You Got Capital One Lounge Access, Now What?

 

Enjoying an alberol spritz in the Capital One Lounge in Denver! So even though my flight was delayed, I was able to charge my phone, do some work, enjoy a drink or two and a nice meal. 

Lounge access comes with my Capital One Venture X credit card. In fact, I added my three children as authorized users which is FREE and they get lounge access too. Well worth, the $395 annual fee. 

But while I was waiting in line, I heard so many people confused about how lounge access works and how much it costs. 

So let's try to sort this out. 

You Got The Capital One Venture X Lounge Access, Now What?

For simplicity, I am going to focus on the Capital One Lounges (currently in Washington DC Dulles, Denver, Dallas and coming soon to Las Vegas) and the Priority Pass (a network of 1,600 lounges worldwide). I know there are other lounges out there for business class and various airlines, but we are just going to focus on these. 

First question, how do you get lounge access:

• Capital One Lounge - Capital One Venture X credit card holders get unlimited lounge access for Capital One Lounges. They can also bring two guests with them. Capital One Venture credit card holders get 2 lounge passes per year. 
• Priority Pass Lounge - Capital One Venture X credit card holders get membership included as a benefit for the card holder and authorized users. Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card holders get membership for the card holder only. Amex Platinum and Business Platinum cards holders also get membership included. Chase Sapphire Reserve, Amex and Capital One Venture X card holders can bring two guests. 

The Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card used to include a restaurant benefit as well which was awesome, but it dropped that benefit in July 2024. 

You Got The Capital One Venture X Lounge Access, Now What?

Once you activate your membership online to the Priority Pass, you will get a card in the mail and a digital card that you show at the lounge entrance along with your boarding pass. You can download the app and find lounges worldwide. 

You can only visit the lounge while you are waiting for a flight departure and not  upon arrival unless you are connecting to another flight. 

For the Capital One Lounges, you show your boarding pass and your Capital One credit card. Since there are only three lounges currently, they are packed and often have a waitlist. 

It's a good idea to get on the wait list, but it's a bit tricky to find in the app. 

You Got The Capital One Venture X Lounge Access, Now What?

• Login to your Capital One account
• Click on Explore rewards and benefits
• Click on Lounges in the upper right corner
• Click on the lounge
• You will see the current capacity and then a button to join the waitlist 
• Once you do that, you will get a text when it is your turn to enter 
• You have 10 minutes to show up or you will lose your turn and have to join the waitlist again

Both the Capital One Venture X and Venture card come with a 75,000 bonus for a $4,000 minimum spend. The Venture X carries a $395 annual fee, but you get a $300 travel credit, $120 Global Entry credit, Priority Pass membership and Capital One lounge access for the card holder and up to 4 authorized users for FREE. The Venture card only carries a $95 annual fee and comes with 2 lounge passes each year. 

The Chase Sapphire Reserve carries a hefty $550 annual fee, comes with a $300 travel credit, $120 Global Entry credit, Priority Pass lounge access and 1.5 to 1 value for Chase Ultimate Rewards points in the travel portal. 

Both Capital One and Chase Ultimate Reward points are considered flex points and can be transferred to dozens of airlines and hotels. 

If this sounds interesting to you, I recommend going through my points and miles course which includes a 1:1 strategy session with me, a custom tracker and ongoing group coaching. Let's get you traveling for almost FREE and making those priceless memories! 

New $1,000 Bonus Travel Offer On Capital One Venture

 

Great new offer from Capital One! 

Apply for the Capital One Venture credit card and get $250 to use as a travel credit in the Capital One travel portal plus 75,000 points. That's $1,000 in free travel. Wow! The minimum spend is still $4,000 and the annual fee is just $95. 

This offer is equivalent to the Venture X offer, but the annual fee is $300 less. Amazing! 

Read here about my hack to use travel purchases to reach the minimum spend and erase them BEFORE you have to pay. It's crazy!

This is my go to credit card for any purchases that don't earn bonus points on the Chase FREEDOM or Sapphire Reserve credit cards. The Capital One Venture card earns 2x points on all purchases. The beauty of these flexible points is you can transfer points to a dozen different airlines including my new fave FlyingBlue.com, a few hotel chains and of course, you can erase travel purchases. 

The travel credit is only good for travel purchases made in the Capital One Travel portal, but I have found that the portal has improved and is actually quite reliable and easy to use. 

I actually got this card when we were going on a family trip to Costa Rica. By family, I mean extended family trip, you know, like a group of 20 people. The deal was everyone had to pay for their own airfare, but then once in Costa Rica, the trip would be a gift. Pretty sweet! The only other catch is we all had to fly on the same Delta flight. Since I didn't have enough Delta miles for 5 round trip airline tickets, my husband and I each applied for the Capital One Venture card. We charged the plane tickets and everything else to those cards to meet the minimum spend and we ended up getting three of the tickets FREE. 

Now I still like this card, however, I like the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cards better. Here's why:

• Capital One every purchase earns 2 points per dollar
• Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve - most purchases earn 1:1, but dining and travel earn 2:1 and there are categories where you can earn 5:1 if you have Chase FREEDOM, FLEX or INK cards. 
• Capital One points value are 1:1 when you use them to erase purchases
• Chase Sapphire Preferred values points at 1:1.25 if you use them in the travel portal or as a statement credit
• Chase Sapphire Reserve values points at 1:1.5 if you use them in the travel portal or as a statement credit 
• Capital One and Chase offer 1:1 transfer values to airline miles, but Chase offers way more partner airlines and hotels. 

I still think the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve offer more flexibility than the Capital One.  But if you already have the Sapphire cards or the airline partners on the Capital One list work better for you, this is a great option. 

If you decide to give this one a go, consider using my referral link. You get the same great bonus offer and I get a little something for referring you and can use it to bring you more great ideas on how to travel for Almost FREE. 

If you would like to join my travel coaching program, you can use this link.   I would love to help you and your family travel for almost FREE. Use the promo code FREETRAVEL for $50 off. 

Why I Won't Use The Capital One Travel Portal Ever Again!

 

One of the great benefits of Capital One Venture and Venture X cards are that you can erase your travel purchases with Capital One points. This benefit makes the Venture X and Venture card a popular flexible choice. 

You just make the purchase using your Capital One credit card and then erase. Any travel purchase is eligible like airbnb, vrbo, amusement park tickets, tours booked on viator and much more. No blackout dates, no transferring points, no waiting, easy. 

The second way you can use your Capital One points is to transfer your points to dozens of airlines at 1:1. So if you spot an award ticket on an airline for 25,000 points, you can transfer your points to that airline instantly and use the points to buy your ticket. Again, easy. 

Sometimes you can even get a better value out of your points this way to depending on how many points you need.

The third way you can use your points is in the Capital One Travel Portal. 

The portal uses the third party platform Hopper similar to Expedia to find flights and hotels. Then each flight or hotel is offered at 1:1 for Capital One points. There is no discount like what's offered through the Chase Travel Portal is you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve credit cards. The benefit to booking through the travel portal is that taxes and fees are included. Sometimes when you look at award tickets, the fuel charges are outrageous. 

Not so with the Capital One travel portal, those fees are included in the price. And it looks like you bought the ticket so you earn award miles on the flight or at the hotel. 

However, be warned. The portal will often offer you most basic economy ticket it can find. Cheap, yes. But you may not be able to check or carry on luggage, choose your seat or make any changes. And if there is a change in your flight, Capital One is very good at notifying you, but does not have any authority to change or refund flights without the airline's permission or change code. 

Believe it or not, sometimes getting that permission or change code can be a headache for Capital One and then for you. It can be a very long and frustrating process. Also while you are traveling, Capital One cannot help you rebook your flight or deal with travel changes like if you had booked straight from the airline. 

Something to keep in mind. I love maximizing my points, but sometimes it may not be worth the headache. 

if you are interested in the Capital One Venture X credit card, use my referral link. Right now, you can get a bonus 75,000 points with a $4,000 minimum spend. 75,000 points are 1:1 if you transfer them to airlines or hotels and worth $750 if you cash them in for FREE travel. 

You can check out my trick on how to reach the maximum spend without spending $4,000 right here. 

Why You Might Want To Jump On This Capital One Offer

 

You may have seen this offer announced this week for the Capital One Venture card. 100,000 points with a $20,000 minimum spend or 50,000 points with a $3,000 minimum spend. I have to admit I got this card several years ago because you can use the points to erase any travel purchase. That means that instead of transferring points to an airline or hotel, you simply use your Capital One Venture card to pay for the purchase and then use the points for a statement credit. Easy. 

Now Capital One has added transfer partners too. And during the last year, it added a benefit so you could use your points as statement credits for takeout, steaming, Amazon and Paypal since not many people were traveling. 

I actually got this card when we were going on a family trip to Costa Rica. By family, I mean extended family trip, you know, like a group of 20 people. The deal was everyone had to pay for their own airfare, but then once in Costa Rica, the trip would be a gift. Pretty sweet! The only other catch is we all had to fly on the same Delta flight. Since I didn't have enough Delta miles for 5 round trip airline tickets, my husband and I each applied for the Capital One Venture card. We charged the plane tickets and everything else to those cards to meet the minimum spend and we ended up getting three of the tickets FREE. 

Now I still like this card, however, I like the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cards better. Here's why:

• Capital One every purchase earns 2 points per dollar
• Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve - most purchases earn 1:1, but dining and travel earn 2:1 and there are categories where you can earn 5:1 if you have Chase FREEDOM, FLEX or INK cards. 
• Capital One points value are 1:1 when you use them to erase purchases
• Chase Sapphire Preferred values points at 1:1.25 if you use them in the travel portal or as a statement credit
• Chase Sapphire Reserve values points at 1:1.5 if you use them in the travel portal or as a statement credit 
• Capital One and Chase offer 1:1 transfer values to airline miles, but Chase offers way more partner airlines and hotels. 

I still think the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve offer more flexibility than the Capital One. Now, all that being said, I have NOT canceled my Capital One and have no intention to do so. You can only get this card once in a lifetime and I'm not ready to give it up. 

If you decide to give this one a go, consider using my referral link. You get the same great bonus offer and I get a little something for referring you and can use it to bring you more great ideas on how to travel for Almost FREE. 

https://capital.one/3dMOtkP

Hurry, Capital One Venture X 100,000 Bonus Offer Ends March 14th

 

I just scored two round trip flights to Ireland for later this summer! Woohoo! 

Now, I want to share with you how I did it and how you can do it too before the offer ends on March 14th. This one is pretty easy so here goes. Right now, the Capital One Venture X credit card has a 100,000 point offer with a $300 travel credit and a $200 Airbnb credit. The catch is the high minimum spend of $10,000 plus the annual fee of $395. 

How You Can Score 2 Roundtrip Tickets to Europe for FREE

Before that scares you, let's talk about my secret way to eat up some of that minimum spend before you ever pay a bill. 

Capital One actually gives you the bonus before you pay the credit card bill which is different than most other offers. 

Which means, you can actually buy your plane tickets through the Capital One Travel Portal as soon as you get the credit card in the mail and then erase them before you ever have to make a payment if you time it right. Pretty sweet!

You will see the $300 credit go through within a few days. If we assume your plane tickets are similar to mine about $600 each r/t, then you are already $1,200 on your way towards the minimum spend. 

Plus every purchase you make is 2x points so you already have 2,400 points towards FREE travel. 

As long as you hit the minimum spend on your card within 90 days, which you have to in order to earn the bonus, you can erase the charge for the plane tickets.

Let's take a look at that again in steps. 

1. Apply for the Capital One Venture X card before March 14th

3. The $395 annual fee charges to the card, it counts towards your minimum spend. 

4. Charge everything to your new Capital One Venture X card including gas, groceries, property taxes (if the convenience fee is low), tuition payments, household repairs or projects etc. You have 3 months to reach the minimum spend of $10,000. 

6. Buy your flights to Europe through the Capital One Travel Portal, charge them to the Capital One Venture X credit card  Login to your Capital One account, click on travel portal, search for flights and purchase. 

7. A few days after you buy your flights, you will see a $300 travel credit post to your account 

8. When you reach the $10,000 minimum spend, you will see the 100,000 bonus points post to your account. 

9. Now you should have about 120,000 points. You will erase the plane tickets by clicking on cover travel purchases. Each point is worth one cent so 124,894 points equals $1,248.

It's that simple. If you would like to fly for FREE, this is one of the easiest ways to do it. You have until March 14th to apply for the Capital One Venture X credit card and if you would use my referral link, I would appreciate it. 

If you would like to learn more about how to fly FREE and how to earn the companion pass, we have teamed up with Families Fly FREE and would love to invite you to join the club. Click here for more information.  

How You Can Score 2 Roundtrip Tickets to Europe for FREE

 

Castles, the Cliffs of Moher, Guiness and whiskey. Ireland is the land of ancient sites and the beautiful Wild Atlantic Coast and I'll be heading there with my family later this year for FREE. Woohoo! 

Now, I want to share with you how I did it and how you can do it too before the offer ends on March 14th. 

This one is pretty easy so here goes. 

Right now, the Capital One Venture X credit card has a 100,000 point offer with a $300 travel credit and a $200 Airbnb credit. The catch is the high minimum spend of $10,000 plus the annual fee of $395. 

How You Can Score 2 Roundtrip Tickets to Europe for FREE

Before that scares you, let's talk about my secret way to eat up some of that minimum spend before you ever pay a bill. 

Capital One actually gives you the bonus before you pay the credit card bill which is different than most other offers. 

Which means, you can actually buy your plane tickets through the Capital One Travel Portal as soon as you get the credit card in the mail and then erase them before you ever have to make a payment if you time it right. Pretty sweet!

You will see the $300 credit go through within a few days. If we assume your plane tickets are similar to mine about $600 each r/t, then you are already $1,200 on your way towards the minimum spend. 

Plus every purchase you make is 2x points so you already have 2,400 points towards FREE travel. 

As long as you hit the minimum spend on your card within 90 days, which you have to in order to earn the bonus, you can erase the charge for the plane tickets.

Let's take a look at that again in steps. 

1. Apply for the Capital One Venture X card before March 14th

3. The $395 annual fee charges to the card, it counts towards your minimum spend. 

4. Charge everything to your new Capital One Venture X card including gas, groceries, property taxes (if the convenience fee is low), tuition payments, household repairs or projects etc. You have 3 months to reach the minimum spend of $10,000. 

6. Buy your flights to Europe through the Capital One Travel Portal, charge them to the Capital One Venture X credit card  Login to your Capital One account, click on travel portal, search for flights and purchase. 

7. A few days after you buy your flights, you will see a $300 travel credit post to your account 

8. When you reach the $10,000 minimum spend, you will see the 100,000 bonus points post to your account. 

9. Now you should have about 120,000 points. You will erase the plane tickets by clicking on cover travel purchases. Each point is worth one cent so 124,894 points equals $1,248.

It's that simple. If you would like to fly for FREE, this is one of the easiest ways to do it. You have until March 14th to apply for the Capital One Venture X credit card and if you would use my referral link, I would appreciate it. 

If you would like to learn more about how to fly FREE and how to earn the companion pass, we have teamed up with Families Fly FREE and would love to invite you to join the club. Click here for more information.  

How You Can Get Your Next Tour or Airbnb For FREE

 

Some places that you travel to like Diamond Beach in Iceland do not have chain hotels that you can book on points like Marriott, Hyatt or Hilton. Or maybe like our family of five, hotels are not a good choice because you need two rooms or you will be forced to eat out for every meal. 

How You Can Get Your Tour or Airbnb For FREE

So how can you get your Airbnb, Bed and Breakfasts and tours for FREE if you can't use points?

The secret is in the Capital One Venture credit card.  Current bonus offer ends Sept. 9th so read carefully. 

The Capital One Venture and Venture X credit cards include a travel eraser and travel credit through the Capital One Travel Portal. 

 

Let's explain: 

1. Travel Eraser - When you log into your Capital One account and click view rewards, cover travel purchases, you will see a list of qualified purchases. Any purchase that codes as travel will qualify to be erased like Airbnb, tours, rental cars etc. You can erase the whole purchase or just part of it. You can even erase some of the purchase and then when you have more points, erase the rest. You have three months to erase the purchase so start with the oldest ones first. The value is 1:1 so some would argue you can get more value out of your points by transferring them to an airline, but I believe this is personal to your strategy and goals. For example, I erased the hotel charge for our 5th person in Tahiti. We already had our flights and over water bungalow covered so this was a random travel purchase we could get for FREE. Worth it! 

2. Travel Credit in the Portal - The Venture credit card comes with a $250 travel credit with the current bonus offer which ends Sept. 9th and the Venture X always comes with a $300 travel credit when you purchase hotels or flights through the Capital One Travel Portal. In order to use this credit, you must book your hotel or flight through the Capital One Travel Portal which works great for independent hotels and bed and breakfasts. In the booking process, the portal will ask if you want to use your travel credit to cover the purchase. You do not have to use the entire credit on a single purchase.  

 

Some people are hesitant to book travel through third parties like the Capital One Travel Portal, but I have found it to work quite well. Even when my flight was cancelled due to weather last summer, I was notified by both the airline and Capital One of the cancellation and how to reschedule. 

Ending Sept. 9th, Capital One Venture credit card is offering a $250 travel credit, $100 Global Entry credit and 75,000 bonus points when you sign up. There is a $4,000 minimum spend and a $95 annual fee. So with the travel credit, you are actually making money on this card approximately $1,000. You can only get this bonus once every 4 years. We do not know how long this offer is going to last so don't wait. 

The Capital One Venture X card is a good option if you want airport lounge access for you and your authorized users. The current offer is 75,000 bonus points for a $4,000 minimum spend and a $395 annual fee, but it includes a $300 travel credit. 

If you need some help figuring out if this card will help you reach your travel goals, join my Travel Coaching Program. The next cohort launches September 15th and it's my personal goal to help my clients collectively save more than $100,000 in 2025. 

Thinking About Booking Summer Travel, Read This First!

 

Thinking about crossing the pond this summer? What about heading to Hawaii? Just getting around to making your summer plans? In the past 24 hours, I have received multiple emails from friends wanting to find out how they can travel FREE this summer. 

Usually, I recommend planning at least one year ahead to travel FREE, and if you are interested, click here to find out about the club at Families Fly FREE. But I do have one secret way to score some FREE travel this summer. In fact, I just recommended this secret to a friend wanting to travel end of May.

And I'm going to share this trick with you right now. 

 It has to do with the Capital One Venture X and Venture Rewards cards. These cards have a unique travel eraser tool. So here's the secret, if you charge your travel to these cards to reach the minimum spend, you can actually erase the travel purchase when you get the bonus and BEFORE you ever have to pay the balance due. 

Capital One will actually give you the bonus immediately when you spend the minimum and BEFORE you pay the bill. They do not make you wait until after you pay the balance like most Chase credit cards. 

That means you can actually buy the flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises, and tours as part of your minimum spend and then just erase those purchases. 

Following me here?

Thinking About Booking Summer Travel, Read This First! 

I just did that exact thing for my trip to Ireland. 

Plus the Venture X card comes with a $300 travel credit when you purchase your travel through the Capital One Travel Portal AND 5x points on flights AND 10x points on hotels and car rentals. 

So let's look at my friend's situation. She has already secured her flights to Maui for end of May using her Southwest companion pass, a buy one, get one pass for two years and one of the best travel benefits out there. Awesome! 

Now she would like to splurge for her birthday and stay at the Four Seasons or similar type hotel. But those hotels are running $1,600 per room per night. Ouch. 

If we had more time, we may use another strategy, but since this travel is happening in just a few weeks, I believe this is the best and probably the only option unless of course you have a stash of 500,000 points. 

Here's the strategy:

1. My friend and her partner EACH open a Capital One Venture X card. My friend should open hers and then immediately send her partner a referral link so he can open his card. The referral is worth 25,000 points. 

2. The card bonus offer right now is 75,000 bonus points for a $4,000 minimum spend

3. Purchase 3 hotel nights through the Capital One Travel Portal on my friend's card and 2 hotel nights through the portal on her partner's card. 

4. Quickly, charge another $640 on the partner's Capital One credit card to reach the minimum spend. Maybe a few snorkeling trips in Maui! 

5. The bonus should post pretty quickly, plus the 10x points on the hotel purchase so the purchase will yield 75,000 + 50,400 or 125,400 on my friend's account. 

5. Use the travel eraser to erase nearly one night at the hotel about a $1,300 value. 

6. The $300 statement credit will post immediately as well bringing the annual fee down to just $95. 

7. The referral will net another 25,000 points and you have 90 days to erase travel purchases so once that posts, erase another $250. Since you can erase partial payments, you can continue to chip away. 

Now do the same thing on the partner's Capital One card and bam, at least 2 nights are FREE. If you decide to try this trick, please use my referral link to support this blog. 

Thinking About Booking Summer Travel, Read This First! 

If you want your entire trip to be FREE, you need to plan in advance and I recommend joining me at Families Fly FREE. We have teamed up with my friend and national travel blogger Lyn. She has created a simple system to help families fly free. 

If you would like to check them out, click here and let Lyn know I sent you. :) I'll be sharing testimonials from some happy members and I'll let you know when I'll be offering webinars. 

So Many 100,000 Plus Bonus Offers Right Now

What if you could stay at hotels in Europe for FREE? We did it. Three years ago, four weeks, lots of hotels and all FREE. 

How do we do it? We take advantage of the bonus offers on credit cards. And right now, credit cards are coming out strong to lure you into applying. Currently, there are 100,000 plus bonus offers from Chase Sapphire Preferred, Hilton, IHG, and Capital One Venture. So the question is should you jump in and if so, which one?

I'm going to break it down for you and try to make it as simple as possible so you can take advantage of these amazing offers to get FREE travel down the road for your family. 

So Many 100,00 Plus Bonus Offers Right Now 

Okay here goes. Yes, you definitely should jump in and apply. That's a no-brainer. These offers are too good to pass up, some are the highest bonus offers we have ever seen. And bonus offers translate into FREE travel so yes, do it. 

Now, which card or cards should you apply for? That one is more difficult so let me help you. 

My number one go-to card is the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card. So if you don't really know where you want to travel or have a specific need, then apply for this card first. 100,000 Ultimate Reward points equal approximately $1250 in FREE travel or cashback. You can get more value from these points too if you transfer them to more than a dozen airline partners or hotel partners Or if you use them to buy travel through the Chase Travel Portal. 

Which one should you choose 

The second choice would be a tie for me between the Hilton American Express Surpass card or the Capital One Venture card. Both carry a $95 annual fee, but obviously, the Hilton card earns Hilton points good at only Hilton brand hotels. On our last few trips to Eastern Europe and Panama, we stayed in Hampton by Hilton. This brand is great for families because you can easily get 5 people in a room (2 double/queen beds and a sofa pullout) plus it includes breakfast. Our breakfast in Panama City, Panama and Krakow, Poland were phenomenal. And the price tag for these hotels is 5,000-10,000 per night. Wow! 

Now the Capital One Venture card earns Capital One points which are great because you can use them to essentially erase any travel purchase. So there is no fuss with this card. No need to transfer points to partners. You just use the card to make the purchase and then log into your account and erase it. You can erase the whole purchase or a part of it. Super easy. The minimum spend for this one is hefty so be prepared. 

You can only get the Capital One Venture card once in your lifetime. If you had the Hilton Ascend card, you are not eligible for the Surpass. American Express will only approve you for two cards in a 90 day period. American Express also offers a tool that will tell you when you apply if you qualify for the bonus before you submit. 

My number one choice

The IHG card would be my last choice, but I know people who love IHG and will buy points when they go on sale with the 100% match. IHG points are good within the IHG brand which includes Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express. 

You can check out the benefits for each card which may sway you one way or the other. 

• IHG waives the $89 fee for the first year and the bonus is 150,000 points. The rest of the cards carry a $95 annual fee. It has a $3,000 minimum spend. 
• Hilton Surpass card has a $3,000 minimum spend and a 130,000 bonus offer. Check a few different links. 
• Capital One Venture has a $20,000 minimum spend to get the full 100,000 bonus. You get 50,000 points for the first $3,000 spend. This card also carries a $95 annual fee. 
• The Chase Sapphire Preferred  has a $4,000 minimum spend to get the 100,000 bonus. It also carries a $95 annual fee. 

For me, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is my number one choice! If you decide to apply for one of these cards, please consider using my referral link. You get an awesome deal and I get a few points for referring you. 

Why I Visited Two Capital One Lounges In The Same Day

They say once you experience something you can't go back. Well, that's how I feel about airport lounges. A quiet space amongst the chaos of the airport. A place with food, drinks and my favorite, coffee. A place with WIFI, comfy chairs and sometimes even a resting room and showers. 

Recently, I spent time in the new Capital One Lounge in Washington DC Dulles Airport and then just hours later during an extended layover, visited the Capital One Lounge in Denver. 

How much does this all cost? Nothing if you are holding a Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card or  Capital One Venture X credit card. There are a few others too that include this benefit, but I'm going to focus on these two credit cards. 

There are 1,500 Priority Pass lounges around the world and three Capital One lounges (Dallas, Denver, Washington DC Dulles). Everyone must present a valid boarding pass to enter and check in at the lounge desk. You can find a list of all the lounges worldwide on the Priority Pass website or app.

• The Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card includes the Priority Pass membership. Once you receive your credit card, just login to your Chase.com account and activate the membership. Priority Pass will send you a physical card in the mail. You can also access a digital card online. Through July 1st 2024, the pass includes some restaurants too where you are eligible for a $26 per person credit. The pass is good for the card holder and two guests. Authorized users also get a Priority Pass membership, however, it costs $75 per year to add an authorized user so that's not the best option.  
• The Capital One Venture X  credit card includes the Priority Pass membership as well, but not the restaurant credit. It is also valid for the card holder and two guests. A benefit of the Capital One Venture X is that you can add authorized users for FREE and they ALSO get FREE Priority Pass lounge access for themselves and two guests. I added all three of my children as authorized users which helps them build their credit and gives them an emergency credit card plus they have access to Priority Pass lounges and the three Capital One lounges. Pretty sweet! 

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is offering an increased bonus offer right now of 75,000 points for a $4,000 minimum spend, but it does carry a $550 annual fee. 

The Capital One Venture X is offering 75,000 bonus offer for $4,000 minimum spend and a $395 annual fee. 

Both are great cards and can have a vital part in your travel strategy. Join my travel coaching program for help to determine which one best fits your needs for your future travel goals.