During his junior year study abroad, Max Morgranut traveled to 30 countries, mainly flying in business and first class. Its jet layout was almost fully funded by airline points that it got rid of strategic credit card applications and fairs.
Morganatooth told Tech Crunch that he was “begging” about the one he knew about how to teach them how to get free flights through airline mail programs, a term they call travel hacking. However, most people in his circle, including fellow Wartton students, did not qualify for the credit card of the best airline prizes or did not lack the time to maximize the conversion of their mail on the maximum flights.
By marketing of credit cards and distributing fees with banks, repeated flight programs have become The main revenue generator For airlines. But according to Morgranut, about 70 million Americans do not have enough Credit credit history to access these awards schemes.
During his trip, Morgranut discovered that people in Hong Kong do not need to open a credit card to make a mail to the Pacific Pacific Asia Mails Program. “Miles are treated like another currency,” he said. “You go to 7-eleven to buy a water bottle. You earn Asia Mail. You can open a bank account and earn cash in addition to cash interest on your savings. You can sell property at partial cash, even a few miles away.”
Morganatooth saw an opportunity to create a program like Asia fairs, where consumers could earn mail at different airlines while shopping in some stores. His suggestion about the airlines was that he could tap a major user settlement, especially General Z, who are desperate to travel but still tapped with a lack of credit.
After graduating, Morganatov, who is now 22 years old, worked with the Harvard Drop Out Araj Chobra, and this pair has come out to build Rao, a beginning that claims that the first universal mail loyalty program is.
Of course, this is not right. The American Express reward program, for example, allows users Take off points with multiple airlines And sites like Acadia offer points that can be used for various airline flights. But the multi -airline programs are still a delicious.
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Rao enrolled in 2024 batch of Y-Combinator in winter and proceeded to fly around the world, where he contributed to partnerships with 11 airlines’ mail programs, including Air France-Camexico, Aeromixic, Finnir and Qatar Airways.
These partnerships, which were previously only mainly available to major banks’ credit card issuers, helped Rio collect 2 million millions from investors, including YC, General Catalist, and Soma Capital.
Rao’s loyalty program allows to expand airlines The profitable business of miles For millions of more users, Mogonroot said.
But instead of allowing airlines to distribute fees with credit cards, Rio gives them a way to make money through marketing with more than 7,000 traders through Roo Shopping Extension for Google Chrome. It is a business model that resembles honey and rock.
Mogonarot explained that the points obtained from the purchase can be converted into an airline mail, which costs more than cash.
In addition to the affiliated marketing scheme, Rao also offers its customers for hotel booking.
In fact, Mogarnut said the tips for the $ 1,000 hotel could be able to be able to be a round trip ticket from the United States to Europe, a flight that could be used for the same trip, if the hotel’s booking is irreversible. Hotel booking is so valuable because some hotels share 40 % of their sales as a commission. Instead of pocketing this profit, Rao gives his share of their earnings in the form of fairs.
Consumers can connect the Row Mails earned on hotel booking at the mile distance from the mile and even with credit card mail if they have a card that gets airline points.
Startup wide scheme may be as complicated, but Mogonarut says that as long as users book hotels on their platform or shop using Rio shopping extension, mail earnings through Rao are straightforward.
When the user gets ready to fly flights with their fairs, Rao’s travel portal helps them find the best flight deals for the award. And when Rao contributed with only 11 airlines, Startup users can book the award for about 140 140 carriers, because it is often possible to transfer people to another region at the distance of an airline company.
Rao is also available to anyone, but Morgranut believes that his offer is the most attractive to young adults.
“The General Z wants to travel more than any other population, yet he has the least access to the tools that make him cheaper,” he said. “They will no longer have to wait until the age of 28, there is a five -year credit history and $ 700 fee to get one of these cards. They can only download the Chrome extension, batch any of the current journey through us, and they will be in the game immediately.”