With travel currently at higher levels than ever, getting ahead of the curve with travel benefits and rewards is more important than ever. And for frequent travelers, there is no better way to gain special travel privileges and earn great rewards than through a premium travel credit card.

However, with the constant bombardment of credit card ads and offers, it can be challenging to discern which travel credit cards are the best for you to add to your wallet. Luckily, there are two card options that jump ahead as two of the best options on the market:

The Capital One Venture X and the American Express Platinum.

These two cards are market leaders due to their powerful benefits (such as great lounge access), great rewards, and a variety of helpful travel partners. However, both cards have high annual fees and are difficult to get approved for; unless you’re a super high spender, it likely doesn’t make sense for you to hold the Venture X and the AmEx Platinum.

Therefore, we’ve pulled from the data, online sentiment, and our own personal experience to provide you with a guide to deciding which of these two credit cards makes more sense for you to add to your wallet! We’ve compared the benefits, drawbacks, and redemption options and put together our recommendations for a variety of different circumstances

With that background context out of the way, let’s jump into the comparison! We’ll start by looking at each of the cards individually before examining which card is better for you.

Capital One Venture X

The Capital One Venture X is the big brother of the 3-card Venture series, including the cheapest VentureOne and the mid-ter Venture Rewards. All three Venture cards offer a fairly similar premise: flat point earning across all forms of spending, making these excellent options for people who want fewer cards and a simple yet effective set-up.

Let’s review the basic details of the Venture X:

Annual fee: $395
Sign-on bonus: 75,000 Capital One Miles when you spend $4,000 in 3 months (though currently there is a 90k point offer going around)
Reward earning: 2x Miles on all purchases, 10x Miles on rental cars and hotels booked through the travel portal, 5x Miles on flights booked through the travel portal
Other benefits: $300 annual travel coupon for flights booked through the C1 travel portal, access to Capital One and Priority Pass lounges, no foreign transaction fees, Hertz President’s Circle status, 10,000 C1 Miles annual anniversary bonus

While the Venture X does come with a sizeable annual fee, it is built around utilization of the $300 travel credit. While it’s a shame that this benefit is now a coupon rather than a statement credit (meaning you can’t use it as flexibly), if you use the benefit annually, the effective annual fee drops to $95 (which is the same as the Venture Rewards). Using the credit is extremely easy; all you do is activate the $300 coupon as you’re booking the travel in the portal and it’ll apply to the booking itself!

In terms of rewards, the flat 2x miles on all purchases is valuable for helping cardholders accumulate rewards without having to put in effort “using the right card.” With the Venture X, you use the card, you get 2x miles on each dollar—making it one of the simplest travel cards out there.

The benefits of Capital One Venture X are largely mediocre. While this card does grant lounge access, the value of Priority Pass has plummeted in the past couple of years and (as of writing) there are only 3 open Capital One lounges. If you’ve never had lounge access, this benefit can seem like a big plus; however, with overcrowding and recent restrictions on lounge access, there is a good chance that you won’t be able to use the lounge access in a consistently good manner.

As well, the Hertz status is great for those who frequently rent cars; however, the savings from President’s Circle status are less financial and more time-savings, allowing you to skip lines and get priority in reservations.

Capital One isn’t known for having the most elite transfer partners of any bank, and is particularly lacking in domestic flights options; however, Capital One’s international travel partners are solid, with major airlines such as Air Canada, British Airways, Air France/KLM, and Virgin Atlantic.

Overall, the Venture X is an excellent option for anyone looking for an elite travel card that provides simple rewards and usable benefits. While the rewards are extremely easy to earn, the point system isn’t quite as valuable as other banks. However, almost every Venture X cardholder will be able to make their money back across the benefits and rewards!

American Express Platinum

The American Express Platinum is AmEx’s premium travel card. While the Platinum card has one of the highest annual fees of any card on the market (coming in at a whopping $695), it provides cardholders with a myriad of benefits and rewards, including lounge access, executive status for rental cards, and more.

Let’s review the basic details of the American Express Platinum:

Annual fee: $695
Sign-on bonus: 80,000 Membership Reward points after you spend $8,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months
Reward earning: 5x points on all flights booked either through the American Express travel portal or directly with the airline, & 5x points on hotels booked through the Amex portal
Other benefits: Hertz President’s Circle status, Global Lounge Collection access, $200 hotel incidentals statement credit, $240 digital entertainment credit (Disney+, ESPN+, etc.), $155 Walmart+ credit, $200 Uber credit ($15 monthly), $200 airline fee credit, $300 Equinox credit, $189 CLEAR credit

As you can see, the American Express Platinum is built for two things: using credits and booking travel. Unlike many other common travel cards (e.g., the American Express Gold, the Chase Sapphire Preferred, etc.) which are designed to earn rewards on daily spending, the AmEx Platinum gives you almost nothing for any spending outside of travel.

However, the American Express Platinum is one of the best cards for earning points on travel purchases, with a flat 5x points on all flights and on hotels booked through the AmEx portal. If flights are one of your top spending categories, there are very few other cards out there that will give you more points for your spending than the AmEx Platinum.

Valuing if the Platinum makes sense for you will largely come down to the % of card benefits that you are able to use. While very few people will realistically be able to take advantage of every card benefit, if you were able to theoretically use every benefit, you would come out ~$800 ahead including the annual fee.

Always be careful when deciding to get a card based off of its benefits. Think about which credits you will realistically use consistently, not the credits that you could use.

American Express is known for having an incredibly wide range of valuable travel partners, including major domestic airlines Delta and JetBlue, as well as a good breadth of international partners.

Overall, the American Express Platinum is one of the best cards on the market for travel and travel benefits. With a combination

Which card makes more sense for you?

Figuring out which of the Capital One Venture X and the American Express Platinum is a better fit for you comes down to a few different factors.

First, the Priority Pass Membership, the Hertz President’s Circle status, and many of the transfer partners are shared between the two cards. Therefore, we can essentially ignore these benefits when deciding between the two.

The final verdict on which card makes more sense for you will come down to a few specific scenarios:

If flight rewards and travel-related benefits (exclusive lounge access) are the most important part of a travel card for you, get the American Express Platinum. While both cards offer lounge access, the Global Lounge Collection is far superior to the basic Priority Pass offered by the Venture. As well, frequent fliers can get value from the 5x points on flights alone, if you spend more than ~$14000 on flights a year, you more than make up the annual fee.
If you can realistically use more than $700 worth of the credits provided by the card, get the American Express Platinum. With such a wide variety of possible savings offered by the card, some people will be able to more than make up the annual fee.
If neither of the above applies to you (i.e., for everyone else), get the Capital One Venture X. The Venture X has a lower annual fee, offers a wide breadth of earnings with a flat 2x points on all purchases, and provides a simpler overall set-up. While the rewards aren’t quite as good for the Venture X as for the AmEx Platinum, the Venture makes it far easier to earn points in the first place.

Most people will fit into one of the three buckets above; however, if you have any questions about other specific situations, make sure to leave a comment below.

We hope this article was helpful to you! If you’re interested in other tips, make sure to check out our guide to combining American Express and Chase points, how to transfer Chase points to Hyatt, and a comparison of the American Express Gold and Delta Gold.