The Best Two Credit Card Strategy For Travelers in 2024

When it comes to the points and miles world, there are two types of credit card relationships…

The temporary friendships, and the BFFs. 

BFFs are your “keeper cards” that are so fricken amazing, you keep them with you forever. 

And two BFF cards that go perfectly together for travel lovers are the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.

Key Takeaways

⭐️ Smart use of these two cards creates a powerful strategy for earning travel rewards faster.

⭐️ Combining these cards unlocks a ton of extra travel perks, like free travel credits and lounge access.

⭐️ Using two top-tier travel cards from different banks diversifies your points and miles, offering more protection and opportunities.

Why this is the best two credit card strategy for travelers

Let me start by saying both of these cards are absolute bangers by themselves. And they both have cemented their spot on the overall best credit cards for travelers list.

But when you combine these two gems together, it’s just pure beauty.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best travel card for beginners, and it’s also the one most people should start with.

That’s because the Sapphire Preferred has a more manageable $95 annual fee and is usually easier to get approved for than the fancier Venture X card. 

Holding the Sapphire Preferred also unlocks Chase Ultimate Rewards points and a huge list of hotel and airline transfer partners. 

This is arguably the most powerful travel rewards program in existence. 

Think of the Sapphire Preferred as the peanut butter on slice of soft freshly baked bread.

Delicious? Sure.

But if you slather on some o’ that sweet Venture X jelly, it’s the perfect combo.

That’s because with the Venture X, you’re earning Capital One miles, which is another super strong rewards program with slightly different transfer partners and perks. 

The Venture X also offers travel perks that make it a no-brainer keeper card.

Yes, there’s a $395 annual fee…BUT each year you get a free $300 travel credit and 10,000 bonus miles (worth $100+). So just these two perks alone completely offset that annual fee. 

Then all the other awesome perks — including free airport lounge access — are like 10 cherries on top. 

Lastly, by combining these two cards, you’re maximizing the points you earn on your purchases. 

The Sapphire Preferred lets you earn 3x points per dollar on dining and 2x on travel, but most other spending categories only earn 1 point per dollar. 

But the Venture X offers at least 2x points per dollar on essentially ALL purchases. 

That means if you use the Sapphire Preferred for travel and dining and use the Venture X for everything else, you’ll stack up points like crazy.

Card Perks and Benefits Summary

Here’s all the goodies you can currently get with each of these cards.

Chase Sapphire Preferred	Capital One Venture X
Current Welcome Offer: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.	Current Welcome Offer: Earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months.
5X points per $1 on Chase TravelSM purchases	10X miles per $1 on hotels and cars booked through Capital One Travel
3X points per $1 on dining, select streaming services, and online grocery (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs)	5X miles per $1 on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel
2X points per $1 on travel purchases	2X miles per $1 on all other purchases
Earn up to $50 in statement credits each year for hotel stays booked through the Chase Travel℠ portal	Receive a $300 travel credit annually for bookings through Capital One Travel
Receive a 10% points bonus on your total spending during the account anniversary year at the rate of 1 point for every $1 spent	Get 10,000 bonus miles each year for your card annniverary
Travel insurance such as primary car rental coverage, trip delay and cancellation insurance, baggage delay insurance, lost luggage reimbursement, purchase protection, and extended warranty protection	Travel insurance such as primary car rental coverage, trip delay and cancellation insurance, lost luggage reimbursement, purchase protection, extended warranty protection, and cell phone protection
	Priority Pass and Capital One Lounge access for you and two guests at 1,400+ airport lounges around the world
	Add up to four authorized users at no additional fee (and who get their own lounge membership)
	Up to $120 statement credit for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry every four years
Foreign Transaction Fee: None	Foreign Transaction Fee: None
Annual Fee: $95	Annual Fee: $395

Both cards let you use your points and miles to purchase flights, hotels, and car rentals through their respective travel platform. 

This can sometimes be a good deal, but to get the MOST bang for your points, you can transfer your points and miles to their airline and hotel partners. 

By holding two cards instead of just one, you get access to more potential transfer partners, which gives you tons of flexibility to use the airline (or hotel) that has the best deal for your specific trip.

Chase Sapphire Preferred	Capital One Venture X
Aer Lingus AerClub 1:1 (transfer ratio)	Aeromexico Rewards 1:1 (transfer ratio)
Air Canada Aeroplan 1:1	Air Canada Aeroplan 1:1
Air France-KLM Flying Blue 1:1	Air France-KLM Flying Blue 1:1
British Airways Executive Club 1:1	Accor Live Limitless 2:1
Emirates Skywards 1:1	Avianca LifeMiles 1:1
Iberia Plus 1:1	British Airways Executive Club 1:1
JetBlue TrueBlue 1:1	Cathay Pacific Asia Miles 1:1
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer 1:1	Choice Privileges 1:1
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards 1:1	Emirates Skywards 1:1
United Airlines MileagePlus 1:1	Etihad Airways Guest 1:1
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club 1:1	EVA Airways Infinity MileageLands 4:3
IHG One Rewards 1:1	Finnair Plus 1:1
Marriott Bonvoy 1:1	Qantas Frequent Flyer 1:1
World of Hyatt 1:1	Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer 1:1
	TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go 1:1
	Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles 1:1
	Virgin Red 1:1
	Wyndham Rewards 1:1

That’s A LOT of transfer partners…enough to get you pretty much anywhere on earth. 

Why Are the Sapphire Preferred and Venture X a Perfect Match?

It’s pretty obvious to see the value of holding these two cards and using them as your go-to dynamic duo. 

The Venture X perks more than pay for it’s annual fee.

And the $50 hotel credit offsets the annual fee of the Sapphire Preferred down to just $45 per year (not considering all the other benefits you get).

But even if you didn’t consider all these annual credits, the welcome offers you can earn makes this even more of a no-brainer.

If you earn the welcome offer on both of these cards, you’ll rack up at least 135,000 points and miles combined…plus the additional points and miles you earn from hitting the minimum spend for each card.

Altogether, you’re looking at a minimum of 147,000 points and miles, and likely much more depending on the multipliers of the categories you’re spending in (ex. 3x on dining for the Sapphire Preferred).

This 147,000 is worth $1,470 cashback, and potentially way more when redeemed for travel. 

When you think about things this way, that $490 combined annual fee doesn’t feel like much.

Bottom Line

The Sapphire Preferred and Venture X cards are the two main cards that I personally use for racking up travel rewards. 

It’s one of the most powerful card combinations for travel lovers because it offers so many epic perks, while costing you little to nothing (when factoring in the credits).

That said, if you’re OCD and prefer keeping all your credit cards and points together in one bank, another popular strategy is the Chase credit card trifecta. 

It’s slightly more complex, but can be super powerful if you want to focus all your energy on racking up only Chase Ultimate Rewards points. 

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