Mileage Fares are an interesting alternative to the directional fares offered by airline groups. Some of the groups have in excess of twenty airlines participating in the program. Each program has a limitation of how many miles but it is a very generous amount, one group even allows travel for up to 40,000 miles at one fare. You may backtrack but the number of stops may be limited.

These fares tend to be more versatile than directional fares but the cost is usually much more. 

Depending on your itinerary these fares can offer a great value. You may travel where ever you want with the only limitation being the number of miles flown. It should be noted if you break up your trip: as an example if you flew to Bangkok and than traveled by land to Singapore and continued on to India from Singapore.  You would still be assessed the mileage between Bangkok and Singapore even though you did not fly on that routing.

The Global Explorer fare allows for travel up to 39,000 miles, choosing up to 15 stopovers from over 600 destinations on the route networks of  Aer Lingus, Air Pacific, American Airlines, Australian Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific,  Finn Air, Gulf Air, Iberia,  Lan, Polynesian, Qantas, and Swiss Airways. If this is not enough you may also utilize the routes of these regional affiliate airlines:  Air Nostrum, American Eagle, American Connection, Binter Canaries, British Mediterranean, Brymon, CityFlyer Express, Comair, GB Airways, Lan Ecuador, Lan Express, Lan Peru, Loganair, Maersk Air, Regional Air, and Sun-Air.

Global explorer fare rules are detailed at this link of Qantas Airways. The fares listed are for origination from Australia but this fare can be purchased virtually anywhere in the world.

Sample 34,000 mile Itinerary: Chicago - Los Angeles - Fiji - Auckland - Sydney - Bali - Hong Kong - Bangkok - Delhi - Bahrain - Nairobi - Cairo - Madrid - Rome - London - Paris - New York- Chicago

For more information on this fare please use this link. 

Most of the airlines in this group are part of the One World Alliance and this fare should not be confused with  this completely different fare: ONE WORLD EXPLORER FARE

 This program has four separate  levels with increasingly more costly fares for 26,000, 29,000 and 34,000 and 39,000 mile level.

Global explorer fare rules are detailed at this link of Qantas Airways. The fares listed are for origination from Australia but this fare can be purchased virtually anywhere in the world.

For more information on this fare please use this link. 

One world offers another fare that is not mileage based but has different restrictions: See ONE WORLD EXPLORER FARE

Singapore, Virgin, and Air New Zealand: This is an interesting partnership that allows extensive travel in the South Pacific, and Asia.  Service to other areas of the world are extremely limited.  This fare offers a substantial savings from the normal Star Alliance, Around the World fares; but travel to Europe and North America is restricted.  Singapore Air has only a few routings from New York and Chicago to Europe, and Air New Zealand only has routings available from Los Angeles.  Virgin Atlantic has some routings to Africa and major cities in the U.S.  This fare has a base mileage allowance of 29,000 miles, and allows for the purchase of up to 4,500 additional miles in blocks of 1,500 miles each.    

Coach: $3,149  Business: $6,800  

Sample: Around World Routing: 29,000 miles: Los Angeles - London - Johannesburg - Singapore - Sydney - Auckland - Tahiti - Los Angeles 

Great escalade is a great tool for searching this itinerary. Unfortunately it can not show itineraries with additional mileage requirements.

Mileage calculator: This is a great link to determine mileages between principal cities

Airline Schedules: For detailed schedule information of the airlines participating in these programs please use the above link.

Airline Route Maps: For detailed route network maps of the primary airlines in this group use this link