Here’s a travel rewards scenario that sounds too good to be true but is just basic math: book a hotel stay and earn enough miles to fly there for free. Not through some complicated hack or manufactured spending scheme – just by booking your hotel through Rove instead of directly with the property or through another online travel agent.

Rove earns you miles on hotel bookings through their Rove Rate inventory, and those miles transfer 1:1 to airline partners like Flying Blue, Qatar Airways, and Lufthansa. When you book a non-refundable rate, your miles post instantly instead of after your stay, meaning you can literally book your hotel, watch the miles hit your account, transfer them to an airline program, and book your flights – all in the same sitting.

Let me show you how this works with real, live hotel stays where the miles you earn actually cover your flight to the same destination.

But before we get started, if you don’t have a Rove account yet, you can use our link to get 1,500 miles instantly just for signing up. It’s completely free!

Summer in Seoul

Eight nights at the five-star Le Meridien Seoul from June 8-16 earns you 63,256 Rove Miles. Transfer those to Qatar Airways Privilege Club, and you’ve got enough for round-trip economy flights to Seoul from the US West Coast. Transfer them to Air France and you’ve got enough for one-way in Premium Economy (with the sign-up bonus).

Christmas in New York

Seven nights at The Shoreham Hotel from December 20-27 generates 48,342 Rove Miles. Flights to New York cost as little as 10,000 miles (economy) and 30,000 miles (business) round-trip through Flying Blue, which means the miles from your hotel booking could technically cover flights for four people.

Thanksgiving in Cancun: All-Inclusive

Nine nights at the Occidental Costa Cancun from November 18-27 earns 19,553 Rove Miles. You need 18,000 miles through Aeromexico Rewards for round-trip flights to Cancun, leaving you with a small surplus.

Two Weeks in Thailand: Bangkok and Phuket

This is where longer trips really showcase the power of this strategy. Five nights at the Four Seasons Bangkok (May 3-10) earns 41,579 miles, followed by seven nights at Korsiri Pool Villas in Phuket (May 10-17) earning 41,671 miles. Combined, that’s 83,250 Rove Miles.

Transfer to Flying Blue, and round-trip economy flights to Thailand cost as little as 80,000 miles. You’ve just earned your transpacific flights by booking two hotels you were going to book anyway.

Shoulder Season in Santorini

Eight nights at Nimbus Santorini from September 14-22 generates 99,436 Rove Miles. Flying Blue charges as low as 37,500 miles round-trip to Greece, meaning you could book two people with miles left over. Or, you can snag one of those 60k miles Business Class tickets to Paris and then hop over to Santorini from there.

The Instant Posting Advantage

Here’s where Rove’s recent feature update becomes particularly valuable: when you book a non-refundable Rove Rate, your miles post instantly instead of waiting until after your stay. This means you can book your hotel in the morning, see the miles hit your account immediately, transfer them to an airline partner, and book your flights before lunch.

The trade-off is obvious – you’re giving up flexibility by making the booking non-refundable. But if you’re confident about your travel dates, the ability to immediately use your miles is worth more than the theoretical option to cancel.

Getting Started

If you’re not already using Rove, signing up through our referral link gets you 1,500 bonus miles instantly when you create your free account. That’s enough for a small boost toward any of these bookings, or a head start on your next hotel stay.

You can also use code CLOUD9 on your first booking of $500 or more for an extra 5,000 miles!

The examples above aren’t cherry-picked outliers – they’re what happens when you run normal hotel bookings through a platform that earns transferable miles. You’re booking the hotel either way. You’re paying the same rate either way (Rove Rate pricing is competitive with what you’d find elsewhere). The only difference is whether those dollars generate miles that transfer to airline partners.

Do the math on your next hotel booking. You might find your accommodation is paying for your flight.

[Disclosure: We may earn a commission when you sign up through our referral link or book through Rove, at no cost to you. This helps support Cloud9Club while giving you the signup bonus.]