Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card vs. Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card: Editorial reviews
What we think of Chase Sapphire Preferred
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card tops our list of the best travel credit cards for many reasons. It earns flexible Chase Ultimate Rewards® points which can be transferred to a wide range of travel partners, redeemed for cash back or redeemed for travel directly through Chase Travel℠. It also has a low $95 annual fee, so it isn’t this huge burden on your wallet.
One of the best things about the Sapphire Preferred card is that its points are worth 25% more when redeemed through Chase Travel, meaning each point is worth 1.25 cents. This helps your points stretch even further to help you make the most of your dollar. Plus, you’ll get a 10% annual points bonus, which is pretty sweet if you ask us.
The travel protections on the Sapphire Preferred are also a standout feature, offering trip cancellation insurance, car rental insurance and baggage delay coverage. While these aren’t as comprehensive as a standalone travel insurance plan, they provide valuable peace of mind on every trip you take, as long as you pay with this card.
Where Chase Sapphire Preferred falls short is in its premium benefits— it has no TSA PreCheck® or Global Entry fee credit and no airport lounge access, limiting its value for frequent, high-end travelers.
What we think of Capital One Venture Rewards
The Capital One Venture Rewards card stands out for its simplicity and affordability. With straightforward rewards on all purchases, there’s no need to keep track of bonus categories. Like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, you’ll only need to pay a $95 annual fee to own this card, which is pretty easy to justify.
Venture Rewards offers up to a $120 TSA PreCheck or Global Entry fee credit every four years, allowing you to take advantage of these Trusted Traveler programs. Capital One Miles earning cards also have the added benefit of allowing you to use your miles retroactively to cover travel purchases you’ve already made. You can use your miles directly if you purchase travel in the Capital One Travel portal. If you make travel purchases outside the portal, you can use your miles for a credit on your statement.
A few things bring the Venture card a few notches down in our books. Redemption value isn’t as stellar as the Sapphire Preferred, with a value of only 1 cent per mile for travel and only 0.5 cents per mile for cash back. Capital One travel partners are also limited to non-U.S. airlines, which isn’t ideal.
Where Chase Sapphire Preferred® wins
Travel insurance
Chase Sapphire offers comprehensive travel protections, including trip cancellation, trip interruption and delay coverage, baggage delay coverage, emergency assistance and rental car insurance.
These are the travel insurance perks you can benefit from with the Sapphire Preferred®:
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Trip cancellation/interruption insurance: Up to $20,000 per eligible trip
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Trip delay insurance: Up to $500 per ticket after at least 12 hours
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Baggage delay insurance: Up to $100 per day for up to 5 days
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Lost luggage insurance: Up to $3,000 per person
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Primary rental car insurance: Up to the cash value of most cars
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Travel accident insurance: Up to $500,000 when traveling on a common carrier
These protections only kick in under certain circumstances and if you’ve paid for your trip with your eligible card.
▶︎ Learn more about Chase Sapphire travel insurance.
Venture Rewards comes with a few travel insurance protections as well, but nowhere near as comprehensive as the Sapphire Preferred.
With Venture, you can access:
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Trip cancellation/interruption insurance: Up to $1,500 per eligible traveler
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Baggage delay insurance: Up to $100 per person, per day, for up to three days if baggage is delayed 4+ hours
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Lost luggage insurance: Up to $1,500 per incident, up to two claims per 12-months
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Rental car insurance: Secondary coverage in the U.S., primary outside the U.S., up to the value of the vehicle
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Travel accident insurance: Up to $1M when traveling on a common carrier
Transfer partners
Chase boasts a solid list of valuable transfer partners through the Chase Travel℠ platform. All points transfer at a 1:1 ratio.
Chase partners include:
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- British Airways Executive Club
- Emirates Skywards
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
- United MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- IHG One Rewards
- World of Hyatt
- Marriott Bonvoy
Capital One has a decent list of travel partners as well, but none are U.S. airlines. Miles transfer at a 1:1, 2:1 or 4:3 ratio.
Capital One travel partners include:
- Aeromexico Rewards
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue
- Avianca LifeMiles
- British Airways Executive Club
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Choice Privileges (U.S.-based accounts only)
- Emirates Skywards
- Finnair Plus
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Virgin Red
- Wyndham Rewards
Redemption options and value
One of Chase Sapphire Preferred’s top benefits is in its redemption value. After earning a pile of points, those points can be redeemed in various ways. Most notably, 1:1 for cash back (1 point = 1 cent), or 1:1.25 for travel through Chase (1 point = 1.25 cents). This gives you the unmatched flexibility to choose what you want to do with your points. So, for example, if you’re in a travel lull, you can cash them in for a statement credit and not lose a ton of value.
Capital One Venture Rewards has a solid redemption rate for travel, with miles cashing in 1:1 (1 mile = 1 cent). You can even use your miles to retroactively cover travel purchases you make outside the travel portal via statement credit. However, the value of your miles decreases exponentially if you redeem them for cash back— it’ll only get you 0.5 cents per mile. This limits you if you’ve racked up a mountain of miles and aren’t traveling soon; you can either let them sit around until you’re planning your next trip or you can try to deal with a substantial depreciation.
Annual points boost
Let’s say you spend $30,000 in the next cardholder year (e.g. November 2024 to November 2025). You’ll automatically get an additional 3,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards® points at your cardholder anniversary to boost your rewards balance.
The Venture Rewards card has no comparable benefit.
Partner benefits
DoorDash lovers can access a complimentary DashPass membership with their Sapphire Preferred card, entitling them to perks like $0 delivery fees and reduced service fees for a minimum of 1 year when activated by December 31, 2027. To access this benefit, link your Chase Sapphire Preferred to your DoorDash account and click the activation button.
Venture Rewards currently has no partner benefits.
Where Capital One Venture Rewards wins
TSA PreCheck® credit
Enrolling in trusted traveler programs like Global Entry and TSA PreCheck may help you avoid the stress of airport security, allowing you to bypass certain security procedures to speed up the process. While these programs aren’t too expensive to enroll in, you won’t need to worry about the cost with the Capital One Venture Rewards Card. With Venture, you can access up to a $120 credit every four years to cover the application fee for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck when you pay with this card.
Chase Sapphire Preferred has no such benefit.
Simple rewards
Tracking bonus categories can be a frustrating and tedious process. Needing to figure out which card has which category and whether a purchase even falls into that category is not a fun process. The Venture Rewards Card keeps things simple, with 5X miles on hotel, rental car and vacation rental purchases through Capital One Travel and 2X miles on all other purchases.
Sapphire Preferred has quite a few bonus categories, from travel to dining to streaming services. If you spend a lot in these categories, it could be worth it. If you don’t, however, the fallback rate of Sapphire Preferred is a measly 1X points per dollar on all other non-bonus purchases.
Lounge access
This Capital One Venture Rewards card benefit is ending soon, but until the end of 2024, you can access the Capital One Lounge two times for free. Capital One Lounges are— how do you say— **chefs kiss**, so this benefit is amazing. We’re sad it’s leaving soon but our fingers are crossed that it comes back in the future.
Chase Sapphire Preferred doesn’t have any credit card lounge access benefits.
Where there’s no clear winner
Hotel credits
Both the Sapphire Preferred and Venture Rewards cards have somewhat similar hotel benefits.
With Sapphire Preferred, you can get a $50 statement credit each anniversary year for hotel stays booked through Chase Travel℠. You’ll get your first $50 credit as soon as you’re approved and another one every cardholder anniversary after.
With Venture Rewards, if you use Capital One Travel to book a hotel in the Lifestyle Collection, you’re entitled to a $50 experience credit on every booking and possible room upgrades, late checkouts and early check-ins.
We think these benefits are tied because of flexibility vs. value. The Chase hotel credit is significantly more flexible, applying to any hotel stay booked through Chase Travel℠.
On the other hand, the Capital One benefit offers more value, with the possibility of additional benefits and multiple redemptions. However, it’s limited to hotels in the Lifestyle Collection, and there aren’t very many.
No foreign transaction fees
You can use either of these cards abroad without incurring pesky international transaction fees. While a foreign transaction fee of 3% or 2.7% or whatever doesn’t seem like a ton, if you’re like me, you’re prone to spending a lot while in a different country.
If a card had a 3% transaction fee and you made $1,000 in purchases while traveling, you’d be charged an additional $30. But there’s no need for you to worry about that with the Sapphire Preferred or Venture Rewards cards.
Card-pairing value
The infamous Chase Trifecta pairs three Chase credit cards for ultimate value, capitalizing on their unique bonus categories to boost reward potential. You don’t need to get all three though, you can still benefit from having two (and that makes it easier to track categories).
Let’s say you get the Sapphire Preferred and the Chase Freedom Unlimited® cards.
You can maximize rewards by structuring your purchases like so:
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5X points (or 5% back) on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠ (Sapphire Preferred or Freedom Unlimited)
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5X points on Lyft rides through March 31, 2025 (Sapphire Preferred)
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3X points on dining, select streaming services, and online grocery purchases (excluding Walmart, Target and wholesale clubs) (Sapphire Preferred)
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3% cash back on purchases at drugstores (Freedom Unlimited)
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2X points on all other travel purchases (Sapphire Preferred)
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1.5% back on other purchases (Freedom Unlimited)
Note: Freedom Unlimited’s cash back is also via Chase Ultimate Rewards® points, so 1.5% back equals 1.5X points per dollar.
After earning points, you can transfer all of them to your Chase Sapphire Preferred account to redeem at its elevated value of 1.25 cents per point for Chase Travel℠ purchases.
Capital One allows a similar reward-moving structure. For example, if you have the no-annual-fee Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card, you can move your rewards earned to your Venture Rewards card at a 1-cent to 1-mile conversion rate.
Here’s how you can make the most of your dollar through pairing these two cards:
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3% cash back on dining, entertainment, grocery stores (excluding superstores, wholesale stores, gas stations, convenience stores or discount stores) and streaming services (Savor)
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5X miles on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel (Venture)
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8% cash back on Capital One Entertainment purchases. (Savor)
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2X miles on all other purchases (Venture)
Annual fee
Both are cards with $95 annual fees.
Capital One Venture Card and Chase Sapphire Preferred: Rewards
Welcome bonus
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card has a welcome bonus of 60,000 points. This reward is only available once you spend a minimum of $4,000 on purchases within three months of opening your account. This is worth $750 when redeemed for travel through Chase Travel. Plus, cardholders can get up to $300 in statement credits on Chase Travel purchases within the first year.
The Capital One Venture card’s welcome bonus is 75,000 miles when you spend $4,000 within three months of opening your account. This is worth $750 in travel.
Earning rewards
With Chase Sapphire Preferred, you can earn the following amounts in these ways:
- 5X points per dollar spent on travel purchases using Chase Travel℠
- 3X points per dollar spent on dining, eligible delivery services, select streaming services and online grocery purchases (Walmart, Target and wholesale club purchases excluded)
- 2X points per dollar spent on travel purchased without using Chase Travel℠
- 1X points per dollar spent on anything not covered above
There are sometimes limited-time-only offers as well, such as the current promotion (as of January 2024) of 5 points per dollar spent with Lyft through March 2025.
The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card has a simpler but less exciting rewards scheme:
- 5X miles per dollar spent on rental cars and hotels only when booked through Capital One Travel
- 2X miles per dollar spent on anything else
Which is better, Sapphire Preferred or Venture Rewards?
To reach a final verdict regarding Capital One Venture vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred, we have to review every category and also take individual needs into account. Both are excellent starter travel cards, but the best one for you depends on which benefits you value.
You might be better off with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card if you like to book through Capital One Travel, already have a Capital One card, and/or don’t want to juggle bonus categories.
Chances are more people will be satisfied with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card though, given its superior rewards scheme, expansive partner list and oodles of travel perks.
Does it make sense to have both Sapphire Preferred and Venture Rewards?
It might make sense to have both— applying for and using both cards responsibly could help you maximize rewards in every possible way. Just be strategic about when and how you do your spending.
First, revel in the tingly feeling you’ll get from doubling up on welcome bonuses. Then, rely on your Chase Sapphire Preferred Card for travel, dining, online grocery shopping and other higher-reward activities. Get out your Capital One Venture Card for all “miscellaneous” purchases and take advantage of the double miles for each dollar you spend.
Keep in mind, though, that Chase has the unofficial 5/24 rule, meaning they won’t approve you for one of their cards if you’ve been approved for five or more other cards (from any issuer) in the last 24 months.
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