Does Capital One $300 Travel Credit Work?

First of all, it helps to understand how the $300 Capital One travel credit works on the Capital One Venture X Credit Card:

• Enrollment for this travel credit benefit is not required. 
• You must book through Capital One Travel to use the travel credit.
• You receive a real-time up to $300 travel credit during travel bookings made through Capital One Travel.
• The benefit is per account (card membership) anniversary year (when you open the card), not calendar year (Jan-Dec). 
• You do not have to spend $300 at once. Thus, the credit can be used in multiple transactions until the entire $300 credit is used.
• You do not earn Venture X’s 5X-10X rewards on the amount you use the travel credit for.
• You do not have to wait for Capital One to issue any statement credit, as the credit is automatically applied to your bookings.
• If you cancel your reservation, the credit is restored if it has not expired to use towards future purchases.

How to Use Capital One $300 Travel Credit?

Using the $300 annual travel credit benefit on the Capital One Venture X Credit Card is easy. The process is straightforward as you usually make a travel booking online.

• Go to the official Capital One website.
• Sign in to your Capital One account.
• Click on the Venture X card account.
• Cilck on the View Rewards button.
• Scroll down a little bit, and click on Book a trip.
• The Capital One Travel page appears on a new window.
• Click on the booking type you want to make: Flights, Hotels, Rental Cars, or Premium Stays.
• Provide your search parameters to search and follow the booking interface until you reach the Checkout page.
• Provide traveler and payment type information you want to use for booking. On the right, you should also see that the travel credit is automatically applied to the booking under the Checkout Breakdown section.
• Finally, click Confirm and Book.

How to Maximize Capital One $300 Travel Credit?

Below are some ideas to use and maximize your Capital One Venture X Credit Card’s $300 annual travel credit.

Use the Credit and Earn 5X to 10X Bonus Capital One Rewards

Your Capital One Venture X Credit Card earns quite impressive bonus miles per dollar spent on travel bookings through Capital One Travel:

• You earn unlimited 10X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through the Capital One Travel site.
• You earn 5X miles on flights booked through the Capital One Travel site. 

Please note that you do not earn Capital One rewards on the travel credit portion; however, you earn the rewards on any other amounts. For example, a hotel reservation costs you $400. In that case, you use the $300 travel credit and pay an additional $100 with your Capital One Venture X Credit Card. As a result, you will earn 1,000 Capital One miles for that $100 but zero miles on the $300 travel credit.

Use the Credit to Save Money with Price Prediction, Price Drop, and Price Match

If you are unfamiliar with Hopper, Capital One Travel integrates with the Hopper travel booking platform. It is an intelligent airfare search tool that can predict when you should book a flight with up to 95% accuracy. Hopper offers the following features through the Capital One Travel site:

• Provides comprehensive airfare analysis and forecast so that you can decide whether to book now or wait until the price drops. 
• Monitors price changes in real-time. 
• It also shows you which dates the airfare is cheapest. See the picture below. 
• Notifies you when the price changes when you set alerts to watch certain flights. 

By utilizing Hopper’s features, you will get a clear picture of how airfare fluctuates over time, and thus, you get to save money in return. This potentially gives your $300 Capital One travel credit more value for flight bookings. 

But that’s not all! Booking through Capital One Travel will also receive a price drop protection and a price match guarantee. 

• If Capital One recommends you to “book now” based on the price prediction tool Hopper, Capital One will keep monitoring the flight price. If the price drops, Capital One will refund you up to the maximum amount specified when you booked. See the picture below, for example.

• Furthermore, within 24 hours of booking, if you find a better price for travel purchases through Capital One Travel, such as flights, hotels, or rental cars, Capital One will match that price and give you the difference once the claim is approved. 

Finally, it is worth mentioning that you can earn frequent flyer miles when you book with Capital One Travel as you were to book directly with the airlines. Just make sure you provide your frequent flyer number when you make your booking. 

Use the Credit with Capital One Rewards and Cash

You can redeem Capital One miles rewards for any trips you book via the Capital One Travel site. Redeeming rewards plus cash options are also possible. When booking, you can use a combination of Capital One rewards and your Capital One travel credit on your Venture X credit card.

Remember that Capital One miles can be worth much more when transferring them to loyalty programs. With the Capital One Venture X Credit Card, you earn unlimited 2x bonus miles on all non-bonus category purchases, making these flexible earning Capital One reward very valuable. But everyone’s situation is different, so if you are going to redeem Capital One miles plus cash for any trip booked through Capital One Travel, be sure to pay the cash portion with your Venture X credit card to use up the $300 annual travel credit. 

Use the Travel Credit For Hotels

Capital One Travel offers more than just flights, and you can also use the $300 Capital One travel credit for hotel bookings through the Capital One travel site. 

Booking hotels through Capital One is considered a third-party or online travel agency (OTA) booking. Therefore, you will not earn any hotel points or have your hotel’s elite status recognized. However, from time to time, you may find yourself in a destination that does not have the leading hotel chains that offer rewards programs, so it may make sense to book an independently-owned hotel or resort and use up your $300 Capital One travel credits, or you want to save $300 on accommodations and use that $300 for other things to enjoy on your vacation!

Use the Travel Credit For Premium Hotel Stays

Capital One Travel also offers luxury hotel bookings such as Premier Collection and Lifestyle Collection. You can use the $300 annual travel credit toward bookings through these luxury collections and receive extra premium perks:

• Premier Collection
  • 10X miles on every booking (not applicable for the travel credit)
  • $100 Experience Credit
  • Daily breakfast for two
  • Room Upgrade
  • Early Check-in
  • Late Checkout
• Lifestyle Collection
  • 10X miles on every booking (not applicable for the travel credit)
  • $50 Experience Credit
  • Room Upgrade
  • Early Check-in
  • Late Checkout

Use the Travel Credit For Rental Cars

In addition to flight and hotel bookings, Capital One Travel also offers rental car bookings. 

From my few sample searches, booking rental cars via the Capital One Travel site also offers a free cancellation policy. However, you must pre-pay for the rental immediately instead of at the car rental agency. This is fine because the $300 travel credit is a real-time credit toward booking at checkout.

If you decide to cancel the reservation later on within the cancellation window, you will receive a refund, and the travel credit will be restored.

Is Capital One Travel Credit Refundable?

Suppose you used the Capital One travel credit to make a travel reservation, and later, you have to cancel that reservation. In that case, the Capital One system may restore the travel credit, subject to two conditions:

• The reservation is refundable.
• The travel credit is not expired.

You then can use the travel credit again to make any future travel bookings throught Capital One Travel.

How to Keep Track of Capital One $300 Travel Credit?

Capital One allows you to track your progress towards the Capital One Venture X Credit Card $300 annual travel credit.

• Log into your Capital One account online. 
• Click on the Venture X card account.
• Click on the View Rewards button.
• Scroll down a little bit, and click on Book a trip.
• The Capital One Travel page appears on a new window.
• If you have available Capital One travel credit, you should see it on the page. See the picture below.

Is Capital One Travel Credit by Calendar Year?

No, Capital One Venture X $300 annual travel credit is by your account open date anniversary, not calendar year.

Do Capital One Travel Credits Expired?

Yes. Capital One Venture X $300 travel credit expires on your next account open date anniversary.