Which 2X Travel Card Actually Wins?

Ever since the Bilt Palladium hit the market earlier this year, I’ve had countless people ask me whether it’s better than the *capital one venture x*. Heck, as a longtime Venture X cardholder, I asked myself the same thing. 

On the surface, this comparison makes perfect sense: Both cards earn 2x points (or miles) on everyday spending and offer airport lounge access, added travel protections, and travel credits to help offset their annual fees. But when you dig a little deeper, you’ll see that these two cards are each valuable for different types of people. 

In order to truly determine which card is best, you’ll need to look beyond the list of advertised benefits. Instead, the best way to compare these two cards is to decide what type of traveler – and just as importantly, what type of spender – you are and then work backward from there.

Most travel card comparisons you’ll find on the internet rarely arrive at a definitive conclusion, but the goal with this story is to do just that. Read on to see which of these cards is best … for you.

A High-Level Comparison

This chart alone won’t help you determine which card is best, but if you’re looking for a quick, side-by-side comparison of what each card has to offer, here it is. 

From initial sign-up bonuses to annual fees and travel protections, there’s a lot to consider when deciding which card is right for you. But remember, there’s a lot more than meets the eye with these two cards. 

Simplicity Above All Else

Do you value simplicity above all else? The *capital one venture x* is definitely the card for you. 

Read more: A Full Review of the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

A Big Bonus Offer

Right now, you can bonus_miles_full.

That bonus alone is worth a minimum of $750 towards travel … or much more with a little bit of effort. 

Learn more about the *capital one venture x*

Making the Math Work

Let’s start with the annual fee. For $395 per year, you get an annual $300 Capital One Travel credit and a 10,000-mile anniversary bonus (starting in year two). Since 10,000 Capital One miles are worth a bare minimum of $100 towards travel, you don’t need to work very hard to come out ahead with the Capital One Venture X. 

That $300 travel credit works like a discount on flights, hotels, rental cars, and more booked through Capital One Travel. For example, you could book a $423 flight and only pay $123 out of pocket.

Meanwhile, the 10,000-mile anniversary bonus can be used to cover $100 worth of travel: A bucket-list golf trip, flights, hotels, rental cars, and even Disney theme park tickets – so long as it codes as travel, you’re good to go. But those miles can be even more valuable when transferred to Capital One’s growing list of airline and hotel partners (more on that in a bit).

Put the two together, and you’ve made your annual fee back and then some. 

Earning & Redeeming Miles

Have I mentioned the Venture X is simple? When it comes to earning miles, you’ll get 2x miles for every dollar you spend … no matter the category.

No need to juggle multiple cards or worry about whether your local bodega will code as a supermarket. You can rest easy knowing you’re earning decent rewards everywhere you go, making the Venture X the perfect one-size-fits-all solution.

You can do even better when booking travel directly through Capital One: You’ll earn 10x miles on hotels and rental cars, and 5x miles on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel. In general, we warn travelers against booking through online travel agencies (OTAs) like Capital One Travel, but that’s a pretty impressive return on travel spending and could be worth it to some. 

When it comes time to redeem your miles, you have two options: Take the easy route and cover travel purchases at a flat rate of 1 cent per mile, or transfer them to Capital One’s slew of travel partners for potentially outsized value.  

If you’re planning to use your miles to cover travel, you could offset the cost of a $500 flight, an Airbnb, or a boat in Bora Bora (you name it) with 50,000 miles. The beauty of this approach is that there’s no minimum number of miles required to redeem, and you don’t need to be an award travel expert to get solid value from your rewards.

Simply use your Venture X to purchase travel, and you’ve got up to 90 days to redeem miles to offset the charge. 

Related reading: 5 Reasons Capital One is King in My Wallet

But if you want the most value from your Capital One miles, you’ll want to look into Capital One transfer partners.

Capital One added the ability to transfer miles straight to airline programs back in late 2018. After steadily adding more and more partners, it’s now a bona fide option with killer value. With few exceptions, every 1,000 Capital One miles you transfer gets you 1,000 airline miles or hotel points.

Here’s the full list.

Added Benefits Push the Value Further

In addition to its modest (and easy to justify) annual fee and simple rewards structure, the Capital One Venture X offers a handful of benefits that further enhance its value proposition. 

For starters, this card will make your travel day smoother with a credit of up to $120 to cover the cost of TSA PreCheck® or Global Entry enrollment. This means shorter lines when you get to the airport – and, in the case of Global Entry, a faster customs and immigration experience on your way back into the country, too.

After clearing security, you can kill time in a Capital One Lounge or Landing – as well as Priority Pass™ lounges – with the card’s unlimited complimentary access for cardholders. Unfortunately, this benefit took a hit earlier this year: You’ll no longer receive complimentary access for guests unless you spend $75,000 per year on the card (no free guest access at Priority Pass lounges, period). 

You’ll also get top-notch travel protections in case your trip goes awry and added peace of mind with the card’s primary rental car coverage. Add in top-tier Hertz President’s Circle elite status for extra perks when renting a car, and there’s a whole lot to love about the *capital one venture x*.

A Convoluted System With the Potential for Big Value

Now that we’ve covered the simple choice, you may want to start brewing a fresh pot of coffee before diving into the Bilt Palladium.

Bilt’s rollout of a trio of new cards earlier this year could be categorized as rocky … at best. What was once a simple, straightforward value proposition was replaced with a convoluted new system for earning points on housing, and the initial lack of information regarding the “Bilt Cash” these cards earn (in addition to points) only complicated matters further. 

Now that the dust has settled and we’ve had a chance to get hands-on with the new Bilt Palladium Card, it’s not quite as complex as it first seemed. 

A Decent Welcome Offer

In a first for Bilt, the Palladium Card comes with a respectable bonus offer: Earn 50,000 Bilt Points + Gold Status after spending $4,000 on everyday purchases in the first 3 months + $300 of Bilt Cash. 

Compared to the Venture X’s current offer, this bonus isn’t nearly as big. But it has the potential to be even more valuable when you take Bilt’s impressive list of transfer partners (more on this in a bit), complimentary Gold status, and $300 Bilt Cash all into consideration. 

Apply for the Bilt Palladium. 

Earn Points on Housing

Bilt made a name for itself by offering renters an easy way to earn points on their monthly payment, but that didn’t appeal much to homeowners.

Thankfully, “Bilt 2.0” changed that: You can now earn points on any monthly housing payment – rent, mortgage, HOA fees, utilities … you name it. This is a welcome development – and given that no other card on the market lets you earn points on mortgages (without added fees), it’s one that instantly makes the Bilt Palladium more appealing to most travelers.

Exactly how many points you’ll earn depends on which path you choose – stick with me here.

In addition to earning 2x points on all non-housing purchases, the Bilt Palladium also earns 4% Bilt Cash to go along with the points. Bilt Cash can be redeemed for a number of things, from Lyft rides to hotel stays (booked through Bilt Travel) and more. Perhaps most usefully, you can redeem $30 worth of Bilt Cash for the ability to earn 1,000 points on housing payments.

Here’s how it works in practice: Say your rent or mortgage is $2,000 per month – in order to earn 1x points on the full monthly payment, you’d need to redeem $60 worth of Bilt Cash. Since the Palladium (and all the other Bilt Cards) earn 4% Bilt Cash on every dollar of non-housing purchases, you’d effectively need to spend $1,500 per month (75% of your housing payment) on other stuff in order to earn points on the full payment.

If that’s not confusing enough, you can choose a second, “simpler” earning path for housing payments — one that eliminates Bilt Cash entirely.

With this option, you:

• Pay your full rent or mortgage with no transaction fee
• Earn points on housing automatically
• Skip earning Bilt Cash altogether
• Earn more points as you spend more on everyday purchases

Here’s how it works, using a $2,000 monthly rent or mortgage as an example:

Spend the same amount as your rent or mortgage each month, and you’ll earn up to 1.25x points per dollar – all without fees and without touching Bilt Cash. Progress toward each tier is tracked directly in the Bilt app. And if you don’t meet the minimum thresholds, you’ll still earn a minimum of 250 points per month.

Just know: With this second option, you’re forgoing Bilt Cash altogether and won’t be able to earn or redeem it for anything else. It’s definitely simpler … but you might be leaving some extra value on the table (more on that in a bit). 

Two options for earning points on housing – neither of them particularly straightforward … at least at first glance. But hey, at least it’s possible, and now you know why I said this card was complex!

Earning & Redeeming Points

Just like the Venture X, the Bilt Palladium earns 2x points on everyday spending, making it the perfect catch-all card for un-bonused purchases and a solid one-card solution for those not willing to juggle multiple cards.

But with Bilt Cash, you can take things a step further. In addition to redeeming Bilt Cash for the ability to earn points on housing payments, you can spend $200 (Bilt Cash … not real money) to activate what is called a “Point Accelerator.” Once you turn it on, you’ll earn an extra 1x points per dollar on all eligible purchases – up to $5,000 in spending.

Max it out, and you’ll earn 5,000 bonus points on top of your normal earnings.

Since you’ll earn an additional $200 in Bilt Cash for every $5,000 you spend – and you can activate this up to five times per year – this effectively turns the Bilt Palladium into a 3x everywhere earner (up to $25,000 in annual spending) if you go all in. 

The big question is whether it’s worth it. You’re essentially using $200 in cash-like rewards to generate 5,000 extra points. If you instead used that $200 of Bilt Cash to earn points on housing, you’d generate 6,666 points in the process. But for anyone who already generates enough Bilt Cash to cover their monthly housing payment, it’s a nice option.

When it comes time to redeem your points, you’re in luck – Bilt’s stable of transfer partners is the best in the business, bar none. 

With 20+ transfer partners, Bilt lets you send your points to more airlines and hotel chains than almost any other transferable points program. And the list of choices keeps growing with Japan Airlines (JAL), Qatar Airways, Spirit Airlines (meh), and Wyndham Rewards getting added to the mix in the past year or so. 

Here are all the current options for moving your Bilt points to an airline or hotel brand.

Unlike Capital One, all of Bilt’s airline partners convert points at a 1:1 ratio. That means you can easily turn 10,000 Bilt points into 10,000 Alaska Atmos Rewards points, 10,000 British Airways Avios, 10,000 Virgin Atlantic points, and so on. It’s not quite as simple with Bilt’s hotel partners as transfers to Accor are at a 3:2 ratio, but all others are 1:1.

Want a simpler redemption option? Bilt also has its own travel booking platform, where you can redeem points at a rate of 1.25 cents each towards flights, hotels, rental cars, and activities.

If you want to get maximum value out of your points, leveraging transfer partners is the key – but getting 1.25 cents per point through the portal isn’t a bad consolation prize. 

Other Benefits Add to the Appeal

The Bilt Palladium Card’s annual fee rings in at $495 per year – $100 more than the Capital One Venture X. So what does that get you?

For starters, you’ll get $200 Bilt Cash every calendar year just for holding the card. We’ve already covered how you can use Bilt Cash to earn points on housing payments and to boost your point-earning, but you can also redeem it dollar-for-dollar on hotels booked through Bilt Travel or with partners like Lyft, BLADE, Blacklane, and more.

All of these redemption options have different restrictions that limit their value – but if you’re already spending money on these things, using Bilt Cash could amount to real savings. 

You’ll also get $400 in Bilt Travel hotel credit per year (up to $200 semi-annually). Annoyingly, these credits require a minimum two-night stay, which limits their effectiveness. Compared to the Venture X’s annual $300 Capital One Travel credit, this perk will likely prove harder to use for most travelers. 

Like most premium travel cards these days, the Bilt Palladium includes a Priority Pass™ lounge membership. In addition to unlimited complimentary visits for the primary cardholder, Bilt’s Priority Pass also allows two free guests – something that would cost you an additional $35 per person with the Venture X. 

Finally, the Bilt Palladium Card’s current welcome offer includes Bilt Gold status for the year it’s earned and all of the following year. While it’s not an ongoing benefit – and I wouldn’t put a ton of stock in a status like this – it does make earning and redeeming Bilt points better in a couple of ways. 

On the first of every month, Bilt runs a big promotion it calls Rent Day. The name is a carryover from the days when Bilt only allowed renters to earn points, but nonetheless, it’s designed to celebrate the unceremonious day most people make their monthly housing payment.

Many (but not all) of these Rent Day promotions include a big transfer bonus to one of Bilt’s travel partners. The catch? The biggest bonuses – up to 200% in some cases – are reserved for Bilt’s elite members. If you can make good use of even one Rent Day bonus, the added multiplier alone could make Gold status worth it. 

On the earning side, Bilt Gold status also gets you a 1:1 earning ratio with Rakuten. Since this partnership kicked off last fall – allowing Bilt members to earn points instead of cashback when shopping online through Rakuten – everyone has been able to earn Bilt points on a 1:1 basis. But after May 15, that’ll no longer be the case: Bilt members without status will see their earnings cut in half – $1 in rewards with Rakuten will equal 50 Bilt points. 

If you do a fair amount of shopping online, earning Bilt points instead of cashback can be a really nice way to pad your balance of points. And having Gold status will continue to make it a worthwhile endeavor.

So is there enough there to justify the $495 annual fee? It’s certainly not the no-brainer the Venture X Card is. But when you take everything into account – especially being able to earn points on housing – I think Bilt Palladium is worth the complexity for the right traveler.

Related reading: Why I Pulled a U-Turn on the Bilt Palladium Card

Which Card is Best?

I promised a definitive conclusion at the beginning, and while there’s no one-size-fits-all answer (shocker … I know), I feel confident making a recommendation based on what matters most to you.

The *capital one venture x* is best for: 

• Travelers who want a simple way to earn and redeem rewards.
• Someone who wants a manageable, easy-to-recoup annual fee without jumping through a bunch of hoops.
• Those who value the peace of mind you get with added travel protections.
• Anyone who appreciates extra perks like a credit for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry, lounge access, and rental car elite status.

 Meanwhile, the Bilt Palladium Card is the way to go if you: 

• Want to earn points on your monthly rent or mortgage payment. 
• Are OK with a little complexity in exchange for outsized value, both in terms of earning and redeeming points. 
• Don’t mind a (slightly) bigger annual fee and think you could use the Bilt Palladium’s semi-annual hotel credits and Bilt Cash to decent value. 

There are certainly some similarities between these two cards, but when you get below the surface, it’s clear that they’re designed for two different types of travelers. Deciding which one is “best” will be different for everyone, but you’re likely to find a clear winner depending on your priorities.

Bottom Line

The Capital One Venture X is the better choice for travelers who want a simple, easy-to-use card with strong value and minimal effort to justify its annual fee. The Bilt Palladium, on the other hand, offers more complex earning options but can deliver outsized value – especially for those who want to earn rewards on housing and take advantage of Bilt’s best-in-class list of transfer partners.

Learn more about the *capital one venture x*

Apply for the Bilt Palladium.