I am not surprised with the extra fees. I recently checked for trip from Newark to Puntacana, Domenican Republic. After spending a lot of time fuddling with the dates, came up with round trip miles of 35K as per award mile sheet. But they tagged on an extra some $250/= fee , which is ridiculas..

Not sure if all airlines have the same policy. I used to be with Delta before (2 years ago) and had great availablity and no crazy charges for mile tickets.. Since AA availabilty for a RoundTrip 25K miles (within US) is not easy , I am going to cut the Citi AA credit card and my move over to Delta.

Regards