Capital one venture good option for travel rewards?

Capital One's very big in the travel rewards, but they've got a number of different cards. Go for the one that gives you 2% back. The renewal after the first year is $59, but you can then reassess and maybe go to another card then.
I use Capital One because they give you full value on the currency conversion.

There are sites that evaluate credit cards. I am thinking that I remembered that the Chase Sapphire card had the best rewards. BUT, I also think that the "best" changes frequently depending on the promotions. All cards (Visa or Mastercard) work equally well so it is just the details that differ.

I have a Capital One "Venture One" card. Advantages: No foreign transaction fees, no annual fee and the points your earn can be used to buy airline tickets or rental cars or used later to erase (buy down) those charges (any airline, anytime). Pretty good value IMO. The only minus is that the chip card does not have a PIN backup validation. That does make it harder to use in European automated kiosks.

I am an optimist and take my Discover card with me. It is accepted in more places now than last year. Sometimes it works when run as Diners Club, even when the business does not accept Discover.

I've used the Capital One Venture card now for several years, after becoming frustrated with an "airline" credit card that earned me useless points. My Cap One card has been accepted everywhere I've traveled - US, Europe, Oz, NZ. I recently booked flights from the US to Zurich and return from Venice with no problems using my points. So nice to not have to worry about airline rules and restrictions. Just use the accumulated points to cancel out that portion of the credit card bill when it arrives.

I am not sure what the "Venture" card is, I have the "Quicksilver" card that pays a rebate. There are no fees and the rebates quickly add up as I put everything on this card. I also pay the balance (automatically) every month. I occasionally look at airline and other card offers but I like the CASH.

I like airline miles because I use them for things I have a harder time splurging on otherwise. Also you earn miles when you fly too, so I think it's neat to keep points/miles in the same place.

I use Alaska Airlines because I live in Seattle, their hub and I have used them for "free" flights to Italy, Colorado and Montana.

First/business class tickets for longer flights were my goal, however I've found that it's nearly impossible to get award flights to Europe or Hawaii which are the two places that first/business class is really appealing.

So the Capitol One cards might be a good option for you considering they have no foreign transition fees, which would be nice for Italy.

We just got a Capital One Venture One card for our upcoming RS Italy tour. This card was recommended in the RS "Europe Through The back Door 2015" book ( a great book if traveling to Europe). He recommended it because of the 0% Foreign Transaction Fee & the reward system (& no annual fee).

I've been considering the Capital One Venture Card but I'm confused about how the points work. I currently have an Alaska Airlines card & I accrue 1 point per dollar spent and then I can spend the points in a 1:1 ratio (meaning if a round trip business class ticket is 150,000 miles, I have to spend 150,000 points). I'm confused about how the Cap One Venture Card points work; can someone explain it to me? I read something about each point being worth $.01. How does this work? What does brdcollie mean by "Just use the accumulated points to cancel out that portion of the credit card bill when it arrives"? Thanks so much.

@Sheron

For travel purchase like airline tickets or rental cars, you can use your points 100:1 either to purchase the tickets or to "erase" the charges afterwards. In other words, say you use your card to buy $1000 airline tickets. You can log in to your account, go to the rewards area and it will show you that charge. Then you can use 100,000 points to pay off that charge. I find that is easier than using the points to buy the tickets.

Note that the same ratio does not apply to "erase" other charges. And I don't recall the ratio for earning points, but it's pretty good.

Douglas's explanation was spot on. Using the Cap One points couldn't be easier. You don't have to deal with any airline restrictions or blackout dates. Just shop for the best date/price for your travel and then use the points to help pay your Cap One monthly bill. Or you can use the points system described by Douglas to pay other travel expenses (hotels, rental cars, etc). I really don't see any advantages of airline-based credit cards given how restrictive their use has become. I've found the Cap One point system to be very comparable to my old USAirways credit card rewards. And I get to choose my travel dates on any carrier, not the bottom-of-the-barrel dates offered by the individual credit card airlines. There are probably other credit cards that are similar to Capital One Venture, but I picked it based on reviews and rankings, and have not been disappointed.

Just a thought....and another option...I recently received a new Nordstrom Visa card to replace my existing one and realized that it . charges no foreign transaction fees and is chipped as well. We opened an account with Capital One Venture for those reasons, so really happy that we'll have two different cards as backup for each other. So glad to see everyone's great reviews on the Venture card!

I signed up for the Capital One Quicksilver (may be the same as Venture) just for our trip to Italy this summer. It was chip and signature and worked everywhere that took credit cards. There are a lot of things you can do with the account, for instance, I had it set to send me a text any time a purchase over $100 was made. I never worried that the number was stolen. At the end of the trip I had a nice rewards amount that I could choose what to do with, including taking it off the balance. However, if you don't intend to pay it off, be careful of the interest rate.

Mary

Thank you for all of your replies. We will get a Capital One card before we purchase airfare. I understand that the Chase card goes farther when using it to buy airfare, but we don't really fly that often (hoping to change that now that we are retired!!) and for our trip to Italy, we can't be super flexible with flight dates due to a family wedding that we are planning around. We will reassess the credit cards before the annual fee is due a year after we open the card.

Thanks again!