I recently wrote about Rove, the newest miles currency in the block. You can book hotels, flights and use it as a shopping portal to accumulate Rove Miles which can then be used with Rove itself or be transferred to a partner. Well, Rove just added its latest partner, and it’s a very useful one.

What is Rove?

Rove is essentially a flight and hotel booking platform as well as a shopping portal that allows you to accumulate its own miles currency: Rove Miles. What makes Rove somewhat unique is that you can use those points by transferring them to other partners. These partners include predominantly airlines, but also some hotels. What makes Rove’s partners interesting, is that there are some unique ones that you can not transfer your points to from traditional credit card issuers, see below. This includes for example Scandinavian Airlines, Air India, Hainan Airlines, Vietnam Airlines and Lufthansa. Especially Lufthansa sometimes has intriguing value for intra-Europe flights. I recently wrote a guide on Rove and how booking works, as well as my take on the value of those activities.

Rove adds Air Canada Aeroplan as its newest transfer partner

Well, there is now a new one transfer partner for Rove: Air Canada Aeroplan was just added as Rove’s latest partner, which is great! Aeroplan has good pricing for flights on Star Alliance partners, especially for flights to western Europe. My husband and I have now twice redeemed Aeroplan points for flights with Singapore Airlines between New York and Frankfurt (see here and here). However, Aeroplan did recently undergo a bit of a devaluation, so the US-to-East Asia sweetspot is now no longer as appealing as it used to be, though pricing is still quite good.

Transfers are at a 1:1 ratio, and there is an introductory transfer bonus of 25% through June 6.

Should you partake in Rove?

So given the ways that you can accumulate Rove Miles, is it worth doing so over booking directly with airlines, hotels and other shopping portals? Personally, I’d say yes, but in an opportunistic fashion. I wouldn’t switch all my bookings to Rove:

• For flights, I always recommend to book straight with airlines, never through any kind of travel agency. This is predominantly to ensure that if there are problems with your flight, the airline doesn’t give you the run-around in terms of who’s responsibility it is to rebook you.
• For hotels, I can totally see myself opportunistically booking through Rove if the rate and miles multiplier is good, and there are no exclusions or restrictions that would decrease the value through Rove over other booking avenues.
• Got shopping, this is by far the easiest way to accumulate Rove Miles. If you’re used to portals such as Rakuten, it’s easy to shift to Rove. However, do check the multipliers and if there is a significant difference, I’d generally stick with the portal that gives the highest one. That is, unless you have a clear vision on where you want to accumulate your points, or have a particular redemption in mind: in that case, go with whatever would enable that redemption.

Then there is the question: if you do have Rove Miles, should you transfer them to Air Canada? It depends: if you have many points with other accounts (for example with Chase or Amex), I wouldn’t transfer the Rove Miles to Air Canada Aeroplan, given how easy it is to accumulate them through other partners. Instead, use the Rove Miles to transfer to some of the unique partners that would be much harder to accumulate through other means.

Summary

Rove just added it’s latest partner: Air Canada Aeroplan. This is a useful loyalty program with access to many well-priced Star Alliance itineraries, so it’s good news to see Rove having added Aeroplan. I wouldn’t go out of my way to redeem Rove Miles through Air Canada necessarily though, given that Air Canada partners with many credit card issuers already. So, if I had points with Rove I’d likely use them with the loyalty programs that you cannot transfer to through other means.