Originally Posted by
Caspavio
which is why you should be thinking early. you dont have to be invested in marriot, the $300 credit and annual free night is more than enough to offset the AF
businesses like c1 don’t see anything as an issue until it affects their bottom line. it’s fine, as long as people are still signing up and spending on their vx. overcrowding is really just a good excuse for them to cut back the benefits. it will be more palatable to customers and c1 can save some money
both cant be true at the same time. if most AUs get their own card, then there isnt any substantial reduction in people visiting the lounge isnt it? the fact that they are still selling guest access to their own lounges is further proof of that. if overcrowding is a problem, 1 time guest access pass should be the first to go. Also, why limit access to pp lounges? c1 is not the only issuer with pp access, so limiting its access isnt going to impact the overcrowding issue much if other issuers aren’t making the same changes. And honestly, overcrowding in pp lounges is none of c1 business
IMO, the Venture X beneftis are so good that they are a bit excessive. But Cap1 over-corrected with the upcoming changes.
No other lounge allows taking food and beverage out of the lounge and even give you to-go containers like Capital One Lounge does. Also no other credit card provides AUs with unlimited access not only to Capital One Lounges but also complimentary Priority Pass memberships.
On top of that they offered $1000 SUB and 2X on all purchases with no foreign transaction fees with an annual fee that can be mostly if not completely offset by travel credit and annaly $100 worth of points.
Icings on the cake are Global Entry reimbursement, primary rental car insurance and Hertz President's Circle membership.
It is simply too good to be true and must be costing Capital One a lot. To return the favor to Cap1 I've put most of my spending in none-5X categories on the Venture X card. (But I had to keep the quarterly 5x transactions on Chase and Discover)
Still my annual spending on the Venture X even for the whole family is way below the 75,000 target they have set.
So I do not think the problem is with the overcrowding but simply because Capital One gave away excessive perks without considering the long-term costs in advance. With the inflation in recent years it's simply costs to much to maintain those excessive benefits.
If they just want to fix overcrowding and PP costs they could have limited the number of visits like Amex Surpass does with Priority Pass. (and implement the quota for both Cap1 lounges and PP) I think it was 10 visits per year when I had it.
I'd say though I've really enjoyed the benefits for the past few years but not sure if I would take my family to Cap1 lounges again with the changes.
Given that I now only travel few times a year I may completely dump the card if I have trouble using the credits.
However, until they also raise the annual fee (which I expect has to happen at some point especially with the inflation from past 3 years) I may keep it just for myself but would drastically reduce my spending on this card.
2-4 lounge visits per year for the cost of 395-100(miles)-240(I value the travel credits with average 20% reduction) = 55 on top of Hertz PC and other benefits is not too bad although significantly worse than what it used to be. It used to be a fantastic deal but now it is just acceptable.