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When the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card entered the premium credit card space in 2021, it immediately became a fan favorite. With similar benefits but a cheaper annual fee than other premium cards, the Capital One Venture X offers a lot of perks for a justifiable annual fee. Not only are there many card benefits, but you can also add authorized users for free.
Let's look at the perks of the card itself, plus some of the great benefits that your friends and family members can get if you give them a free authorized user card.
Capital One Venture X Card Perks
This card comes with a sign-up bonus of 75,000 points when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. It charges an annual fee of $395. That's much less than other cards in the premium category. For reference, the The Platinum Card® from American Express charges an annual fee of $695 (Rates & Fees), and the Chase Sapphire Reserve® costs $550 each year.
Even though the Capital One Venture X annual fee is far less than its competitors, it's still a higher amount than many travelers may feel comfortable paying. It's important that you factor in all of the benefits that are included which help make up for the price. These include:
- A $300 annual travel credit. This is now applied as a discount on the first $300 you spend booking travel through the Capital One Travel Portal.
- 10,000 miles on your card anniversary. This starts the second year your card is open and is worth a minimum of $100.
- TSA PreCheck or Global Entry credit. You will automatically receive a $100 credit to your account when you use your card to pay the fee for either of these programs. You can get the credit once every four years.
- Capital One Lounge access. At the time of writing, Capital One has only opened one Capital One Lounge in Dallas-Fort Worth airport (DFW). However, three more Capital One Lounges are slated to open in 2023: Denver International Airport (DEN), Washington Dulles International (IAD), and Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas (LAS). Plus, Capital One is opening a new Capital One Landing concept in New York LaGuardia (LGA).
- Priority Pass membership. You can access over 1,300 lounges worldwide with a free membership through Capital One Venture X.
- Plaza Premium membership. You can access over 100 Plaza Premium lounges using your Capital One Venture X card.
- Primary Rental Car Coverage. Use your card to pay for your rental car and avoid having to pay extra for damage coverage. If anything happens, you will be covered by your card's insurance.
- Spending Categories. 2 miles per dollar on every purchase, every day, plus 10 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and 5 miles per dollar on flights booked through Capital One Travel.
- No foreign transaction fees.
How to Add Authorized User Cards to Your Capital One Venture X
Capital One allows you to have up to four authorized users on your Capital One Venture X for no additional annual fee. This is yet another aspect that sets the Capital One Venture X apart from other premium cards. Both the Amex Platinum and the Sapphire Reserve charge cardholders for adding authorized users to their accounts.
Let's look at exactly how to add an authorized user. First, you will go to your Capital One account online, then click on your card. From there, you will click on “I want to…”
Then, you can click on “Manage Account Users”
Then, you will select whether you want to add an account manager or an authorized user.
From there, you will select “authorized user”. Then, you will go through the process of entering personal information.
So what benefits do authorized users have? Quite a few!
Lounge Access
Authorized users get the same lounge access as the primary cardholder! Even better, each authorized user can bring two guests for free.
Since the Capital One Venture X allows you to add four authorized users, this means that you could potentially get up to 15 people into the lounge for free. Here's the math: five cardholders (yourself included), plus two guests each equals 15 total people. That makes the Capital One Venture X especially great for large families.
Capital One Lounges
Capital One Lounge opened its flagship location at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in October 2021. This was done with plans to open additional locations at Denver International Airport (DEN), Washington Dulles International (IAD), and Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas (LAS). Read all about Capital One Lounges here.
Additionally, Capital One is opening two Capital One Landing Lounges at New York-LaGuardia Airport (LGA) and Washington-National Airport (DCA).
To access these lounges, you simply need to show your Capital One Venture X card and your same-day boarding pass.
Plaza Premium Lounges
This is another group of lounges that you can access with your card. Capital One Venture X cardholders can access over 100 lounges worldwide. You can see the full list here. To access the lounge, just show your Capital One Venture X card and your same-day boarding pass.
Priority Pass Lounges
Priority Pass is a network of 1300+ lounges around the world. Authorized users can use their card to sign up for a Priority Pass membership. Then, they can gain access to all of the lounges in the network. Once you've signed up, show your Priority Pass card. Or, you can show your digital card on the Priority Pass app and your same-day boarding pass.
Unlike Capital One Lounges and Plaza Premium Lounges, you have authorization to bring unlimited guests into Priority Pass lounges with your membership provided by the Capital One Venture X. However, individual lounges may set their own guest limits or have capacity limits.
Hertz President's Circle Elite Status
Authorized users will also gain the highest elite status with Hertz, known as President's Circle. The benefits of this status are guaranteed upgrades, access to the President's Circle section of the car lot, 50% bonus points on rentals, and more. To enroll in this benefit the primary cardholder will need to go to their online profile, then “View Rewards,” then “Benefits,” then “Hertz President's Circle.”
Another perk is that you can book your car through the Capital One Travel portal. That means you can get top-tier perks while earning 10x Capital One miles on your rental car reservation.
Travel and Purchase Protections
Along with a plethora of other benefits, authorized users can access many travel protections and insurance. Each of these takes effect if you use your card to pay for your car, flight, purchase, etc. These benefits are:
- Primary rental car coverage: Decline the rental company's damage waiver and instead you will be covered through your card, up to $75,000.
- Trip cancellation and interruption insurance: Up to $2,000 per person if your flight is canceled or disrupted, or if you're unable to fly due to illness or bodily harm.
- Trip delay reimbursement: Up to $500 per person to cover things like hotels and food if your flight is delayed by more than six hours or overnight.
- Lost luggage protection: Up to $3,000 in reimbursements if the airline loses or damages your bags.
- Cell phone coverage: Two claims of up to $800 each in a 12-month period if your phone is lost, damaged, or stolen. You will pay a $50 deductible per claim.
- Purchase protection and extended warranty: 90 days of coverage if your item is lost, damaged, or stolen. If your purchase has a warranty of three years or less, you will gain an additional year of warranty through your card.
Capital One Dining and Entertainment
Through Capital One Dining, cardholders have access to hard-to-get reservations at award-winning restaurants in 13 U.S. cities.
Cardholders also have access to Capital One Entertainment. This allows you to purchase exclusive tickets, VIP packages, event perks, and more.
Final Thoughts
Authorized users may not be able to get the $300 travel credit, 10,000-mile anniversary bonus, or Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit. But, they have access to pretty much every other perk that comes with the Capital One Venture X. As you can see, there are plenty. The lower annual fee and the ability to have four authorized users for free gives this card a big leg up on the competition.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: The Platinum Card® from American Express (Rates & Fees)
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Hi, I’m pretty sure the lounge access is “unlimited guests” – not only two extra, for Priority Pass. The C1 and Plaza have limitations, but not PP.
Hi Philip, great point. I added a clarifying note about this.
Can I use my capital one venture X virtual card saved in apple wallet to access the plaza premium lounge?
That’s a really good question. I’d recommend carrying your physical Venture X card if you have it. That way the lounge check-in agent can scan it into their system. If you only have a digital copy, I’m not sure if the agent will know what to do.
How does the rental car insurance damage waiver work? When trying to rent a car and use my CSR I found that I still needed Liability insurance (which our own insurance didn’t cover outside of the country).
Like the CSR, the Capital One Venture X only covers damage and theft to the rental car itself — not liability insurance for any damage you cause to others. So, consider buying that coverage from the rental car company or taking out a separate policy if your insurance doesn’t cover rental cars outside the country.