Capital One Venture vs. Amex Platinum: Flat-Rate Flex or Premium Perks

• Written by Dia Adams
  

  Dia Adams

  Credit cards, travel rewards, travel, personal finance

  Dia Adams has been featured on national television, radio, print, and online media as an expert in the realm of credit cards, travel rewards, and family travel. She has acted as a senior staff editor on the personal finance team at Fortune and as a managing editor at Forbes Advisor. Dia has been writing about credit cards and travel rewards for over a decade, and has also written a best-selling guidebook on Disney World. She created, organized, and hosted Family Travel for Real Life (FT4RL), a successful travel rewards-focused conference that ran for six years. Outside of work, Dia is a mom of two residing in the DC Metro area. Between growing up in foreign service and working in consulting, she built up a serious love of travel that includes visiting over 50 countries and living in Thailand, China, and Ireland, where her son was born.

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• Edited by Emily Gadd
  

  Emily Gadd

  Credit Cards, Personal Finance, Health and Wellness

  Emily Gadd is an editor, responsible for writing about personal finance and credit cards. She got her start writing and editing at Healthline. She is passionate about creating educational content that makes complex topics accessible. Emily lives in Seattle with her husband and two cats.

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• Reviewed by Jasmin Baron
  

  Jasmin Baron

  Credit Cards, Travel Rewards, Loyalty Programs, Family Travel, Credit Building, Credit Scores

  Jasmin Baron is CardCritics’ senior editor, responsible for editing and writing credit cards, travel rewards, loyalty program, and other credit-related content. She is passionate about personal finance education and enjoys sharing tips and tricks for making the most credit card points and miles with her readers. Her expertise in maximizing credit card travel rewards originated from over two decades of aviation industry experience, including 18 years working as a pilot and college professor/flight instructor in her native Canada. Her work has appeared on sites such as CNN Underscored Money, Business Insider, The Points Guy, and point.me. When she’s not planning her next trip with credit card rewards, you’ll probably find her tinkering around in the kitchen, hanging out with her three kids, or playing with her dog, Benji.

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• Last Updated Oct 29, 2025

If you’re a points-and-perks enthusiast — or just someone who wants every dollar in your wallet to do some heavy lifting — odds are you’ve sized up the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and the American Express Platinum Card® (an advertising partner) at least once in your travel rewards journey. 

Both travel credit cards have stellar reputations for good reason, but the devil’s in the details: one is all about no-fuss earning and redemption, the other about luxury, layered perks and a jaw-dropping annual fee that begs for justification.

As someone who’s spent more time testing cards than some folks spend traveling, I’ve seen families and solo road warriors alike ask: Should I pony up for Amex Platinum, or is the Venture Card’s streamlined value the real-world winner? Let’s cut through the marketing fluff, highlight what actually makes these cards tick, and dig into who each card fits best.

How the Cards Compare: Capital One Venture vs. Amex Platinum

Side-by-Side Comparison

Welcome Offers

Looking for instant gratification? Both the Capital One Venture Card and Amex Platinum open strong with headline-grabbing welcome offers, but their details (and hurdles) are very different. 

Capital One Venture Welcome Offer

The Venture Card is all about simplicity — you’ll snag 75,000 Capital One miles after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening. That translates to $750 toward travel, easy to track and refreshingly achievable for many cardholders. You can also transfer miles to Capital One’s airline and hotel partners, but it’s a perk, not a requirement to get good value. 

Amex Platinum Welcome Offer

The Amex Platinum, though, is the high-stakes headline grabber. You may be eligible for as high as 175,000 Membership Rewards® Points after spending $8,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Membership. Welcome offers vary and you may not be eligible for an offer.

Membership Rewards points are best redeemed by transferring them to Amex’s airline and hotel partners, and you’ll see sub-par value redeeming for statement credits or other uses. The Amex Platinum’s bonus only makes sense if you know you’ll meet the spending requirement and can actually use the card’s more complicated rewards system.

CardCritics™ Opinion

The Venture Card rolls out an accessible welcome bonus, while the Amex Platinum dangles a monster offer opportunity meant for heavy hitters. Be sure to check the latest offers and your eligibility before jumping in.

Earning Rewards

Both the Capital One Venture Card and Amex Platinum offer strong rewards, but they work differently for everyday spending. 

How To Earn Rewards With the Capital One Venture

The Venture Card delivers a simple, flat 2x miles on every purchase, plus 5x miles on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. There are no complicated categories or enrollment, just consistent rewards for all your spending.

How to Earn Rewards With the Amex Platinum

The Amex Platinum focuses more on travel-specific earn rates, offering 5x Membership Rewards points on flights booked directly with airlines or through Amex Travel® (up to $500,000 per calendar year) and prepaid hotels booked via Amex Travel. Other purchases earn 1 point per dollar. To get the most out of Amex Platinum’s rewards, you’ll want to maximize these travel categories and possibly pair them with other American Express cards.

CardCritics™ Opinion  

The Venture makes rewards effortless and predictable, while the Amex Platinum offers higher rewards in key travel categories but requires more specific travel spending to unlock full value.

Redeeming Rewards

The Capital One Venture Card and Amex Platinum give you a variety of ways to use the rewards you earn, but not all redemption options provide the same value.

Both the Capital One and Amex rewards programs let you redeem points and miles in a variety of ways, with some shared transfer partners offering strong travel value. Notably, both programs include Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Air Canada Aeroplan and British Airways Club among their transfer partners, giving you access to broad airline and hotel networks. Those three programs alone offer access to award flights on the big three US carriers. I’ve had luck with all three redeeming for both domestic and international flights. 

How To Redeem Rewards With the Capital One Venture

With the Capital One Venture Card, miles maintain a steady value of 1 cent each when redeemed for Capital One Travel bookings or to cover recent travel expenses. Beyond the shared partners, the Venture also lets you transfer miles to Capital One-exclusive hotel partners Wyndham and Accor, opening additional routes for valuable redemptions. You can also redeem for gift cards, shopping, or statement credits, but focusing on travel and transfers maximizes value.

How To Redeem Rewards With the Amex Platinum

American Express Membership Rewards points shine when redeemed for flights or transferred to a wide range of partners. In addition to the shared trio, Amex adds standout programs like Delta SkyMiles to its roster. Non-travel redemptions, such as gift cards, cash back or retail purchases, offer below-par value compared to travel-focused uses.

CardCritics™ Opinion  

Both offer travel partners, but Venture Card also gives you 1 cent per mile toward other travel purchases if you don’t want to deal with finding award availability. 

Card Benefits

Capital One Venture Benefits

Capital One Venture benefits focus on straightforward, practical perks to enhance your travel without complicating your wallet. It includes essentials like no foreign transaction fees, travel accident insurance, secondary car rental coverage and up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fees every four years. These perks make everyday travel smoother without a lot of fuss or the need to track countless statement credits.

Amex Platinum Benefits

American Express Platinum benefits, on the other hand, target travelers who want a luxury experience and a broad range of lifestyle and travel benefits. Beyond ample airport lounge access (including Amex Centurion Lounges and Priority Pass once enrolled), it offers elite status with Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy (enrollment required), and comprehensive travel insurance tailored to high-end travel needs. These perks are designed to justify the card’s premium annual fee for those who actively use them.

One of the biggest draws of the Amex Platinum Card is its extensive suite of statement credits, which can outweigh the $895 annual fee if used well. Highlights include:

• Up to $600 annually in hotel credits on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection bookings through American Express Travel®
• Up $400 in annual dining credits through Resy, spread across four $100 quarterly credits at participating U.S. restaurants (enrollment required)
• Up to $200 annual airline incidental fee credit (enrollment required)
• Up to $200 in Uber Cash each year ($15 per month, plus $20 bonus in December) and up to $120 back on an auto-renewing U.S. Uber One membership
• Up to $300 in annual digital entertainment credits (up to $25 per month) for services like Disney+, Hulu, YouTube Premium and others (enrollment required)

Bonus lifestyle credits include Saks Fifth Avenue shopping credits, CLEAR® Plus membership, and wellness credits for Oura and Lululemon purchases. Maximizing these credits takes some calendar management but can deliver thousands of dollars in value annually.  

To give you an idea of how this looks in real life, this year I could easily redeem my hotel credits, airline fee credits, CLEAR, Uber and Resy credits and about half of the digital entertainment credits. 

The Resy was easy for me to use because I live in a large metro area, so there were lots of choices. Other credits like Saks and Lululemon were firmly in the “nice to have but hardly needed” category, but I could use them. So while Amex advertises up to $3,500 in annual value, for my family, the value was more in the $2,000 range. 

CardCritics™ Opinion

I found enough value in the perks and credits to make the Amex Platinum worth the fee, but I have a spreadsheet where I track them, and it takes more time than many people have. The Venture Card has the basics and may be enough for you. 

Fees and Costs

Both cards are a strong choice for international travel, because neither charges foreign transaction fees. 

Capital One Venture Fees and Costs

When it comes to annual fees, these two cards couldn’t be more different. The Capital One Venture Card comes in at a wallet-friendly $95 per year — straightforward and easy to justify if you’re even a casual traveler.

Other Capital One Venture fees to be aware of include:

• Purchase APR: 19.99% - 28.99% (Variable) 
• Balance transfer APR: 19.99% - 28.99% (Variable) 
• Balance transfer fee: None for balances transferred at the transfer APR; 4% for promotional APRs you may be offered
• Cash advance fee: Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each cash advance, whichever is greater
• Late payment fee: Up to $40

Amex Platinum Fees and Costs

The Amex Platinum, on the other hand, makes no apologies for its luxury positioning. The most recent refresh bumped its annual fee to a hefty $895. That’s a jump from the previous $695, and it puts the card firmly in premium territory. For new cardholders, the $895 fee applies right away; for existing Amex Platinum holders, you’ll see the new fee at your next renewal after Jan. 2, 2026.

You’ll want to watch for other potential Amex Platinum fees, such as:

• APR: See Pay Over Time APR
• Cash advance: $10 or 5% of the cash advance amount, whichever is higher
• Late payment: Up to $40
• Returned payment: Up to $40

CardCritics™ Opinion

If you recoil at the idea of an annual fee nearing a grand, the Amex Platinum probably isn’t your match. But if you’re prepared to use its mountain of perks (and wring value from every credit), the price could be justifiable — maybe even a bargain. 

The emphasis here is on the word “but”. Even as a credit card pro, I struggle to keep track of every single Amex credit, and some end up by the wayside. If the idea of maintaining a card benefits spreadsheet sounds nuts to you, the Venture Card may be more your speed. 

How To Choose Between Capital One Venture vs. Amex Platinum

Here’s the bottom line: If you’re not comfortable dropping nearly $900 a year on a credit card, the Amex Platinum isn’t for you. Its value depends on squeezing every credit and perk possible, which takes a lot of effort and travel frequency to justify. Choose the Venture Card instead. 

On the flip side, if airport lounge access and luxury travel perks are must-haves, you’ll want to skip the Capital One Venture Card. It’s a solid, simple rewards card, but it doesn’t offer lounge access or many premium extras. If you want a more upscale airport experience, the Amex Platinum is worth it. 

Put simply, the Venture delivers fuss-free earning and flexible redemptions at a fraction of the cost, while Amex Platinum is built for travelers who want to pay up for high-end perks. Your choice boils down to how much you’re willing to invest annually and what kind of travel experience you want.

For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the benefits may be provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply.