nsx

With the Venture X card, Capital One now has enough interest and enough complexity to warrant a forum. The current Venture X megathread has more posts per day than many forums and encompasses several topics. Readers would benefit if those topics had their own threads.

SanDiego1K

This is worthy of consideration. The bloggers talk a lot about Capital One.

Thoughts from other members?
@mia, as our resident credit card guru, what are your thoughts?

tcook052

FT is IMHO far too quick to create new forums but far too slow to ensure they're actually used once birthed so would like to see the threshold for new forum creation set much higher so we aren't launching a new forum with only high hopes and good intent as there are too many moribund forums which began this way but garner barely a dozen posts per year. More is not always the answer to every question although that is of course merely MHO and YMMV.

GUWonder

If there was a Capital One forum, maybe more people on FT will notice things like C1 points transferring to AY with a 100% bonus over the usual transfer rate.

Perhaps unlike with the T&D section of FT, more specialized forums — specialized on a service provider — the better it is on average for the general audience.

mia

Historically, when a credit card program added transfers to airline or hotel partners, I thought a separate forum was warranted because there was sustained discussion of transfer rules, strategies and problems. This hasn't happened for Capital One. Yes, the Venture X thread has been active, but we have been here before and discussion fizzled:

Some history.
2011-2013: The Venture "status match" thread had 2818 posts in 25 months, about 3.75 posts per day
2021-2022 The Venture X thread has 975 posts in nine months, about 3.6 posts per day.

In between those two was one primary discussion thread:
2010 - 2022 The Venture thread has 838 posts in a dozen years, about 1.33 posts per week.

On the other hand, it would be straightforward to break out the Capital One threads from Credit Card Programs over a few days, and it would be very easy to move them back into Credit Card Programs if discussion wasn't sustained. (There are other technical considerations I will raise if we decide to try this.)

moe8555

I think it warrants its own forum for reasons already mentioned here, but in particular:

1. Capital One appears dedicated to investing in and updating the product and points ecosystems, as well as the ancillaries (i.e. Capital One lounges), unlike the defunct Barclays Arrival Premier, for example
2. As with other point programs, Capital One also offers multiple complementary products, which enables strategizing and comparing/contrasting to alternatives (i.e. Venture X combined with Savor/SavorOne)
3. The Capital One travel portal is somewhat innovative with the price matching, fare locking, and price reduction protection features. And the pricing is reasonably competitive and differentiated, as opposed to Expedia clones with other issuers.
4. Capital One offers a suite of travel insurances and retail purchase protections, which facilitates discussion regarding ease of making claims, claim settlements, etc.
5. Capital One approval algorithms are nutty and there has been much discussion regarding that (i.e. sharing of data points, strategies, etc.)

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nsx

Topics which should be separated include:
- What transactions qualify for the travel credit and for the AriBnB credit, and how long it takes to get the credit.
- Which types of travel are competitively priced on the Capital One portal and which types are not.
- Rental car damage insurance experiences and concerns.
- Qualifying for a referral bonus if your family member has had a Capital One card in the past.
- Card application approval criteria.
- Priority Pass experiences, positive and negative. For example, highlight to newbies that there is not a single PP lounge or restaurant at LAX.
- Capital One cafe experiences. (These are quasi-branches with ATMs that can accept payments.)
- Venture X vs. Venture vs. holding both cards

sdix

I’d like to see a dedicated forum

SpaethCo

I do think there would be benefits to separating out things into different topics, which would be more easily facilitated in a dedicated sub-forum. Capital One has started incorporating transfer partner bonuses (recently FlyingBlue just had a 25% bonus) and having those opportunities tracked in a separate thread would help with visibility.

To add to nsx mention of Priority Pass, recently the "Access lounges on your payment card" feature made the rounds on all the travel blogs, but as far as I'm aware currently the Venture X is the only US-based card that actually supports that right now. This would be a good opportunity to discuss data points when it comes to trying to use the card as a lounge access method.

While I see mia 's argument that the discussions have slowed down in the past, I believe that Capital One's journey to expand beyond a limited 2% "cash back"-style miles program has been a more recent development. I could be wrong, but I only see interest growing to a broader subset of travelers when more people discover that you can pick up a VISA that earns 2x points on everything without category limitations or foreign transaction fees, and now you can transfer those points 1:1 into programs that many people are already playing in today.

dayone

I support the proposal to add a Capital One forum. The Venture X card in one of the best value premium travel cards available. It seems to be well received and will only grow more so as the new Capital One Lounges open in DEN and IAD.

GUWonder

And with the miles and points bloggers pushing the cards, interest in the cards among current and prospective FTers should trend upwards quite a bit in the time ahead.