Originally Posted by cam_macleod

There are taxes that must be paid in addition to points. Getting to $0 is impossible. But you can call AE and get them to calculate the taxes for various options. If you use LH, for example, you need to pay any applicable taxes at the airports you travel through. This could be as little as $20 or as much as $100 depending on what airports you use around the world.

The AE site is troublesome even at the best of times, and doesn't have the ability to calculate all fees in some situations. Calling is better.

Originally Posted by Jasper2009

Taxes/Airport fees will be about $50. If you´re lucky you can get a revenue flight for $140 a.i., so I would never spend 20k miles for an intra-European flight. Remember that 80k/100k miles will get you a TATL flight in Business/First class.