Frequent Miler on the Air - Capital One wins the coupon book wars by not playing | Coffee Break Ep71 | 9-23-25

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

We find the coupon book trend fairly tedious and frustrating, but we've had to admit that American Express has sort of won this game by offering "coupons" and perks that are actually compelling. But since many of us don't really like the coupon book approach at all, does that make Capital One the winner since they haven't done much with the coupon book strategy at all? Capital One wins the coupon book wars by not playing(00:21) - Coupon Book Wars(04:08) - But many consumers don't want to play the coupon book game(04:28) - Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (which you can learn about here) and Capital One Venture X Business Card (which you can learn about here)Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

This is a Voyescape podcast. You can find all of our travel podcasts from around the world at voyescape.com. Welcome to Freakimilar's Coffee Break, where we focus on a single topic related to miles and points. And each coffee break is limited to 20 minutes or less for your money back. On today's coffee break, Capital One wins the coupon book wars by not playing. Let's talk about what the coupon book wars are and why we think that Capital One has won it. The coupon book wars, they were invented by American Express. The idea was Amix at some point decided, hey, look, we can raise annual fees and make up for it by adding merchant-funded coupons.

These are credits that you get, things like, you know, $50 each six months from Saks Fifth Avenue or on the business side up to $200 at the time. from Dell and things like that that were mostly merchant funded and the idea was like consumers could look at those raised I know fees and say yeah I'm paying more but I'm getting a lot back I'm maybe getting more back than the increase in the fee and so that seemed to work and despite the aggravation of having all these like coupons to deal with some are monthly some are quarterly some are every six months, some are annual, consumers kept getting these cards. And so Amex, you know, kept doing that with more and more of their different card lines. And then Chase was like, hey, I've got to get in on this game.

And they started that first they kind of dip their toe in. And then with the refreshed United card lineup, they went full bore. They were like, we're all in on the coupon book war, raise annual fees to stratospheric amounts, add ridiculous coupons that are, you know, monthly, and you get to use a piece of this coupon once a month and the other piece of it, the second part of the month, that kind of thing. And so this kept going. Then Chase updated their Sapphire Reserve card with their $795 dollar Sapphire Reserve card, threw in all these coupons and said, yeah, I think they're pretty proud of themselves thinking that they did a good thing, but, you know, a lot of us looked

out and were like, I don't know. It doesn't look very compelling. City also, you know, city threw their hat in the ring. Now, they're kind of stepping into this war from the side. They're like, how about this $5.95 strata elite card? How about that? Doesn't that look good? And yeah, it looks great on, you know, on weekend evenings, Eastern Time, when it turns. six-sex for dining. It looks fine, but it's not, it's not that exciting. And then, as we reported last week, Amex unveiled the $895 platinum card, which we wanted to hate, but it was so full of actually apparently usable coupons that we declared that Amex won the coupon book war. So Amex's formula, I don't think the others have followed this correctly.

Amex's formula, at least with the platinum card, is to have standard perks. These are not coupons, but standard perks that make the card one that you want to have. You want to be able to get into all those different lounges that Amex offers with the card, which it goes way beyond Centurion lounges, includes, you know, Delta lounges and escape lounges and more. You know, it offers elite statuses. It offers a bunch of perks like that that makes almost every traveler want to have the card. and then they threw in so many different compelling coupons that almost anyone, not everyone for sure, but almost anyone could look at it and say,

you know what, I can get back more than the annual fee in rebates and get the perks that I really want if I get that card. And that's how MX won that war. All right, that said, there's a lot of us out there. I believe that don't want to play that game at all. A lot of us consumers, I mean. So let's talk about Capital One. So yeah, Capital One arguably has won the coupon war by refusing to engage because the Capital One Venture Act's and Venture Act's business cards have not kind of stooped to the coupon book level yet.

They have maintained a $395 annual fee despite other issuers constantly. increasing the cost of holding their cards. They have held tight to the $395 annual fee price point with a super easy to use single coupon that you can use all at once. A $300 travel credit for bookings made through Capital One Travel. Can't get much simpler than that. You book a flight, a hotel, a rental car through Capital One Travel. And again, you could use this entire coupon discount in one shot and be done with it. And then you get 10,000 bonus miles at every anniversary. And so between the $300 coupon and the $10,000 bonus miles, it doesn't feel like this card costs you anything to maintain, right? I mean, because, you know, if you were already spending more than well

over $300 a year on travel, as many people considering these types of cards are, and if you value 10,000 transferable points at anything more than a penny a point, which keep in mind, at the very base level, you could redeem that 10,000 points for $100 worth of travel. But if you transfer to partners, you could potentially do even better. I mean, this card almost feels like it gives you back more than what you put into it before you even consider the ultra-premium perks that it has. And it does have perks. Very simple, easy to understand perks.

Priority pass lounge access, which is pretty standard on ultra-premium cards. But nonetheless, on a card that doesn't really feel like you're paying much for it is nice to have, the Capital One lounges, which by and large are very well-reviewed. People seem to really enjoy the Capital One lounges. now there aren't a ton of those yet, but they are continuing to expand and open more of them, so that's been great to see. It has cell phone insurance, and it has decent travel protections that compete with the better travel protections from other issuers. So it's a great set of perks that, again, kind of feels like it doesn't cost you much. And when I say doesn't cost you much,

Greg already said before that potentially you might be able to use the platinum card perks for even more value than the cost of the annual fee. But what he also kind of mentioned in there is that you have to additionally consider the time cost of having to remember to use the monthly credits and the quarterly credits and which ones are six months and which ones are 12 months. Whereas Capital One eliminates that cost entirely, right? Because you just need to remember to use that $300 travel credit once a year. I mean, it's not very hard to remember that. And for most travelers, that's not a hardship. Right. It's not a big ask at all, right? And the card is rewarding to use. So whereas most of the other ultra-premium cards on most purchases only offer one mile per dollar, Capital One kind of

flips that around and gives you two miles per dollar everywhere. So very simple, easy-to-use structure that provides good, reasonable value for everyday purchases. And then, of course, you can earn more if you book travel through Capital One travel. You can earn 10x miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One travel or 5X on flights booked through Capital One Travel. And also worth mentioning that Capital One Travel also has these random hotel and flight coupons sometimes should log in every once in a while because I notice these change pretty frequently and they seem to be targeted. But every now and then you'll find a coupon in there that's really good.

And when I say a coupon, these are not coupons that are regular benefits. These are random ones. But these coupons are interesting and that sometimes you'll see something like 75 dollars off of a hotel booking of two nights or more or $150 off of a hotel booking in a specific destination. They're usually tied to specific destinations. But unlike other types of offers that require you spend X amount in order to get the discount, oftentimes the capital one travel coupons are just 150 off of 150 or more. Or sometimes they're percentage base. They might only be 10 or 15 percent off. But nonetheless, they do add those in. And so those are coupons that you can use,

but you don't really feel forced to use because they're not regular benefits that you have to remember to use or lose. It's just worth mentioning it. To me, that's an additional versus a thing that I have to work to remember to use, right? Yeah, totally. And don't forget, too,

they offer pretty good portal built in. When you log into Capital One, there's Capital One offers, and they offer like 2x points for this, 10x for that and so on. And some of those tend to be pretty darn good offers. I've found occasionally that it's much better than I could find elsewhere and you get these transferable points, which is great. Yeah, that's an excellent point. And if you're a member of our Frequimiler Insiders Facebook group, every now and then, there are a few members that'll find some terrific

deals through those card-linked offers, or rather the Capital One offers within your Capital One login account and they'll post them. And sometimes, I mean, you buy things where essentially you kind of feel like you're buying miles at half a cent per mile or something. And there are some really good deals to be had. But of course, you can then transfer those miles to airline and hotel programs. And that's why we get excited about the miles. Back in the day when Capital One miles could only be used to erase travel, we were less enthusiastic about it. But now that you additionally have the ability to transfer to airline and hotel programs, and we've had that for the last few years, that's been really good. And not only was it good when it launched,

but they've continued to add more and more partners. In fact, they just recently added a few more. Yeah, you know, we're always excited to see more partners. In this case, I'd say there's one that's exciting. The other two are just kind of interesting. But so they added Qatar Airways Privilege Club as a one-to-one transfer partner. That's nice, but they already had transfers to British Airways, which convert directly to Qatar if you want to.

So there's no real big advantage to going directly to Qatar. They added, though, I find this very interesting. One to two transfers to I Prefer. Now, I Prefer is the preferred hotels and resorts rewards program. And I'd be more excited about this if City didn't already have a one to four transfer ratio to I prefer. But still, it's always good to have more options there. Where things get really interesting, I think, is that they added Japan Airlines mileage bank.

Now, that's not a one-to-one transfer partner. It's 1,000 to 750. And there's also some caveats. Like, there's a seven-day waiting period after you transfer before you could redeem your miles. Very weird. That must be imposed on the Japan Airlines side, I have to assume. But this is great because there's, at the time we're recording this, there's no other major transferable currency that transfers to Japan Airlines.

And you do get, they are out with a 30% transfer bonus for the first month while this transfer is in effect, which brings it really close to one-to-one. Yeah, it does. And when Greg says no other major, transferable currency that transfers to Japan Airlines. Remember that built rewards does, but I think the reason he's qualifying it that way is because obviously there are more ways to earn more capital one points or capital one miles, as they call them, than there are built, at least at this point, there are to earn built rewards. So it's really nice to have another major transferable

currency like this where you have more opportunities to collect the miles. Exactly. Exactly. Transfer to Japan Airlines. So yeah, I think that that's a really big one. Japan Airlines has some good sweet spots that are going to be interesting. And historically, they've released more award space to their own members. So, and they release award space, I think, sooner than many other programs. So if you want first dibs on Japan Airlines award space, I think being able to transfer to Japan Airlines, mileage bank is going to be obviously a big advantage for some folks. And obviously Japan Airlines, or maybe not obviously, Japan Airlines is nice. I mean, their business class is pretty widely regarded. I don't love the Apex Suit seats on some of their flights, but many other people

do. So that's just a personal preference thing. But in general, they're thought to have very good catering, excellent service. And their first class, I mean, as you know, is pretty terrific, right? Oh, yeah. I absolutely love flying Japan Airlines first class was such a treat. I want to clarify what I said about the seven-day waiting period. That's only for new account. So if if you never had a Japan Airlines account before, I recommend, just go ahead and sign up for one so that when you're ready, because the thing is, you don't want to transfer your points and then wait seven days before you could redeem them. You want to see that there's a great award available and then transfer your points and book it right away. And so, yeah, create your account as soon as possible

if you don't already have one, and that way that seven-day waiting period will be over before you need it. Very good. I want to add one more thing before we move on. about Qatar Airways Privilege Club, because Greg's right in general, it's not particularly exciting since you could already move the obvious around. The one reason why it could be good, and probably this won't be applicable, but you never know. Katar Airway sometimes offers transfer bonuses on the Qatar side. Like they have one going right now, and it's on the guitar side, right now as we record this. And the only U.S.-based program that qualifies right now is City. And I don't know why city does and not

MX or, well, actually, does AMX even transfer directly to guitar? I can't recall off the top of my head. But having them as a direct transfer partner I think means that there's at least a possibility that Capital One will be included in those types of transfer bonuses in the future. So keep an eye off for that.

Yeah, really good point. Because those can be really nice. Going up to 40% is a terrific transfer bonus when that happens. Okay, great. So anyway, you know, nothing has changed. about Venture X, nothing major has changed about the Venture X card in recent days, other than, you know, they added these new transfer partners. They made some negative changes to having

like guests in the lounges and things. But overall, the main value proposition is exactly as it always has been. And we felt like it's time to call that out as a good thing. You know, all these other banks are hyping how they are refreshing the cards and making them way more expensive, adding all these coupons. And, hey, look over here where Capital One is quietly providing really good value at a very reasonable annual fee without disrupting our worlds. Partly, we want to call this out as a thank you to Capital One, but also even more as a morning. Don't, don't, Capital One, if you're listening, don't make us eat these words.

Don't join the coupon war. Come on now. Stay out of it. Stay out of it. You're winning by staying out. Keep winning. Right. Keep winning. Capital One. Hi, I'm David Brody, co-host of the Travel & Ten podcast. Together, myself and my co-host, Tim Johnson have traveled to over 150 countries around the world and all seven continents. Now we're sharing our favorite places, some of our best tips and experiences from all around the world in just 10 minutes on Travelin'10. Join us at Voyescape.com. I'm Pauline Fromer. I've spent most of my life writing, talking, and thinking about travel. Not just where to go, but how to go in a way that's meaningful.

On the Frommers Travel Show, we explore the trends, people, and ideas. shaping how we see the world. If you care about the why, as much as the where, I hope you'll join me. You can find new episodes weekly at voyescape.com.