Capital One Venture X vs. The Platinum Card from American Express

If you’re looking for a premium travel credit card to add to your wallet, you’ve got options. Two cards have been duking it out to compete for a spot in your wallet. 

Read our review of the Platinum Card® from American Express

Read our review of the Capital One Venture X

Annual fee

Let’s get this one out of the way first. When it comes to premium travel credit cards, the annual fee is always the first place to look.  Here’s how they compare:

Amex Platinum card's annual fee is $300 more than the annual fee for the Venture X. Is it worth it? That depends on what you’re looking for.

Lounge access

If you’re looking for a premium travel credit card, airport lounge access is probably one of your top priorities. Both cards offer a Priority Pass™ membership, which gets you access to over 1,400+ lounges at over 500 airports. Enrollment required.

While the Amex Platinum’s lounge collection is much larger than the Venture X’s, if you frequent an airport that has one of the Capital One Lounges, then it could be worth it for you.

^{*Effective February 1, 2025: Eligible Platinum Card Members will receive 10 Visits per Eligible Platinum Card per year to the Delta Sky Club or to Grab and Go when traveling on a same-day Delta-operated flight. Visits are non-transferable and may only be used by the Eligible Platinum Card Member.}

Other perks and credits

Both cards include an application credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®. The fine print is you receive either a $120 statement credit every 4 years for a Global Entry application fee or a statement credit up to $85 every 4.5 years for a TSA PreCheck® (through a TSA official enrollment provider) application fee, when charged to your eligible card (either the Venture X or Platinum Card). 

If you are approved for Global Entry, you will also receive access to TSA PreCheck at no additional cost. 

Venture X statement credits

So, if you booked a hotel for $350 through this portal, you’d owe $50 after using the credit. 

By using this credit, you can effectively reduce the card’s annual fee to $95. 

Platinum card statement credits

Some of the highlights of the credits that the Platinum card includes:

• $200 Airline Fee Credit: Select one qualifying airline and then receive up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year when incidental fees are charged by the airline to your Platinum Card(R).
• $200 Hotel Credit: Get up to $200 back in statement credits each year on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts(R) or The Hotel Collection bookings through American Express Travel using your Platinum Card(R). The Hotel Collection requires a minimum two-night stay.
• $240 Digital Entertainment Credit: Get up to $20 back in statement credits each month on eligible purchases made with your Platinum Card(R) on one or more of the following: Disney+, a Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, The New York Times, Peacock, and The Wall Street Journal. Enrollment required.
• $155 Walmart+ Credit: Save on eligible delivery fees, shipping, and more with a Walmart+ membership. Use your Platinum Card(R) to pay for a monthly Walmart+ membership and get up to $12.95 plus applicable taxes back on one membership (excluding Plus Ups) each month.
• $200 Uber Cash: Platinum Card® Members can get out and about and explore their local area with $15 in Uber Cash for US rides each month, plus a bonus $20 in December. That can be up to $200 in annual Uber savings. Simply download the Uber app and add your Platinum Card® to your Uber account to get started. Available to Basic Card Member only. Effective 11/8/2024, an Amex Card must be selected as the payment method for your Uber or Uber Eats transaction to redeem the Amex Uber Cash benefit.
• $199 CLEAR(R) Plus Credit: CLEAR(R) Plus helps to get you to your gate faster at 50+ airports nationwide and get up to $199 back per calendar year on your Membership (subject to auto-renewal) when you use your Card. CLEARLanes are available at 100+ airports, stadiums, and entertainment venues.

Heads up: Enrollment is required for many of these benefits.

Actually using all of these credits—and understanding how to maximize them—can be overwhelming.

Welcome offer

A card’s welcome offer is the bonus points you earn after spending a minimum amount on the new card. Earning a new card’s welcome offer is one of the best ways to get a free flight. 

Here’s how they stack up:

You need to spend only half as much with the Venture X to earn a nearly similar amount of points. 

The Platinum Card’s spending requirement is double——but you also have twice as much time to accomplish it. This means that the pacing is similar.

Ongoing points-earning rate

The points-earning structure on the two cards differs a lot. 

Miles is Capital One’s lingo for transferable points.

Transfer partners 

Points are just points when they sit in your account: What matters is how you use those points. 

Both cards boast transfer partners to hotels and airlines, but if I had to choose which card’s network of partners is stronger, I’d have to say Amex transfer partners are stronger. Here are some of the transfer partners that the Amex Platinum card has that are missing from Capital One transfer partners:

• Delta Air Lines
• ANA (All Nippon Airways)
• Iberia Plus
• Hilton and Marriott Bonvoy

That said, the Venture X has some valuable transfer partners, too. Some transfer partners that Capital One has that Amex doesn’t include Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles, Wydnham, and Choice hotels. 

Both count Air Canada, Air France/KLM, Avianca LifeMiles, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic as transfer partners—all high-value partners from which we regularly send Going with Points deals.  

Amex Platinum vs. Venture X: Which should you choose?

In the battle between the premium travel cards… that’s up for you to decide.