Amex Platinum Card vs. Capital One Venture Card [Detailed Comparison]

Are you in the market for a new travel rewards card? Have you come across both The Platinum Card^® from American Express and the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card in your own research? Can’t decide between high-end travel benefits or a solid rewards card with a low annual fee?

In this guide, we’ll be showing you the ins and outs of both card options to help you decide which one is best for your situation. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, so we’ll dive deep into the rewards, redeeming points, travel benefits, shopping perks, and much more.

As you can probably imagine, the Amex Platinum card is geared more towards luxury travel benefits, while the Capital One Venture card is more suited for people who are averse to high annual fees but would still like a worthwhile rewards structure on their card.

Amex Platinum Card vs. Capital One Venture Card — Overview

Don’t have time to read through this entire article? We understand. Check out this table walking you through the summary of both cards head-to-head.

Feature/Benefit	The Platinum Card® from American Express	Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
Welcome Offer	Earn 80,000 points after spending $8,000 on purchases in the first 6 months.	Earn 75,000 miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.
Earning Potential	5x Membership Rewards points on airfare booked directly with the airline or through AmexTravel.com (up to $500,000 per calendar year) 5x points on prepaid hotel stays booked through AmexTravel.com 1x points on other purchases	5x Capital One miles on car rentals and hotels purchased through Capital One Travel 2x miles on other purchases
Redemption Options	Transfers to airline and hotel partners AmexTravel.com bookings Amazon.com purchases Online shopping Gift cards Cash-back	Transfers to airline and hotel partners Redeem miles for any recent travel-related purchase  Use rewards at Amazon.com Redeem rewards for gift cards
Hotel and Rental Car Program Benefits	Access to Fine Hotels + Resorts and The Hotel Collection Complimentary Hilton Honors Gold and Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status upon enrollment Rental car privileges with Avis (Plus), Hertz (President’s Circle), and National (Executive) upon enrollment	None
Travel Benefits and Protections	Access to the American Express Global Lounge Collection Car rental loss and damage insurance Trip cancellation and interruption insurance Trip delay reimbursement Baggage insurance plan Premium Global Assist	MasterRental Insurance Travel Assistance Services MasterRoad Assist Lost or Damaged Luggage Reimbursement
Shopping Benefits and Protections	Cell phone protection Purchase protection Extended warranty No foreign transaction fees (rates & fees) No preset spending limit	Purchase Assurance No foreign transaction fees (rates & fees)
Annual Fees	$695 (rates & fees)	$95 (rates & fees)
Authorized Users	$195 per card (rates & fees)	No additional annual fees for authorized users (rates & fees)

The Value of a Welcome Offer

These welcome bonuses are earned after meeting a minimum spending requirement within the first few months immediately after card approval.

In general, the Amex Platinum card usually has better welcome offers, but we’ve sometimes seen instances when the Capital One Venture card offers a more attractive welcome bonus.

Just remember that it behooves you to check if the welcome offer available is as high as possible when applying for your new card so you can strike while the iron is hot!

Amex Platinum Card

Hot Tip: Check to see if you’re eligible for a welcome bonus offer of up to 125k (or 150k) points with the Amex Platinum. The current public offer is 80,000 points. (This targeted offer was independently researched and may not be available to all applicants.)

Capital One Venture Card

Amex Membership Rewards Points vs. Capital One Miles

Amex Membership Rewards points or Capital One miles? Although there isn’t a universal answer, let’s take a look at both point currencies to see what exactly we’re dealing with.

To start, we value Amex Membership Rewards points at 2.2 cents each and Capital One miles at 1.8 cents each.

The reason why we value Amex Membership Rewards points more than Capital One miles is due to the quality of Amex’s airline and hotel transfer partners compared to Capital One’s transfer partners. Currently, Amex has better high-quality transfer partners like ANA Mileage Club and Hilton Honors.

These 2 programs share a lot of transfer partners such as Air Canada Aeroplan and British Airways Executive Club, but the difference is in the niche programs.

You can consistently transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Hilton Honors at a 1:2 ratio to book luxury hotels using points at a good value — it’s not easy to get good value at hotels through Capital One miles due to the poor transfer ratio of 1:1 with Choice Privileges and Wyndham Rewards.

One common theme is that you can use both Amex Membership Rewards points and Capital One miles for less valuable redemption value through cash-back, gift cards, statement credits, and Amazon.com purchases.

Earning Potential

Earning Category	Amex Platinum Card	Capital One Venture Card
Flights Booked With the Card Travel Portal or Directly With the Airline	5x points (maximum of $500,000 per calendar year for flights booked with the airline or AmexTravel.com)	2x miles
Prepaid Hotels Booked With the Card Travel Portal	5x points (AmexTravel.com)	5x miles (Capital One Travel)
Other Hotels Booked With the Card Travel Portal	1x points (AmexTravel.com)	5x miles (Capital One Travel)
Car Rentals Booked with the Card Travel Portal	2x points (prepaid car rentals only)	5x miles (Capital One Travel)
Other Eligible Purchases	1x points	2x miles

When you max out the rewards on the Amex Platinum card, you’re looking at a return on spending of 11% — however, if you tend to spend more of your money on non-travel purchases, the Capital One Venture card earns 2x miles, which we value at a 3.6% return on spending. This is superior to the Amex Platinum card’s 1x points on other purchases, equal to a 2.2% return on spending.

We definitely favor using the Amex Platinum card if you’re spending heavily on travel and the Capital One Venture card if you tend to make non-travel purchases.

Redemption Options

Redemption options for both cards appear to be very similar with both Amex Membership Rewards points and Capital One miles.

However, the difference lies in the nuance. We can’t emphasize enough that the best way to use either of these rewards points/miles is to transfer them to airline and hotel partners and book luxury award travel, whether it’s for business class flights or 5-star hotels.

And the Amex Platinum card’s transfer partners are typically more valuable than the Capital One Venture card’s transfer partners, though they do share many identical transfer partners.

Hotel and Rental Car Program Elite Benefits

If you frequently stay at hotels or book car rentals while traveling, you’ll want to pay close attention to this next section!

Hotel Program Elite Status

One of the absolute biggest selling points of the Amex Platinum card is the hotel benefits and elite status perks.

Let’s start off with hotel benefits — when you have the Amex Platinum card, you have access to Fine Hotels + Resorts, a series of high-end properties that offers these benefits on bookings made through Amex:

• Room upgrades
• Daily breakfast for 2 guests
• Early check-in and late checkout (when available)
• Complimentary Wi-Fi
• A unique property amenity (such as a spa, or food and beverage credit) worth a minimum of $100

In addition, you’ll have access to The Hotel Collection, which offers these benefits on eligible stays of at least 2 nights:

• Up to $100 property credit
• Upgraded room (when available)

Furthermore, with the Amex Platinum card, you can get Hilton Honors Gold status and Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status upon enrollment, which is amazing!

Currently, the Capital One Venture card doesn’t offer any hotel elite status or benefit programs as the Amex Platinum card does.

Rental Car Program Benefits

The Amex Platinum card offers top-tier Executive status with National Emerald Club, top-tier Hertz Gold Plus Rewards President’s Circle status, and Avis Preferred Plus status. This is all complimentary to cardholders upon enrollment!

Statement Credits

When it comes to statement credits, there’s no better card than the Amex Platinum card. Just take a look at all of the complimentary perks you get:

• Up to $200 in airline fee credits every year
• Up to $200 in prepaid hotel credits on eligible stays every year
• Up to $200 in Uber Cash every year
• Up to $189 in CLEAR Plus credits every year
• A Global Entry application fee credit every 4 years or a TSA PreCheck application fee credit every 4.5 years
• Up to $100 in Saks Fifth Avenue credits every year
• Up to $240 in digital entertainment credits every year
• Up to $300 in Equinox credit every year
• Up to $155 in Walmart+ credit every year
• Up to $300 in SoulCycle bike credit

Note that some of the statement credits mentioned above require enrollment so be sure to get the most out of your benefits through your American Express account.

The only major statement credit offered on the Capital One Venture card is the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit.

Hot Tip:

To determine the true value of a card, you should subtract benefits with tangible value (like statement credits) from the annual fee of a card. After all, if a card has a $695 annual fee and offers you more than a thousand dollars worth of value every year, you’d come out way ahead!

Travel Benefits and Protections

Airport Lounge Access

The Amex Platinum card clearly sets itself apart from the rest of the pack with its airport lounge access benefit. Cardholders can access the American Express Global Lounge Collection, which includes:

Bottom Line:

If airport lounge access is important to you, the Amex Platinum card is the way to go.

Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance

The Amex Platinum card offers up to $75,000 in secondary rental car coverage, plus the ability to purchase primary rental car insurance for $12.25 to $24.95 per rental. To have coverage effective, you’ll need to pay for your rental car reservation using your card and decline the rental car company’s loss damage waiver/collision damage waiver (LDW/CDW).

The Capital One Venture card’s MasterRental Insurance allows you to use your card to rent an eligible vehicle and you may be covered for physical damage and theft of the rental vehicle.

Trip Interruption and Cancellation Insurance

The Amex Platinum card offers some fantastic travel insurance to protect against trip cancellation and interruption.

In the event that select prepaid nonrefundable expenses are made for your trip that is canceled or interrupted due to a covered reason such as illness, death, or injury, you can get reimbursed for up to $10,000 per trip with a maximum of $20,000 in total reimbursements every rolling 12 months.

The Capital One Venture card offers Trip Cancellation/Interruption Coverage. In the event of illness or death of the cardholder or immediate family member results in the cancellation or interruption of a trip, you may be eligible for reimbursement up to $1,500

Trip Delay Reimbursement

Is your trip delayed? If you purchased your common carrier ticket (e.g. plane ticket) using your Amex Platinum card and your trip is delayed by more than 6 hours (or if it requires an overnight stay), you can get up to $500 per trip in trip delay reimbursements towards essentials (up to 2 approved claims every rolling 12 months).

Lost and Delayed Luggage Coverage

With the Amex Platinum card, lost luggage is eligible for up to $3,000 per person per trip with a sub-limit of $1,000 per person for all high-risk items.

For the Capital One Venture card’s Lost or Damaged Luggage, you may receive reimbursement for the actual cost of repairing or replacing your checked or carry-on luggage and personal property contained therein that is lost or damaged.

Roadside Dispatch/Master RoadAssist

Interestingly, the Amex Platinum card doesn’t offer roadside assistance, while the Capital One Venture card offers Master RoadAssist. Take advantage of 24 hour toll-free assistance to help with services like towing, gas delivery, jumpstarts, and tire changes. Note that you will be responsible for any and all costs incurred.

Travel Assistance

The Amex Platinum card is one of the few cards that gets you access to the Premium Global Assist Hotline, which is how you, your spouse, or your dependent children under the age of 22 years old can get assistance while traveling 24/7/365.

This service is a referral service for the most part, which means you’ll be responsible for any incurred costs. Here are some of the benefits available:

• Emergency message service
• Emergency ticket replacement
• Emergency translation service
• Emergency transportation assistance
• Legal referral assistance
• Lost luggage locator service
• Medical referral assistance
• Pre-trip assistance
• Prescription assistance and valuable document delivery

In addition, the Premium Global Assist Hotline offers you repatriation of mortal remains and emergency medical transportation and evacuation at no additional cost to you.

For the Capital One Venture card, the Travel Assistance services are Available 24/7 to help connect you with local emergency and assistance resources when you’re away from home.

Shopping Benefits and Protections

Earn Bonus Rewards or Cash-back Through Amex Offers

The Amex Platinum card offers Amex Offers. Amex Offers are well-known in the industry to offer much better savings or bonus rewards.

Cell Phone Protection

Another amazing benefit of the Amex Platinum card is the cell phone protection coverage. When you pay for your monthly cellular bill using your Amex Platinum card, you can receive up to $800 per claim in reimbursements against eligible damage or theft incidents with a $50 deductible per claim (maximum of 2 claims per rolling 12 months).

The Capital One Venture card doesn’t offer cell phone protection.

Purchase Protection

The Amex Platinum card has top-of-the-line purchase protection, covering you for eligible items that were damaged or stolen within 90 days of the purchase date — enjoy up to $10,000 in purchase protection per item and up to $50,000 per calendar year in total reimbursements.

Meanwhile, the Capital One Venture card offers purchase assurance allowing eligible purchases made with your card to be covered if damaged or stolen within the first 90 days of purchase.

Extended Warranty

When you have the Amex Platinum card and make a purchase on items with eligible original U.S. manufacturer’s warranties, you can get 1 additional year of extended warranty coverage on eligible warranties of 5 years or less.

No Preset Spending Limit

The Amex Platinum card is an ideal card for big spenders — and one of the ways it caters to big spenders is by offering no preset spending limit.

No preset spending limit doesn’t mean you can spend an unlimited amount of money; rather, your spending limit can adjust from month to month based on your ability to pay back your bills and other information that American Express may have about you.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

There are no foreign transaction fees with both the Amex Platinum card and the Capital One Venture card (rates & fees).

Annual Fees and Adding Additional Users

Annual Fees

The Amex Platinum card has an annual fee of $695, while the Capital One Venture card has a $95 annual fee (rates & fees).

Authorized Users

With the Amex Platinum card, there are varying types of authorized user cards. If you add an authorized user, you can elect to add them as authorized user Platinum cards, authorized user Gold cards, or authorized user Green cards.

The rewards structure will follow the primary Amex Platinum card’s structure and will be the same regardless of which product you choose — however, the product you choose will determine what types of benefits are conferred to the authorized user as well.

For example, you can add authorized users for $195 per card, which gets them access to the Global Lounge Collection, their own Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit, and several other perks.

Meanwhile, adding authorized user Gold cards or Green cards comes with no additional annual fee but limited benefits (rates & fees).

The Capital One Venture card has no additional annual fee for authorized users.

Final Thoughts

You can’t go wrong with the Amex Platinum card or the Capital One Venture card. But if you’re looking more for luxury travel benefits and rewards, the Amex Platinum card probably suits you the best.

If you’re on the market for something premium but not too fancy, the Capital One Venture card might work for you, thanks to its streamlined rewards categories, unfussy benefits, and reasonable price tag.

Just remember to factor in the statement credits and other benefits into the overall equation before making a decision — you might end up getting more back from your card even if it has a higher annual fee.

That way, you can justify paying the hefty annual fee to get access to luxury travel benefits from the Amex Platinum card.

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For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the above benefits are provided by Visa^® or Mastercard^® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply.

For the baggage insurance plan benefit of The Platinum Card^® from American Express, baggage insurance plan coverage can be in effect for covered persons for eligible lost, damaged, or stolen baggage during their travel on a common carrier vehicle (e.g. plane, train, ship, or bus) when the Entire Fare for a ticket for the trip (one-way or round-trip) is charged to an eligible card. Coverage can be provided for up to $2,000 for checked baggage and up to a combined maximum of $3,000 for checked and carry-on baggage, in excess of coverage provided by the common carrier. The coverage is also subject to a $3,000 aggregate limit per covered trip. For New York State residents, there is a $2,000 per bag/suitcase limit for each covered person with a $10,000 aggregate maximum for all covered persons per covered trip. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company.

For the car rental loss and damage insurance benefit ofThe Platinum Card^® from American Express, car rental loss and damage insurance can provide coverage up to $75,000 for theft of or damage to most rental vehicles when you use your eligible card to reserve and pay for the entire eligible vehicle rental and decline the collision damage waiver or similar option offered by the commercial car rental company. This product provides secondary coverage and does not include liability coverage. Not all vehicle types or rentals are covered. geographic restrictions apply. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company. Car Rental Loss or Damage Coverage is offered through American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

For the cell phone protection benefit of The Platinum Card^® from American Express, coverage for a stolen or damaged eligible cellular wireless telephone is subject to the terms, conditions, exclusions and limits of liability of this benefit. The maximum liability is $800, per claim, per eligible card account. Each claim is subject to a $50 deductible. Coverage is limited to two (2) claims per eligible card account per 12 month period. Eligibility and benefit level varies by Card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.

For the extended warranty benefit of The Platinum Card^® from American Express, when an American Express^® card member charges a covered purchase to an eligible card, extended warranty can provide up to one extra year added to the original manufacturer’s warranty. Applies to warranties of five (5) years or less. Coverage is up to the actual amount charged to your card for the item up to a maximum of $10,000; not to exceed $50,000 per card member account per calendar year. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company.

For the premium global assist hotline benefit of The Platinum Card^® from American Express, you can rely on Global Assist Hotline 24 hours a day / 7 days a week for medical, legal, financial or other select emergency coordination and assistance services while traveling more than 100 miles away from your home. Plus, we may provide emergency medical transportation assistance and related services. Third-party service costs may be your responsibility. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. If approved and coordinated by premium global assist hotline, emergency medical transportation assistance may be provided at no cost. In any other circumstance, Card Members may be responsible for the costs charged by third-party service providers.

For the purchase protection benefit of The Platinum Card^® from American Express, purchase protection is an embedded benefit of your card membership and requires no enrollment. It can help protect covered purchases made on your eligible card when they’re accidentally damaged, stolen, or lost, for up to 90 days from the covered purchase date. The coverage is limited up to $10,000 per occurrence, up to $50,000 per card member account per calendar year. Coverage limits apply. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company.

For the trip cancellation and interruption insurance benefit of The Platinum Card^® from American Express, the maximum benefit amount for trip cancellation and interruption insurance is $10,000 per covered trip and $20,000 per eligible card per 12 consecutive month period. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.

For the trip delay insurance benefit of The Platinum Card^® from American Express, up to $500 per covered trip that is delayed for more than 6 hours; and 2 claims per eligible card per 12 consecutive month period. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.