Venture Card for airline tix?

[crazymomof4]

For our Sept '14 trip we will most likely be flying. This will be our first time flying as a family, so it's an understatement to say we are "green" when it comes to air travel......

In the mail today I rec'd an application for the "Venture" card. It's offer includes a "one-time bonus of 10,000 miles when you spend $1000 on purchases in the first 3 months" (I'd make that if I JUST put our groceries on that card! LOL) According to the literature the miles can be "used on any airline, anytime with no black out dates". We would need 5 round trip tix from NJ to FL so (if I'm understanding correctly) the 10,000 bonus miles would come close to or maybe completely cover the airfare for this trip.

Being a novice to any card with "miles" (we usually just do the cash rewards with Chase and Discover) I am wondering if there is any fine print I should know about.

Any experiences (good or bad), tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. TIA

 

[tomi]

I have a Venture card and the rewards are great. We put all expenses on it and pay it in full every month. However, you would need much more than 10,000 points for 5 airline tickets. For example, if a ticket cost $200 then you would need 20,000 points (or miles). Cost of ticket X 100 =number of miles needed. Miles can be redeemed for hotels, gift cards, merchandise, airline tickets and even cash. But in order to cover your travel for a family of 5, you would need a very large amount of miles on it.

 

[spears2008]

10,000 venture miles will get you a ticket worth $100. If you look on the Capital One website, under "Redeem Easy" you will see:
1) Book it with Venture
2) Add two zeros to see the miles you need
3) Erase within 90 days of purchase

I would recommend the Chase sapphire preferred card which gives you 40,000 bonus points if you spend 3,000 in the first 3 months AND the chase southwest card (apply when they offer 50,000 points for spending 2,000 in the first 3 months). Chase sapphire can be transferred to Southwest, so that would give you 95,000 miles for spending $5,000 on the cards. If you redeem for SW wanna get away tickets, that is worth $1,583 of airfare! (That's 60 points used for each dollar of airfare).

 

[crazymomof4]

OK... so see, that's exactly why I posted the question here! The Venture term "miles" is not be translated into terms of actual physical in-flight miles, right?

Dummy me, I thought miles = miles!

Thanks for the tip on the 2 Chase cards. With the trip being a year away still, if I find the offers you mentioned soon enough I should have time to do both.

Thank you for your replies. I've learned a lot.

 

[JessM]

You just missed the Southwest promo for 50K miles for signing up, it ended Aug 6th. Right now you can get 25k miles for signing up. I believe last year they ran the 50K promotion around January so I would wait and see if they offer it again

Depending on flight prices you will be able to get at least 2 maybe 3 or 4 flights out of those 50K miles.

 

[crazymomof4]

Been snooping and found the Sapphire Preferred offer for 40,000 points but, yes, didn't find any current offer for the SW card with 50,000.

Good to know that it may come around again in January-- Thanks!

It pays to
#1 plan ahead and
#2 rely on the "experts" on disboards!

 

[ParkHopperFan]

We went with the Southwest Visa. There were enough signup points to buy one ticket and we buy everything with the card and even pay some of our bills online using the card and then pay the balance off.

Southwest is great for the Wanna Get Away rates and you will probably get tons of direct flights to Orlando from NJ. I think they also offer cardholders perks like free checked bags, etc.

Good luck!

 

[crazymomof4]

Thanks for the additional recommendation and tips. I will have to remember to look into the free checked bags things.
This flying newbie appreciates everyone's help!