How I Used The Venture X To See The Northern Lights

Have you ever had a dream vacation that seemed out of reach? It doesn’t have to be out of reach, and the way to get to that dream destination could be as easy as a new credit card application. Using credit card rewards has been a great way for me to facilitate experiences I couldn’t otherwise afford. But it takes a little knowledge, preparation and the right tools. Maximizing the best travel credit cards can give you the boost you need to make your travel dreams come true.

In my case, a new credit card was my ticket to an unforgettable trip north. Here’s how I used the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card to see the breathtaking Northern Lights.

Picking our dream destination

My wife had a milestone birthday that we wanted to commemorate with a special trip. I told her to choose anywhere in the world, and I’d find a way to make it happen using my knowledge of credit card points and miles. Yeah, it’s a bit of a big promise, but I’ve got confidence from years of experience under my belt.

She’s always wanted to see the Northern Lights, and after seeking recommendations and doing research, she chose Rovaniemi, Finland as our destination.

However, after a quick look at the local area, there weren’t any even remotely close hotel options with any of the leading hotel brands like Hyatt, Hilton, or Marriott where I could use my points. And while there were many beautiful resorts in Rovaniemi, they were pretty pricey for the time we were available to travel. While we were prepared to splurge a bit, rates at the top resorts were over $1,000 per night in many cases.

Finding the right card

To make this trip more affordable, I needed to find a rewards card with specific features I’d need for this kind of trip, such as:

• Flexible miles or points I could redeem for statement credits after making travel purchases
• Solid earning rates and redemption value
• A high welcome offer

For travel expenses like these, the clear choice is the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. Combining the above features with the ability to earn extra miles through a referral to my wife (I already had the card) made this the only card I seriously considered for this unique booking.

Welcome offer and earning rates

At the time we were planning our trip, the Venture X had a solid welcome offer of 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months. According to Bankrate’s valuations, Capital One miles are worth around 1.7 cents per point when redeemed with a high-value travel partner, which would have given us a value of $1,275. Since I had the card already, I could refer the card to my wife to earn an additional 25,000 miles to my account after the account was opened, worth another $425.

The card also earns a simple flat rate of 2X miles on all purchases. And if I booked through Capital One Travel, I could earn 5X miles on flights and 10X miles on hotels and rental cars. I could also get an annual $300 travel credit through the portal, which is a nice chunk of a potential trip.

Signing my wife up for this card and earning the welcome offer would work perfectly, as we would cover most of the spending requirement with just our hotel booking.

Booking the trip

My first step was to search the travel portal for the options I wanted. When I found the hotel my wife wanted, I decided to compare the price of booking directly to the price of the travel portal. The price was fairly high, although it was slightly better if I booked directly with the resort and I could also get free breakfast. But, after factoring in the travel credit and the 10X earning rate, I found that I would come out ahead by a couple hundred dollars if I used the travel portal instead.

While I would have paid a slightly lower price booking directly with the resort, I would only earn 2X miles instead of 10X miles, which made a huge difference in the final spend. This may not always be the case with every trip, but it doesn’t hurt to check the figures. For us, the boosted earnings provided significantly more value and made this an ideal booking.

Cover travel purchases for additional savings

While the value for the booking was excellent, that’s not why I went with the Venture X for this trip. With the Venture X, you can redeem your miles at 1 cent per mile to cover travel purchases you make on the card. Also, you have up to 90 days after the purchase to redeem miles. This meant we could accumulate more miles through additional spending to cover as much of the purchase as possible during that timeframe. You don’t need to have the total amount of miles at the time of purchase to cover the entire purchase, which is excellent for flexibility and meant we could maximize every mile we earned.

While redeeming for statement credits for travel purchases doesn’t give you the maximum value of Capital One’s miles, this was the best option available for us to save money on this particular hotel stay. And since this feature isn’t found on other premium travel cards, this trip was the perfect time to add the Venture X to our wallet.

Maximizing value

Getting the welcome offer and meeting the spending requirement netted us 83,000 miles, valued at $830 using the one-cent-per-mile valuation we planned to use. Since I already had the card, I referred the card to my wife for an additional 25,000 miles to my account, worth another $250 with that valuation. I also recently got the 10,000-mile anniversary bonus for renewing the card (worth another $100 in this scenario). So, before any further spending, I already had $1,180 worth of potential savings.

I called Capital One and transferred all of my existing points to my wife’s account. Toward the end of the 90-day window, we redeemed all our combined points for massive savings on our booking, covering approximately 75 percent of our total cost for nearly $1,500 in savings. The only thing stopping us from covering more of the cost was our ability to spend during the 90-day window after the initial booking.

All told, we were able to knock down the cost from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred dollars and were able to enjoy one of the best trips of our lifetime as a result. It can take a lot of work and if you’re not into doing research it can feel like a slog. But the end results will speak for themselves.

The bottom line

You don’t have to give up on planning a dream vacation just because there aren’t options to use traditional credit card points and miles. Cards like the Venture X give you an outside-the-box way to save money on many different aspects of travel. While it may be a slightly more complicated process, the more effort you put into it upfront, the more you can save to make your travel dreams a reality.