A new player in travel rewards is betting big on the simple idea that miles should actually work.
Rove Miles, a New York-based startup that recently launched out of Y Combinator, is positioning itself as a new kind of loyalty program, one that isn’t tethered to a single airline or limited to customers with high-limit credit cards. Instead, Rove offers a universal rewards platform where users can earn and redeem miles across multiple loyalty ecosystems, including more than a dozen airline and hotel programs.
“Traditional airline loyalty programs have forced travelers into rigid ecosystems,” said Max Morganroth, Rove’s co-founder and CEO. “Our goal is to make earning and redeeming miles as effortless as possible.”
For users, the core experience centers around a few key tools. The Rove Shopping Chrome Extension allows customers to earn miles from everyday online purchases across more than 7,000 retailers. Booking a hotel through the Rove portal can also yield high returns, with rates of up to 25 miles per dollar spent. Those miles can be redeemed directly through Rove’s travel portal or transferred to partners such as Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles, and Accor Live Limitless.
And unlike most legacy programs, users don’t need to wait for miles to show up. If you book a non-refundable hotel stay, the miles are credited to your account instantly.
Airline Miles for Everyone
Rove’s founding team has deep roots in the travel hacking community. Together, Morganroth and co-founder Arhan Chhabra have redeemed more than $400,000 worth of flights and hotel stays using points. With Rove, they’re trying to remove the complexity that often scares off the casual traveler.
“We want to ensure everyone can ‘travel hack’ their way to a new continent for the first time,” said Morganroth.
Rove’s value proposition is aggressive. Where most credit card points are worth around one cent each, Rove promises up to 10 cents per mile in redemption value through its dynamic pricing engine. A hotel booking worth $1,000 could earn enough miles to cover a round-trip flight to Europe, based on current rates.
Growing Network and Backers
At launch, Rove supports 12 transfer partners across all three major airline alliances: Star Alliance, SkyTeam, and oneworld. That includes names like Etihad Guest, Aeromexico Rewards, and Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus.
The company is backed by top-tier venture firms, including General Catalyst and Soma Capital, as well as angel investors from fintech unicorns like SoFi. While Rove doesn’t yet offer a co-branded credit card, the startup has hinted at future features like card-linked offers, dining rewards, and even private jet perks.
Behind the scenes, Rove is also developing an AI-powered travel agent to help users find the best deals within the platform and partner networks. The feature is expected to surface redemptions dynamically and streamline the booking process.
Rove enters a space where standalone loyalty programs have a mixed history in the U.S. But its early advantage may lie in targeting users that traditional systems leave behind, especially Gen Z, a generation that travels frequently but often lacks access to premium credit cards.
The company’s mission, as stated in its launch materials, is to address those gaps. “Free flights and stays are out of reach with traditional loyalty and rewards programs unless you’re a frequent flyer or have a top FICO score,” the release says. Rove wants to change that equation.
