Originally Posted by
tryinginvain
I'm guessing you're relying on the AE site to plan your trip. If you are, that's your problem. RTFF and learn about the other planning tools. I use the ANA site. If you avoid partner airlines that don't charge YQ you can get a pretty low cost itinerary. It can be time consuming to find a good itinerary but it you have some flexibility it's doable.
One part of the issue for me is the value of the points - if they have such diminished value, why bother collecting them? In a similar way, if my time is limited I'd rather not spend it using these tools. (At this level, I can actually see a (small) case for paying a modest fee to call Aeroplan to find a workable itinerary if it's faster than what I can do myself).