If you've been running your travel rewards on the Chase Sapphire Preferred and wondering what to add next, The Points Guy makes a case for the Capital One Venture X — a pairing the site argues covers your spending and perks better than either card alone.
The logic is simple: the two cards do different jobs. The Sapphire Preferred ($95 annual fee) earns bonus points on dining, gas, EV charging, online groceries, select streaming and vacation rentals booked with brands like Airbnb and Vrbo, but everything outside those categories earns just 1 point per dollar. The Venture X ($395 annual fee) earns a flat 2 miles per dollar on all purchases, so it slots in as a catch-all card. The combined annual cost is $490, but the perks are designed to claw much of that back.
On the redemption side, holding both cards means two transferable currencies. Chase Ultimate Rewards points move to 10 airline and four hotel programs — think United MileagePlus, Southwest and World of Hyatt — while Capital One miles transfer to more than 15 partners including Avianca Lifemiles, Etihad Guest and Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles. Some partners overlap, so you can top up the same loyalty account from either side. The TPG writer's own redemptions show the range: 75,000 Chase points for three nights at Hotel 50 Bowery in New York over Labor Day, and roughly 7,000 Capital One miles (plus taxes and fees) for an SAS flight from Stockholm to Amsterdam via a transfer to Flying Blue.
The Venture X also brings perks the Sapphire Preferred lacks, most notably airport lounge access, plus a $300 annual credit on Capital One Travel bookings and 10,000 bonus miles each anniversary (valued at $185 by TPG's October 2026 valuations). The Sapphire Preferred counters with a $100 annual hotel credit on Chase Travel bookings and a complimentary DoorDash DashPass membership valid through the end of 2029. Use the credits and the two cards can largely pay for themselves.
Who is this actually for? Travellers who already understand points and transfers, want lounge access and flat-rate earning without jumping to a card charging $700 or more a year, and like keeping redemption options open. It's a poor fit if you rarely fly, prefer a single rewards program, or won't use enough of the Venture X's benefits to justify its fee.
The takeaway for holiday planners: if your wallet is stuck at one card, adding a flat-rate earner with premium perks is a low-friction upgrade — as long as you'll actually book through the travel portal and use the lounge.
