Compare the Features and Benefits of American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® and
Capital One Venture X Business

For occasional travelers that fly American Airlines and are looking to earn miles with the airline, then the AAdvantage® MileUp card could be a solid option.

And while you might not think about this card if you are already an American Airlines elite traveler, you may find the bonus categories more beneficial than the $99 fee Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite MasterCard since you already have the additional benefits like free checked bags and priority boarding via your status.

This beginner-friendly card, with no annual fee, is ideal for those who don’t travel often enough to justify a more expensive, premium card.

The AAdvantage® MileUp also has a competitive 2X bonus category rate at grocery stores (including grocery delivery services) and eligible American Airlines purchases.

And remember, all base miles earned via spend on this card count as Loyalty Points towards AAdvantage® status.

In addition, you’ll get 25% off inflight food and beverage purchases and there’s no mileage cap on the card. American Airlines miles can be used on over 1,000 worldwide destinations, as you can use them for American Airlines, American Eagle and any Oneworld alliance or non-alliance partner airlines.

However, there are some significant downsides to consider as well. While this is an airline-specific card, the MileUp card doesn’t include many airline perks, such as a free checked bag perk or preferred boarding. In addition, there’s a relatively modest welcome bonus and the card charges a foreign transaction fee (so you won’t want to use this card abroad).

And if you do fly American Airlines (and Oneworld partner airlines or JetBlue) more than a couple of times per year, but are not elite already, there are some better options out there, including those from American Airlines. That includes the mid-tier Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard, offering the first checked bag free, and the premium Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard, offering Admirals Club lounge access.

The Capital One Venture X Business card is a very well rounded travel credit card that is easy to recommend to almost anyone, especially with No Preset Spending Limit – meaning that heavy business spenders will have an easier time.

The first objection is always the annual fee, but once you see that the $300 annual travel credit and 10,000 miles anniversary bonus (worth $100 or more) nets out the annual fee, it’s much easier to go and focus on the benefits.

If you consider the annual fee to effectively be -$5 as I do based on the above though process, then you are looking a a TON of benefits for a card where you aren’t out a ton on the annual fee with nothing in return.

You’re getting No Preset Spending Limit, Plaza Premium and Priority Pass lounge access, Capital One Lounges, Global Entry (or PreCheck) fee reimbursement, the ability to earn up to 10X miles on travel booked via Capital One, and cell phone protection.

See, that’s a mouthful! You would expect to be paying a massive annual fee for all of that (without credits that net it out) and in this case, you’re just not. Of course, you’ll still have to pay the $395 fee upfront, but you’ll also be able to get that early spend bonus. That offsets it nicely!

In our opinion, this card is simply one of the best travel business cards around in terms of both benefits and value for money.

And as icing on the cake, aside from the initial hard pull on your personal credit to qualify you for approval, it won’t report to your personal credit file as long as your account remains in good standing.