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Editor's note: Since writing this post, the original author has started a role at Rove.
We've all heard of American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Wells Fargo Rewards, and Bilt Rewards. These huge programs are mostly bank-driven and offer credit cards that pair with their flexible point currencies. And we love them. Creating a wide variety of partnerships for transfers means that us users can get the best value from all the points we earn.
But it's challenging to create a new transferable currency, which is why we're so intrigued by Rove. Launched in April 2025, Rove boasts itself as “the first universal airline mile.” But does it hold up? Let's take a look at Rove, how it works, the rewards it earns, and whether it's worth the investment.
Not a Rove member yet? Sign up for free and earn bonus miles when you sign up through AwardWallet's link!
What Is Rove?
Unlike programs such as Amex Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards, Rove isn't tied to a bank or loyalty program. Instead, it relies on a travel portal and a shopping portal to allow users to earn Rove Miles — which are currently transferable to 18 hotel and airline partners.
Its closest competitor is Bilt Rewards, whose program allows you to earn rewards without needing to sign up for a credit card.
Using its travel portal, you can book both flights and hotels. This is similar to what you'll find with Capital One Travel or Expedia, both of which allow you to earn rewards on your bookings.
Its shopping portal, meanwhile, has both a Chrome extension and a website link, much like you'll find with sites like Rakuten.
So what's the big deal? How is Rove different from the competition — and how does it expect to stick around?
How to Earn Rove Miles
Rove's biggest differentiator is the sheer number of miles you can earn on bookings. According to Max Morganroth, co-founder and CEO of Rove, “While platforms can’t publicly undercut the rates each individual hotel sells their rooms for, we can charge you the same rate as the hotel and give our entire commission back in the form of miles. When you're using the miles, we give you a discount as this restriction applies only to cash.”
According to Rove, you can earn rewards at the following rates:
- Hotels: Up to 25x miles per $1 spent on non-loyalty-eligible bookings, or up to 5x miles per $1 spent on loyalty-eligible bookings
- Flights: Between 1x and 10x miles per $1 spent
- Shopping: Changes based on vendor
Related: Big Rewards and Valuable Redemptions: 5 Reasons Why Rove Has Become My Go-To for Booking Travel
Earn Rove Miles on hotels and flights
It looks like you may actually the best luck on your earnings with hotels, depending on where you're staying. Here's an example of a two-night stay in Las Vegas in August.
In this example, you'll be able to earn up to an insane 30x miles per $1 spent at Marriott's Grand Chateau, which is incredible.
You can also earn miles on loyalty-eligible hotel bookings. What does that mean? Just what it sounds like. At select brands, Rove offers special rates that still earn hotel points, elite nights, and let you use any elite status benefits you may have.
The tradeoff is that these rates are sometimes higher than Rove’s standard (non-loyalty-eligible) rates, and you’ll earn fewer miles — typically 5x instead of 25x or more.
One of the handy things about Rove is that it has a feature allowing you to sort results by the number of miles earned on your booking, making it easy to spot the best bang for your buck.
Even better, the miles that you earn for your nonrefundable hotel bookings post instantly. This means that if you spot an awesome flight on Air France but don't have enough Flying Blue miles for it, you can book a hotel for a future stay, collect the miles, and then transfer them right over. No one else does that.
You'll also earn between 1x to 10x on flights, and interestingly, you'll also earn Rove Miles on any taxes and fees that you pay. And if you enter your frequent flyer number on your booking, you'll airline miles and elite status credits as well.
Related: 5 of the Cheapest Flights You Can Book Using Rove Miles
Earn Rove Miles for online purchases
Rove also allows you to earn Rove Miles from shopping, whether you're using its desktop site or its extension.
Note at the bottom of the screenshot that Rove is offering 3.2x miles per $1 spent on Visa and Mastercard gift cards. Although you'll need to pay the $5.95 activation fee, buying these cards with something like the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card or Capital One Venture Business will earn you an additional 2x Capital One Miles for every dollar you spend. In the right circumstances, that's pretty compelling.
$95
- 5X miles per dollar on purchases through Capital One Entertainment
- 5X miles per dollar on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- 2X miles per dollar on all other purchases
$95
- 5X miles per $1 on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked via Capital One Business Travel
- 2X miles per $1 on other eligible purchases
Rove Transfer Partners
Along with the ability to earn gobs of miles on your activity, Rove's biggest seller is that the miles it earns are transferable.
Rove currently has 18 transfer partners — including some rare partners like Lufthansa Miles & More, Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, and SAS EuroBonus:
Each of these transfer at a 1:1 ratio with the exception of Accor Live Limitless (ALL), which transfers at a 1.5:1 ratio. Rove now requires a minimum transfer of 2,000 miles, but you can transfer in increments of 100 miles after satisfying that minimum.
What's more, Rove occasionally runs transfer bonuses, which is the icing on the cake.
Other Ways to Redeem Rove Miles
Rove Miles can be redeemed for travel either within Rove's travel portal or via transfers to its partners. Within the portal, you'll see a variable value for your points — and wow, do those values vary.
Hotels
Here’s an example of a one-night stay in New York City next year. To the right of the cash rate, you’ll see how many Rove Miles are required for the same stay. If the property is loyalty-eligible, you’ll also see a separate option with both the cash price and mileage cost.
Looking at the cents-per-mile value, you can get up to 3.1 cents per mile in this example. That’s a strong return and easily beats comparable options — including Chase’s Points Boost feature, which offers premium cardholders up to 2 cents per point on a curated list of redemptions.
That said, not every option delivers that level of value. Just below the 3.1-cent redemption, you’ll see rates closer to 2.1 cents and even 1.8 cents per mile. While that’s a noticeable drop, it’s still well above the roughly 1 cent per mile you’ll often get on similar bookings through other programs.
Flights
Rove has a nifty flight search tool built into its platform, allowing you to search for flights in a variety of ways, including the ability to search from your home airport to anywhere (much akin to Google Flight's Explore feature).
When you do conduct a search, Rove has a unique way of presenting its results. It'll show you all available flights to a destination and will differentiate them according to whether you'll be booking within Rove's travel portal (direct booking) or with an airline partner (transfer booking). You'll also be able to see how good of a value you'll be getting from your points.
There are some limitations to the search tool, however. Much like Bilt and Amex (in partnership with Point.me), Rove is only going to show you transfer booking options for the award currencies it supports. That makes sense, but it does mean that you may end up paying more in miles if you don't know any better.
Just keep in mind that Rove's search tool is limited to its transfer partners when it comes to transfer bookings. The same limitation isn't the case for cash bookings: You'll be able to find all available flights on Rove's platform.
Do Rove Miles Expire?
At the time of writing, Rove Miles do not expire. As long as your account remains open and in good standing, your miles will stay active indefinitely.
According to the Rove terms and conditions, miles are not subject to expiration due to inactivity, provided you continue to comply with the program’s terms.
Bottom Line
Rove is a relatively new and flashy transferable points currency that offers strong rewards on your spending. With no ties to a credit card, it makes earning flexible points more accessible to a wider range of travelers. And we’re quickly becoming big fans.
Not a Rove member yet? Sign up for free and earn bonus miles when you sign up through AwardWallet's link!
