The good news is that most existing cardmembers seem to be spared, at least for now…
In this post:
Venture X Business cuts some Priority Pass access
The Capital One Venture X Business (review) is a popular small business premium travel rewards card, which launched in 2023. While the card has a $395 annual fee, there are so many reasons to get this card, from the excellent welcome bonus, to ongoing perks like a $300 annual travel credit, 10,000 anniversary bonus miles, and much more.
The Capital One Venture X Business also offers valuable lounge access, including a Priority Pass membership and access to Capital One Lounges. It appears that effective immediately, an aspect of the card’s Priority Pass membership has changed — newly issued Capital One Venture X Business cards are no longer offering credits or experiences at Priority Pass’ non-lounge airport locations, including Priority Pass restaurants, spa discounts, and more.
Interestingly this doesn’t yet apply to most existing cardmembers, as flagged by MilesTalk. It appears that what’s going on here is that in April 2024, the card switched from being a Mastercard to being a Visa. Along with that transition, the Priority Pass restaurant benefit has changed, as these perks are often associated with what type of a Mastercard or Visa a particular product is.
The good news is that for existing cardmembers who had the card issued as a Mastercard, the Priority Pass benefit remains unchanged. We’ll see for how long that lasts, and if the card is eventually transitioned over from a Mastercard to a Visa.
My take on this Capital One Venture X Business perk change
It goes without saying that this is a negative change, and I’m sad to see this. At this point we’ve seen most of the popular cards that are now open to applicants lose credits at Priority Pass restaurants.
This is an area where The Platinum Card® from American Express (review) was first. Then the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review) made a similar change as of 2023. Now as of July 2024, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review) is also losing Priority Pass restaurant credits.
A couple of thoughts. First of all, the lack of any formal announcement here is frustrating on the surface. I think the thing to keep in mind is that publicly, Capital One never promised Priority Pass restaurant credits on the card, but it’s only unofficially that we’ve known that this has been possible. Furthermore, for existing cardmembers, this benefit remains in place, at least for now.
Unfortunately we’ve now seen restaurants go from being a standard inclusion with a Priority Pass membership, to being something uncommon. So Capital One is just following the industry trend here, sadly.
While this is of course disappointing, to me it doesn’t fundamentally change the value proposition of the Capital One Venture X Business. The way I view it, the card’s $395 annual fee is still more than covered by the $300 annual Capital One Travel credit plus the 10,000 anniversary bonus miles. Everything else is the icing on the cake, and this remains a compelling business card.
Bottom line
The Capital One Venture X Business seems to have quietly cut Priority Pass restaurant credits for new cardmembers. The timing of this seems to coincide with the card transitioning from a Mastercard to a Visa in recent weeks. Fortunately at least for the time being, those who had the card issued as a Mastercard haven’t seen a change to their benefits.
What do you make of this Capital One Venture X Business card benefit change?
Thanks for the post. This card was on my short list specifically because of the Priority Pass with restaurants - no more. I have the Venture X consumer and consider it a keeper (at worse it breaks even). I typically use the $300 credit for rental cars as it's often competitive pricing, has primary insurance, and I'm getting 10x on any overage. The 10k rounds out the deal. Now that the benefits match for the consumer and business cards, no point in doubling up.
Capital One has removed access for Venture X cardholders who happen to be airline employees. Employees on personal travel are space available passengers, and as such do not receive seat assignments until they arrive at the gate. Their boarding pass simply states space available, which is good enough to get through TSA, but no longer good enough to access the Capital One Lounge. They just de incentivized all airline employees to get the card. Very...
Capital One has removed access for Venture X cardholders who happen to be airline employees. Employees on personal travel are space available passengers, and as such do not receive seat assignments until they arrive at the gate. Their boarding pass simply states space available, which is good enough to get through TSA, but no longer good enough to access the Capital One Lounge. They just de incentivized all airline employees to get the card. Very poor policy decision by Capital One.
Amex started this bs, and their prequals go straight to the shredder as they should. This is not only unfair to airline employees, but any passenger who misses a connection due to weather, mechanical or other delays and is made to go standby. These cards are garbage, especially the amex coupon book. They want you to pay full price but not receive the most valuable benefit.
They can go have FUn with themselves.
I don't really value the restaurant credit. The priority pass restaurants out of my home airport BLOW! I kinda want the switchover to VISA; Costco Business Center Here I some! A lot of my spend is nonbonused so this card is pretty lucrative for me. Sometimes I wished they would issue the card on both payment networks. I remember Citi Used to do this with cards being issued both as AMEX and MC for the same account.
Quietly sitting here with my Citi Prestige hoping that Citi doesn't even remember that Priority Pass Restaurants are something they continue to offer.
Citi doesn't remember they had the Prestige anymore.
Darn. Without that Priority Pass feature to show off HOW am I suppose to pick up hot chicks???
You use hands?
Essentially the end of the premium travel cards. Why would you pay the AF of the CSR or Capital One Venture X.....you are just not getting enough value back.
CSR is essentially a $250 AF card for very little valueback.
And Cap One Venture is now effectively a $300 AF card with very little value back.
People have to start cancelling or downgrading these cards.
@ Manny -- I'm curious, so you view the Venture X as really costing you $300 per year, because you don't think the $300 Capital One Travel credit is worth anything? I understand the Capital One Travel portal might not be perfect, but booking a $300+ flight on one of the "big three" carriers doesn't seem like that high of a barrier to the point that it renders that useless, no?
You do have a point. But when you have multiple travel cards and decent amount of points, booking flights on inefficient portals is a drag. Still not getting enough value for my time and money.
REGARDING THE ADS . . . you know how everyone complains about Marriott or some other loyalty program cutting a benefit or devaluing their points? The loyalty programs will continue to do so until their revenue numbers are affected. Similarly, ads and more ads will continue until traffic numbers (which drive revenues) decline. Until then, if you like the content, deal with it. If you don't, leave. Sad but that's the way it is.
Lucky does not control ads. That’s BoardingArea. But I agree that it’s gone from bad to worse.
Venture X Business card already was very underwhelming and this makes the decision to cancel this card upon renewal even easier.
$300 travel credit is useless, as you're tied to the crappy Capital One travel portal.
Miles earned are useless as the transfer partners are lackluster and transfer bonuses have been practically non-existent.
It's, at best, a glorified 2% cash-back card. In fact, it's worse because you get less actual cash value per point than...
Venture X Business card already was very underwhelming and this makes the decision to cancel this card upon renewal even easier.
$300 travel credit is useless, as you're tied to the crappy Capital One travel portal.
Miles earned are useless as the transfer partners are lackluster and transfer bonuses have been practically non-existent.
It's, at best, a glorified 2% cash-back card. In fact, it's worse because you get less actual cash value per point than a cent.
Sitting on ~300k Capital One miles, and they are absolutely useless. What a disappointment.
In that case I would be happy to get rid of those 300,000 miles for you.
I'll probably just close my account soon and won't use them. They're completely useless.
Why don't you book cash travel for $3k usd and then use the "purchase eraser" feature. Much better than wasting them on account closure.
No need, I'm not traveling enough :-/.
Really wish Capital One points would be more flexible.
Please do not lose them. Give them to a family member or friend to use if you cannot use them.
The ads on this site are getting out of control. I suppose it's true what they say, given enough time eventually any publication will saturate their site with ads until readers abandon it and it becomes bots serving bots. Sad.
Couldn't agree more. It's brutal.
Yesterday one of the ads served as background, making it basically impossible to read the text of the post.
Ben needs to get it under control. Last bastian of good award blogging, and we're losing it.
Screenshot of yesterday's ad shenanigans: https://imgur.com/a/XdKURAK
Imagine not using an ad blocker in 2024
Kendall, I have an ad blocker and I still get four ads per page. Landing page, four ads. First article, four ads. Second article, four ads. Clicking to comment on the same page, four more ads.
I use Adblocker Ultimate in Firefox and I see zero ads.
Ah yes Kendall, making it the customer's problem to resolve instead of the businesses problem for inundating the consumer. Very 2024 of you, indeed.
Been a reader for 10 years, never had a problem or complaint, and happy to support Ben and BoardingArea as a whole, since I rely most on them for my travel/award updates.
@ James and others -- I hear you, and appreciate the feedback. I'm having discussions right now to see what we can do here. The changes won't be immediate, but I want to find the right, including having a good user experience. I appreciate your patience, as this may take a little bit of time -- our ads are run through BoardingArea, so I don't directly control them.
It's mostly just a problem on mobile. Ad Blocker on desktop takes care of that.
At some point you've got enough of an audience that you can move off of Boarding Area (or is it a question of waiting until Randy sells up?).