This New Travel Credit Card Is Going to Save Me Over $1,700 in 2022

Capital One's latest travel rewards card is my favorite new credit card, and I got it as soon as I could.

It's not often a new credit card really blows me away. Since I see so many of them, I'm used to all the typical perks at this point. The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is the exception to the rule.

Capital One launched this travel card in November 2021, and it surpassed all my expectations. I got the card shortly after its launch, and it's going to save me over $1,700 in 2022. Here's how.

Breaking down how much you can save with the Capital One Venture X

Before we get into what the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card offers, we'll start with how much it costs. The annual fee is $395. That may seem expensive, but it's actually quite easy to get more than $395 value from this card every year.

For a complete idea of how much you can save within a year, I'm going to go over its best features and the value of each one.

75,000 bonus miles

This card's highest-value perk is its sign-up bonus. New cardholders earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months.

Capital One Venture miles are redeemable for any travel purchases you make at a rate of $0.01 per mile. So, if you use them that way, they can cover $750 in travel spending. You also have the option of transferring miles to Capital One's travel partners.

$300 annual travel credit

Here's a big part of why that $395 annual fee isn't as costly as it seems. Every year, you'll receive up to $300 in statement credits on bookings made through Capital One Travel.

Capital One Travel offers flight, hotel, and car rental bookings. After a 2021 relaunch, the travel portal has a sleek and intuitive design. Its results are usually comparable with the other major travel booking portals, so you shouldn't have any trouble using this card's $300 in yearly credits.

Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit

With this Capital One card, you get a membership fee credit of up to $100 for Global Entry or $85 for TSA PreCheck every four years. These are two popular trusted traveler programs that help you get through airport security more quickly.

Choosing between Global Entry and TSA PreCheck isn't a hard decision. Global Entry also gets you a TSA PreCheck membership, making it the clear choice.

Airport lounge access

As a cardholder, you can enroll in Priority Pass and get unlimited access to its lounge program, which offers over 1,300 airport lounges. If you purchased this on your own, a Priority Pass membership with unlimited lounge access currently costs $429 per year.

You also get access to Capital One Lounges. There's only one open right now, but Capital One has two more set to launch in 2022.

2x to 10x miles on purchases

When you book through Capital One Travel, this card earns 10 miles per $1 spent on hotels and rental cars and 5 miles per $1 on flights. Other eligible purchases earn 2 miles per $1.

Remember that miles are worth $0.01 apiece toward travel. That means you're earning at least 2% back on purchases, plus 5% to 10% back through Capital One Travel. High rates like those are a great way to earn more travel rewards in 2022.

10,000 anniversary bonus miles

Every account year you have this card, Capital One will give you 10,000 bonus miles. That's a $100 value. Combined with that $300 travel credit, you can save at least $400 per year just from those two perks, already enough to cover the annual fee.

Adding it up

Now, I'll calculate how much this travel credit card will save me in year one. I'm only going to include the benefits that are easy to turn into cash savings on travel purchases, meaning I'm leaving out airport lounge access. Since the 10,000 anniversary miles don't kick in until your first account year ends, I'll leave those out, as well.

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card will save me:

• $1,000 on travel courtesy of the 100,000-mile sign-up bonus
• $300 on Capital One Travel bookings
• $200 on vacation rental bookings
• $100 on a Global Entry membership
• $500 on travel from the miles I'll earn on my spending

For the last one, I went with a conservative estimate of $25,000 in card spending this year and a rewards rate of 2 miles per $1 on all of it. That would earn me 50,000 miles, worth $500 toward travel.

That's a total of $2,100, and after subtracting the $395 annual fee, I'm getting $1,705 of value from this Capital One card.

Should you apply for the Capital One Venture X?

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is the one card I now recommend to just about everyone interested in opening a travel card.

While many of the best credit cards are getting more expensive, this Capital One card comes in cheaper than other premium cards. It also pays for itself with some easy-to-use benefits. For travel enthusiasts, it's definitely worth checking out.