The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is a simple way to earn free travel without a lot of messing around with transferring points and searching for award availability. The card earns 2 miles per dollar on all purchases, and the miles can be redeemed as a statement credit against most travel purchases made with the card at a fixed value of 1 cent each, meaning you’re effectively getting a 2% return on all purchases.
But in the last year, Capital One has been working to add a little spice to the card. In January it announced that, thanks to a new partnership with Hotels.com, Venture Rewards cardholders can earn 10 miles per dollar spent on hotel reservations booked via Hotels.com/Venture and paid for with the card. Since that bonus can be stacked on top of the existing Hotels.com Rewards program — which awards you one free night for every 10 paid nights — you can effectively earn 20% back on all hotel purchases.
Now the issuer has added another new benefit. Starting Tuesday, June 12, the Capital One Venture Rewards will come with a rebate on either the $100 application fee for Global Entry, or the $85 fee for TSA PreCheck.
Since membership in the Global Entry program comes with TSA PreCheck as well, it usually makes sense to simply apply for Global Entry and get both, especially when you can get the fee rebated like this. Of course, a number of credit cards also offer Global Entry/TSA PreCheck waivers, but since the $95 annual fee on the Venture Rewards is waived the first year, you can effectively get the rebate for free while trying out this card for a year at no cost.
Already have Global Entry? Don’t forget that you can use the credit card fee rebate for someone else’s application, such as a friend or family member. Just make sure to use your Capital One Venture Rewards card to pay for their Global Entry application when submitting it online. You can think of it as a gift, or as protecting yourself against getting stuck in line at immigration just because your travel partner doesn’t have Global Entry like you do.
Featured image by PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images.