Originally Posted by QRC3288

The problem here isn't the fuel charge at all...it's that you are burning miles in a scenario where it's not mathematically advantageous to do so. I'm not sure what you mean by the ~$360, but generally you want to be "selling" (aka, redeeming) miles at the highest retail value possible per mile (after subtracting cash costs like fuel/taxes, and adding back miles earned for that segment). I can't remember who but someone had a very good analysis of how to calculate it a while back. I recall from back of the envelope #s that there are (J/F) award situations you can be redeeming miles to make them worth in excess of 5 cents USD/mile, which would obviously be superior to redeeming 30k on a TPE route that normally sells for $300 USD before taxes/fuel surcharges (implying you're selling your miles much more cheaply).