Capital One announced today a partnership with Hotels.com to offer 10x miles on the Capital One Venture cards (worth 10% back) when booking hotel stays on Hotels.com using the dedicated URL hotels.com/venture. This offer is for both the Venture card and the no-fee VentureOne card, and will continue through January 2020. Be sure not to pay with Paypal or any mobile wallet.
Two positive things are made clear in the press release:
This 10x in on top of the standard Venture card earnings which is 2x on the Venture and 1.25x on the VentureOne.(this is wrong)- This promotion stacks with Hotels.com rewards program to get 1 free night after 10 stays.
Capital One continues creating innovative partnerships, though this deal is not necessarily as good as it sounds for a few reasons:
- You’ll have to pay with a Venture card which means not using discounted Hotels.com gift cards.
- Even if you don’t have Hotels.com gift cards, there are other credit cards like CSR which might get you more value from their standard rewards than the Venture, so you are losing a bit there.
- Good chance you’ll be losing out on portal rewards since there’s a dedicated URL for this Capital One offer. Portal rates are regularly in the 6% area for Hotels.com. That’s a significant loss.
- Some promo code offers might not be eligible at this link. We’ll see.
Still, there’s something to be said for simplicity, and who knows, maybe portals will stack with this (I wonder if you don’t really have to use the dedicated URL at all, despite the terms, or maybe clicking through the portal first and then going to the dedicated URL will work). Overall, heavy Hotels.com users will likely find this offer useful, if only for it’s simplicity.
Remember that when booking through Hotels.com isn’t a silver bullet since you won’t get any elite benefits or hotel loyalty points. William wrote up a full analysis of stacking discounts at hotels.com in a dedicated post. Hopefully he’ll add here if I missed anything.
Couple questions:
1) Does booking through travel portals like Chase/Amex earn hotel loyalty points and recognize status?
2)For hotels.com, can you get portal percentage when using hotels.com giftcards? How about when using hotels.com discount code?
1. No
2. Depends, usually the rate is lower
If $2000 for a hotel stay is $20 in miles doesn’t sound worth it…
A $2000 hotel stay is 20,000 miles, which is $200.
I see. Thanks
Capital One has been really stingy recently with approvals. I can’t get approve for the business card cards even though I try once every year. However, my 8-year old Venture One (PC-ed from Venture) was approved when I only had one or two years of credit history with a credit score of 675 at the time.
On another note, don’t cash back portals exclude earning cash back when paying with Hotels.com gift card? I seem to remember this a few years back and I didn’t earn any when I booked I don’t remember the site. But just a few weeks ago, I tried another portal and the cash back are pending right now.
Maybe the portals will exclude earning cash back when paying with Venture/Venture One.
Do you think CapitalOne’s strict application approval rate/process will change with these announcements? For example, my hotels.com account status will somehow impact CapOne’s decision to give me a Venture?
I applied for the CapOne Venture 6 months ago and even though my Quicksilver is the eldest card in my credit history, 15 years, and my score is over 800 AND I froze (then later unfroze) my Experian report, basically I did everything right with the application and was still denied… CapOne’s reason was that since I never use my Quicksilver (come one 1.5%, haha), I don’t have any payment history.
It would be great if I could skip having to use my Quicksilver just to get back in CapOne’s good graces, but if I must, I must.
I doubt it, I’d just put some minimal use on the Quicksilver
Yeah that’s what I was thinking too. I just needed someone to tell me to buck up and get it done.
Chuck and Will, you two are quick on the responses. Thank you so much!!
Anytime
if you dont use your Capital one Quicksilve for obvious reasons.. then simpy product change into VentureOne $0 AF card. You dont even have to call them. Just visit the link below.. login and you will get all your upgrade options.. without the hassel of speaking to anyone.
https://verified.capitalone.com/sic-ui/#/esignin?Product=Card&Action=ProductUpgrade
Hey TubeItNik, I thought of that awhile back and actually wish I had switched to the Venture years ago, but now it’s all about the sign-up bonus. If I can be 50k points ahead just from opening a new card, I’m all for it. I’ll probably throw $5-$10 on the quicksilver each month for the next 6 months to a year and apply again when the Venture has the 50k bonus and hopefully with the AF waived.
Hey TubeItNik, I took your advice but in a slightly tweaked way. I changed my Quicksilver to the VentureOne no AF card since I anticipate putting some Hotels.com purchases on the card (pretty much the only way I’d use it). Then after 6 months of purchases and payments to re-build my history with CapOne, I’ll apply for the regular Venture as long as the 50k bonus is still around, hopefully get approved this time, and get the bonus. Hopefully, having a Venture and VentureOne open at the same time isn’t against some crazy term and condition of CapitalOne or somehow make me ineligible for the bonus. DPs to come I’m sure.
No, I’m glutton for punishment, so I tried for a venture last night and insta-denied again. 3 hard pulls down the drain and this was using an offer code they sent me. Never going to deal with cap one again. Got insta approved for an Amex bus gold a little later.
> Hopefully he’ll add here if I missed anything.
Nope, you covered pretty much everything I can think of. TCB is offering 8% currently when you use Paypal (12% if you chose not to earn Hotels.com rewards, not sure why you’d do that). This will be useful for me when I can’t find any discounted GC.
“(12% if you chose not to earn Hotels.com rewards, not sure why you’d do that”
Basically three reasons:
1) You know you won’t be reaching the 10 nights for redemption anytime soon.
2) The hotel you’re booking isn’t eligible.
3) Promo code + increased 12% cashback might be worth more than 10% + 8% cashback
My company booked me travel on hotels.com as their standard procedure, for some SPG property per my request. I was looking forward to trying SPG Keyless, but, apparently, it’s limited to “SPG channels”, which is like total BS, and left me quite disappointed, in both hotels.com and SPG.
What’s really the point of booking on these third-party sites if you pay the same rates, get fewer benefits, and earn fewer/worse-off rewards? It’s disappointing that some companies make it their policy to book on hotels.com, presumably, to avoid giving away the points to their applicants/employees.
It’s not really the fault of hotels.com, they can’t force hotel providers to provide these “benefits”. Companies don’t book using hotels.com to prevent employees getting points, if they are stacking correctly/have access to corporate rates it can be significantly cheaper than booking directly.
I think it would actually be a bad deal since per some reading it seems you have to go through specific link, which void any other cash back portal opportunities. I remember I usually get 12%+ cashback from portal. Also unsure if this can combined with promo offer that usually come with the portal link
We noted the portal angle. I’ll add a note about the potential promo code issue.
not bad. 10% cashback is not always easy to beat but heavily discounted GC will def beat that. its a shame i stick with hotel chain elites tho.