I recommend working this out in reverse and start with figuring out redemptions before you worry about earning.

At least spitball a few trips you want to take, do some mock award bookings to see what kinds of points it will take, then work backwards to see if there are cards that make sense to help you get points into those loyalty programs.

When you play the points game you are earning a currency that is not cash. It can be substantially more valuable or less valuable depending on your travel goals, ability to earn points, travel flexibility, your home airport/available airlines, etc.

Redemptions are the hard part, and that includes having to know yourself and how many hoops you're willing to jump through to chase "maximum value." Once you figure that out, the method of earning is much easier to solve.

Capital One Venture X provides access to two lounges at DFW that could not be accessed with Priority Pass alone, but you need to look at the lounges physical locations versus the gates used by AA and WN to decide how often you would actually use those lounges.

This may change, but for now the net cost of Venture X is $0. It's a card you could open in addition to something else.

I recently applied for the Venture X card and got an instant denial lol. The reason Cap One gave was �too many revolving accounts� which is BS in my opinion because I know people who have been approved that had more accounts than myself (7). My score was in the low 800�s and I have a six figure income. I think the real reason for the denial was that I never carried a balance when I used to have their Spark and Savor One cards so they never received any interest payments. I decided to stop doing business with Cap One and closed my 360 Savings account quickly after the denial. Amex is getting the majority of my spending these days, followed by Chase. It�s good this was the only card I applied for this year so the 3 bureau hit won�t sting me as much, but I was surprised and upset by what happened.

Decided to go with Hilton Aspire. Decided I do not want to book through portals, and lounge access isn't that important to us. it's nothing we would pay out of pocket for normally.

Glad I didn't apply then. Never carry balances on my cards, 790ish score. not worth the 3 pulls, went with the Hilton Aspire instead.

And yet others who never carry a balance, and have a history with Capital One, have been approved.

Most FTers do NOT carry a balance and many have been approved, including me. So I would "86" that reason. C1 has their own parameters and we will never know what they are.

Yeah it might be best for me to stay away from them. I don�t want to risk another 3 credit bureau pull.

Most people have only one credit bureau that their lenders use for inquiries. The others rarely get hit. If C1 does hit those inactive CB's, it won't make any difference to the risk profile.

If you haven't been racking up a lot of HP (hard pulls) lately it won' matter. Their is no negative "risk" unless you're a big churner. It's just an illusion.

Where did you confirm this metric that most get only one inquiry?
Every CC I've applied for in the past 7 years has been 3 credit hard pull (AMEX, Cit, Chase, Capital One).
MY current Venture X CC from Capital One was a hard pull with all 3 credit bureaus.

Bit confusing to me was credit limit at Capital One was very good $30K when I had heard C1 was very tight with CL.
The C1 CL was given after Chase refused me a CL on a new CC one year earlier making me shift My credit around to be approved.

Curious anyone know teh C1 rules for applying again for a SUB on Venture X?

Pulls are state specific. In Idaho I usually only get 1 HP per app except for C1 which was 3. No biggie.

Has anyone gotten their 10k anniversary points bonus yet? How many days from annual fee/renewal?

nothing yet although the AF just hit my acct today which is the acct closing date; last yr, the AF posted on Nov 17th after it had got approved on 13th... hope the annv pts will post shortly after the 13th

if considering to close the acct, do folks know mine will have 45 days from the AF posted date or the acct annv date? Thx

Neither. It is 45 days from the date of the statement on which you were notified that the renewal fee would be billed. This is explained on your paper/PDF statement, and also in this post: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/34680517-post103.html In effect, you have ~15 days after the fee is billed.

so, mine only has til 24th of this mo.; thx