While studying abroad, Max Morganros traveled to 30 countries, flying mainly in business and first class. His jet setting was almost entirely funded by the airline points collected through strategic credit card applications and miles redemptions.
Morganroth told TechCrunch that everyone who knew he was “begging” him to teach him how to get a free flight through the airline’s Miles program, a term he calls “travel hacking.” However, most people in his circle, including fellow Wharton students, were not eligible for the best airline reward credit card or had no time to maximize optimal flight mile conversion.
By selling credit cards and sharing fees with banks, the frequent flyer program has become a major revenue generator for airlines. However, according to Morganroth, around 70 million Americans do not have sufficient credit history to access these reward schemes.
During the trip, Morgan Ross discovered that in Hong Kong, there is no need to open a credit card to earn miles with Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles program. “Miles are treated like a second currency,” he said. “I’m going to 7-Eleven to buy a bottle of water. I’m making Asia miles. I can open a bank account and earn cash interest.
Morganroth saw the opportunity to create a program similar to Asia Miles, where consumers can earn miles on a variety of airlines when shopping at certain stores. His proposal to the airline was that they could leverage the larger consumer demographics, especially the travel-oriented generation, Gen Z, but still lacked established credit.
After graduation, Morgan Ross, now 22, teamed up with Harvard dropout Ahanchabra, and the duo built Robe, a startup that claims to be the first Universal Mile loyalty program.
Of course, that’s not exactly the first. For example, the American Express ‘Rewards program allows users to redeem points with multiple airlines. Sites such as Expedia provide points that can be used for flights for various airlines. However, multi-airline programs are still rare.
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Roeb entered the 2024 winter batch of Y Combinators and flew across the world, attacking partnership agreements with 11 airline miles programs, including Air France-KLM, AeroMexico, Finnare and Qatar Airways.
While these partnerships were available previously only for credit card issuers in major banks, Rove helped raise $2 million from investors, including YC, General Catalyst and Soma Capital.
Rove’s loyalty program allows airlines to expand their miles-favourable businesses to millions of consumers, Morganroth said.
But instead of allowing airlines to share credit cards and fees, Rove offers a way to make money through affiliate marketing with over 7,000 merchants through Google Chrome’s Rove Shopping Extension. It’s a business model similar to honey and lacten.
Morganroth explained that points earned from shopping can be converted to airline miles.
In addition to the affiliate marketing scheme, Rove also offers users miles to book hotels.
In fact, Morganroth said points from a $1,000 hotel stay are worth a round-trip ticket from the US to Europe, a flight that can be used for the same trip, provided the hotel booking is non-refundable. Hotel reservations are very worth it. This is because some hotels share 40% of their sales as a commission. Instead of putting that profit in your pocket, Rove offers users all share of those revenues in the form of miles.
Users can combine Rove Miles earned from hotel bookings with miles from shopping extensions and credit card miles if they have a card that earned airline points.
While the elaborate startup scheme may seem complicated, Morgan Ross says it’s easy to earn miles through Rove as long as users book hotels on the platform or shop using Robe Shopping Extensions.
Once users are ready to book flights with miles, Rove’s travel portal will help you find the best award flight deals. Rove was affiliated with only 11 airlines, but startup users can book award trips in around 140 carriers, as they are often able to transfer one airline miles to an affiliate in another region.
Rove is available to everyone, but Morganroth considers its offering to be the most attractive for young adults.
“Gen Z wants to travel more than other demographics, but actually has the least access to a tool like this that makes it cheaper,” he said. “They don’t have to wait until they’re 28, they have a five-year credit history and a $700 fee to get one of these cards. You can download the chrome extension, book an existing trip and join the game right away.”
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