Rove: The Universal Mile Loyalty Program Aiming to Democratize Travel for Gen Z

Boston, MA | June 9, 2026 – Max Morganroth, a recent Wharton graduate, turned his junior year study abroad into an extraordinary global odyssey, traversing 30 countries with an enviable itinerary largely funded by airline points. His sophisticated approach to "travel hacking," primarily utilizing business and first-class flights, was meticulously orchestrated through strategic credit card applications and savvy miles redemptions. This remarkable feat, however, highlighted a significant gap in the travel rewards landscape, inspiring Morganroth and co-founder Arhan Chhabra, a Harvard dropout, to launch Rove, a startup aiming to revolutionize loyalty programs by becoming the first truly universal mile system.

Morganroth’s personal journey, marked by an almost constant state of globetrotting, garnered significant attention from his peers. "Just about everyone I knew was begging me to teach them how to get free flights through airline miles programs," he told TechCrunch, encapsulating the burgeoning interest in what he terms "travel hacking." Yet, a recurring theme emerged among his circle, including fellow Wharton students: a lack of eligibility for premium airline rewards credit cards or the time and expertise required to navigate the intricate web of mile conversions for optimal flight bookings. This common predicament underscores the exclusivity of traditional travel hacking, often accessible only to those with established credit histories and a deep understanding of loyalty program mechanics.

The airline industry has long recognized the lucrative potential of co-branded credit cards, leveraging them as significant revenue generators through marketing and fee-sharing agreements with financial institutions. These partnerships allow airlines to cultivate a loyal customer base and generate substantial income. However, this system inadvertently excludes a vast segment of the population. Morganroth points to a stark reality: approximately 70 million Americans lack sufficient credit history to qualify for these coveted reward schemes, effectively barring them from the perceived benefits of accumulating airline miles. This exclusion is particularly poignant for younger generations, like Gen Z, who are increasingly eager to explore the world but are often hampered by their nascent financial standing.

Morganroth’s eureka moment wasn’t conjured in a boardroom but discovered during his extensive travels. While in Hong Kong, he observed a fundamentally different approach to earning loyalty currency within Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles program. "Miles there are treated like a second currency," he explained, illustrating a paradigm shift in how loyalty points are integrated into daily life. "You go to 7-Eleven to buy a water bottle; you earn Asia Miles. You can open a bank account and earn cash interest, plus miles on your savings. You can even sell a property for part cash, part miles." This revelation exposed a potent model where earning miles was not contingent on credit card usage but woven into the fabric of everyday transactions, accessible to a much broader consumer base.

This insight ignited Morganroth’s entrepreneurial vision. He recognized an immense opportunity to replicate the inclusive model of Asia Miles in Western markets, envisioning a program where consumers could effortlessly earn miles across various airlines simply by engaging in everyday shopping activities. His proposition to airlines was clear: a pathway to tap into a significantly larger consumer demographic, particularly Gen Z, a generation characterized by its wanderlust but often constrained by limited access to traditional credit-based rewards. Rove was born from this desire to democratize the aspirational lifestyle of travel hacking, making it attainable for those previously on the fringes.

Following his graduation, the 22-year-old Morganroth joined forces with Arhan Chhabra, a Harvard dropout whose innovative spirit mirrored Morganroth’s own. Together, they embarked on the ambitious journey to build Rove, a startup that boldly claims to be the pioneering universal mile loyalty program. While the concept of multi-airline redemption programs isn’t entirely novel—American Express’s Membership Rewards, for instance, allows points to be redeemed with numerous airlines, and travel aggregators like Expedia offer versatile booking options—a truly integrated, universal system that transcends individual airline partnerships and credit card limitations has remained an elusive goal. Rove aims to fill this void by creating a unified ecosystem for mile accumulation and redemption.

Rove’s trajectory gained significant momentum when it successfully entered Y Combinator’s highly competitive winter 2024 batch. This incubator program provided a crucial platform for the startup to refine its business model and forge vital industry connections. During this period, Morganroth and Chhabra traveled extensively, actively pursuing and securing partnership deals with the mile programs of eleven prominent airlines. These strategic alliances include global carriers such as Air France-KLM, Aeromexico, Finnair, and Qatar Airways, signaling a strong industry endorsement of Rove’s innovative approach.

These partnerships, a significant coup for a nascent startup, are particularly noteworthy as they were previously the exclusive domain of major banks issuing co-branded credit cards. Rove’s ability to secure these collaborations not only validated its vision but also served as a catalyst for its initial funding round. The startup successfully raised $2 million from a consortium of reputable investors, including Y Combinator, General Catalyst, and Soma Capital. This substantial seed funding underscores the market’s confidence in Rove’s potential to disrupt the loyalty program landscape and unlock new revenue streams for airlines by broadening their reach to a more diverse customer base.

"Rove’s loyalty program allows airlines to expand the lucrative business of miles to millions more consumers," Morganroth articulated, emphasizing the core value proposition for his airline partners. Unlike traditional models where airlines primarily share revenue with credit card companies, Rove offers a novel approach: generating revenue through affiliate marketing with a vast network of over 7,000 merchants. This is facilitated by the Rove shopping extension for Google Chrome, a digital tool that operates on a business model reminiscent of successful platforms like Honey and Rakuten, which have demonstrated the power of incentivized online shopping.

The mechanism is elegantly simple yet profoundly impactful. Consumers utilize the Rove Chrome extension while shopping online at participating retailers. Through these purchases, they earn Rove points, which can then be seamlessly converted into airline miles. Morganroth highlights the strategic advantage of this conversion: "the points earned from shopping can be converted into airline miles, which hold more value than their equivalent in cash." This value proposition incentivizes users to engage with Rove’s ecosystem, understanding that their everyday spending can directly contribute to their travel aspirations.

Beyond its affiliate marketing initiative, Rove has strategically integrated hotel bookings into its loyalty program, further enhancing the avenues for users to accumulate miles. The value proposition for hotel bookings is particularly compelling. Morganroth estimates that the points earned from a $1,000 hotel stay could be equivalent to the value of a round-trip ticket to Europe from the United States, especially if the booking is non-refundable and can be leveraged for the same trip. This high return is attributed to the significant commissions some hotels are willing to share, with Rove opting to pass its entire share of these earnings directly to the user in the form of miles, rather than retaining a portion for itself.

This multi-pronged approach allows users to consolidate their earning potential. Miles accumulated through Rove’s hotel bookings can be combined with those earned via the shopping extension, and even further augmented by miles generated from existing credit card rewards programs, provided the user holds a card that earns airline points. This synergistic model creates a powerful compounding effect, accelerating the pace at which users can achieve their travel goals. The aggregation of these diverse earning streams into a single, accessible platform is central to Rove’s mission of simplifying and amplifying the travel hacking experience.

While the intricate web of earning and converting points might seem complex to the uninitiated, Morganroth asserts that the process of accumulating miles through Rove is designed for straightforward user engagement. The primary actions required are booking hotels through the Rove platform or shopping using the Rove Chrome extension. These core functionalities are intuitive and seamlessly integrate into existing online behaviors, minimizing the learning curve for new users.

When the time comes for users to redeem their accumulated miles for flights, Rove offers a dedicated travel portal. This portal is engineered to assist users in identifying the most advantageous award flight deals across its partner airlines. Although Rove has initially partnered with eleven airlines, its reach extends significantly further. Through strategic mile transfer capabilities, users can access award travel on approximately 140 carriers. This is made possible by the complex interline agreements and transfer partners that exist within the broader airline alliance network, allowing miles earned with one carrier to be converted and utilized with its affiliates in different regions.

Rove’s inclusive design makes its platform accessible to anyone, but Morganroth firmly believes that its offering holds the greatest appeal for young adults. He articulated this conviction with a clear vision: "Gen Z wants to travel more than any other demographic, yet they have the least access to the tools like this that actually make it cheaper." He further elaborated on the generational shift in travel aspirations and the barriers that have historically impeded them. "They no longer have to wait until they’re 28, have five years of credit history, and $700 fee to get one of these cards; they can just download a Chrome extension, book any of their existing travel through us, and they’ll immediately be in the game." This statement encapsulates Rove’s core promise: to dismantle the traditional gatekeepers of travel rewards and empower a new generation of explorers to embark on their adventures sooner and more affordably. Rove is not just a loyalty program; it’s a gateway to a world of travel for those who have been historically underserved by the existing rewards ecosystem.