Most travel rewards programs are built around commitment to one airline, one hotel chain, or one credit card. Rove Miles isn’t.

Launched in 2025, Rove Miles aims to function as a universal travel currency. Here’s how it works, how to earn and use miles, and whether it deserves a place in your travel rewards strategy.

 

The Rove Miles Program

At its core, Rove Miles function as a digital travel rewards currency. You earn miles by booking travel or shopping through the Rove platform. Then you can redeem the miles in several ways, such as using them to purchase travel or transferring them to select airline and hotel loyalty programs.

The company’s goal is to make travel rewards more flexible and accessible. That’s especially pertinent for people who don’t want—or don’t have access to—premium travel credit cards and are looking for alternatives.

In practice, Rove aims to sit somewhere between a traditional travel portal (like Expedia or Capital One Travel) and a transferable points currency (like Chase Ultimate Rewards® or American Express Membership Rewards®).

 

Why it matters: For travelers who don’t want to manage multiple airline programs—or who don’t qualify for premium travel credit cards—Rove Miles offers a different entry point into travel rewards.

That flexibility matters because Rove is free to join and doesn’t require opening a new credit card. For casual travelers, families or points beginners, it offers a way to start earning—and stacking—transferable rewards without committing to a single loyalty ecosystem or paying an annual fee upfront.

 

How Do You Earn Rove Miles?

Rove Miles can be earned in several ways, such as shopping, hotel bookings, flight bookings, and more.

 

Shopping Portal

Rove operates a shopping portal, along with a browser extension, that lets you earn Rove Miles when shopping with more than 13,000 retailers. It works similarly to cash-back portals like Rakuten, but instead of earning cash back, you earn miles.

What to know:

• Bonus earning rates vary by retailer and promotion, so returns aren’t fixed
• Miles earned through the portal stack with credit card rewards and other offers since purchases still code normally

 

Hotel Bookings

Where Rove Miles really pushes the envelope is with hotel earnings:

• You can earn up to 25x (or more) Rove Miles per $1 spent on hotels booked through the platform
• Miles may post instantly for nonrefundable stays, meaning you can earn now and spend now

Rove has even introduced what it calls “Loyalty Eligible” hotel bookings—a special rate that may allow you to earn:

• Rove Miles
• Hotel loyalty points and elite credit
• Credit card rewards

. . . all at once. This stacking approach is something savvy travelers have long chased through rate codes and third-party promotions.

But not all bookings will qualify for hotel loyalty benefits. The specifics depend on the property and rate, so it’s important to check the details before booking.

 

Flight Bookings

You can also earn Rove Miles when booking flights through the Rove platform:

• You’ll typically earn 1x to 10x Rove Miles per $1 spent
• Bonus Rove Miles stack with the airline miles and credit card rewards you would normally earn when booking flights

The layered earning of airline miles, credit card points, and Rove miles is one of the more intriguing aspects of the program. Actual earning rates vary by airline and flight.

 

How Do You Redeem Rove Miles?

Rove gives you several redemption options. According to Rove, nontravel redemptions such as cash back and gift cards typically return less than 1 cent per mile, while travel redemptions can deliver higher value. The examples Rove provides suggest that economy flights and hotel bookings may land closer to the 1- to 2-cents-per-mile range on average, with significantly higher value possible for premium-cabin flights, though those outcomes depend on award availability and pricing.

Here are some of the best ways to use your Rove Miles:

 

Book Flights and Hotels Directly Through Rove

Rove Miles can be used to book travel directly in the portal. This is sort of like using points on a credit card travel portal—with dynamic pricing based on availability.

You’ll often see a value that exceeds standard redemption rates. This is most common when miles are earned at high multipliers and redeemed at more than 1 cent per mile for a specific flight or hotel.

 

Transfer to Loyalty Programs

One of Rove’s most compelling features is the ability to transfer Rove Miles to select airline and hotel loyalty programs.

Rove’s travel transfer partners include:

• Aeromexico Rewards
• Air India Maharaja Club
• ALL (Accor Live Limitless)
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
• Etihad Guest
• Finnair Plus
• Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)
• Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings Club
• Lufthansa Miles & More
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club
• Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
• Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
• Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles

Transfers are at a 1:1 ratio, except for Accor Live Limitless, which transfers at 1.5:1.

This step is key to getting potentially increased value: if you find award space on a partner airline—say, a premium cabin redemption with Flying Blue—transferring Rove Miles may unlock more value than using them to book airfare directly in Rove’s portal.

 

Is Rove Miles Actually Universal?

Rove bills itself as the “first universal airline mile,” a concept that suggests a single miles currency usable everywhere.

Here’s what that really means:

• You earn one currency (Rove Miles) across a variety of activities—shopping, hotel stays, flights.
• That currency can be redeemed in many ways—direct bookings, transfers to multiple loyalty partners, etc.
• No specific bank or airline credit card is needed to participate.

That said, in practice, “universal” doesn’t mean you can redeem on every airline or hotel everywhere. Rather, it means you’re not locked into a single brand ecosystem and can transfer your miles to other programs with flexibility.

 

Pros and Cons of Rove Miles

Like any loyalty currency, Rove Miles has both strengths and limits.

Pros

• No credit card needed to earn miles. A huge plus if you don’t want or can’t qualify for premium cards
• Very high earning potential on hotels. Earn up to 25x or more per dollar
• Transferable to well-known airline and hotel programs. This is a key route to higher-value redemptions
• Simple bonus stacking. Airline miles + Rove Miles + card rewards

Cons

• Earnings on flights can be variable and sometimes modest. Rates can be just 1x per dollar
• Not all hotel loyalty benefits apply to every booking. Make sure to check Loyalty Eligible fine print
• Transfer partner list is still relatively small—compared to massive transferable currencies like Chase or Amex
• Redemption value isn’t guaranteed. Just like other dynamic systems, some deals are better than others

 

Rove Miles vs. Traditional Travel Reward Currencies

Rove Miles is similar to existing transferable currencies such as Chase Ultimate Rewards® and American Express Membership Rewards®. But there are some key differences:

Feature	Rove Miles	Chase UR/Amex MR
Requires credit card	No	Yes
Transfer to airline partners	Yes (limited)	Yes
Earn through shopping portal	Yes	Chase Travel, Amex (via Rakuten)
Earn high hotel multipliers	Yes	Yes (limited)

Rove’s most significant edge is accessibility—no premium card is required—and high hotel earning rates. But power users might still prefer Chase, Amex, or other transferable currencies for their larger partner ecosystems.

 

Who Will Benefit Most From Rove Miles?

Rove Miles works best for travelers who:

• Don’t qualify for high-end travel credit cards
• Want to stack rewards from shopping and travel bookings
• Are flexible with redemption strategies

If your travel style includes mixing budget trips with aspirational awards, having another transferable miles currency—especially one you can earn without a credit card—could be very useful.

 

Is the Rove Miles Program Worth It?

Rove Miles isn’t just another airline loyalty program tied to a single carrier—it’s a fresh attempt at a universal travel mile that anyone can earn regardless of credit card status.

With strong hotel earnings, easy stacking and transferability, it deserves a look—especially if traditional credit card strategies aren’t working for you. But like all reward systems, it matters how you use it: the best value often comes when Rove Miles are strategically transferred to partner programs rather than spent directly.

 

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