No Credit Card, No Problem: Rove Miles Is a New “Universal” Travel Rewards Program That Demonstrates Promise
America has a small obsession with paying for expensive travel cards to earn miles that can be used to splurge on equally expensive travel plans. But Rove Miles, a crossover between a travel agency and a cashback portal, is making it easy to earn points without a credit card. They call themselves “the first universal airline mile.”
- Rove offers 25x points on hotel bookings, 1-10x points on flights, and miles back at over 7K merchants — on top of whatever you already earn from your credit card.
- For those interested in earning miles, it could be a competitive option — with 12 transfer partners (including Flying Blue and Accor Live), 140+ airlines (valued at 1.3-1.5 cents per mile), and over 200K hotels (1.5-2.2 cents per mile).
Too good to be true? Rove’s model resembles a lot of other cashback portals like Rakuten or Honey, which are paid for by returning a percentage of their affiliate commission to the user. Currently, Rove returns 100% of that commission to the user, meaning that it’s unprofitable, which might create long-term questions about its profitability. But for now, if you find value in their redemption options or take advantage of their sign-up bonuses, there could be some fun money in it for you.