forgive my ignorance; been trying to find some useful info on here, but haven't been able to find any, for what i'm looking to find out, yet. also, i apologize if this thread is in the wrong forum, i couldn't find any specific forums on the airmiles program in canada.

to any canadians out there who use the airmiles program perhaps far too much (like myself)...what are the best ways to make use of the miles? it seems any overseas flights i price out (using airmiles), cost way too much in taxes to justify using air miles.


for example, a flight from vancouver to manchester (UK) would run me 5118 miles in low season, and $523 in taxes.

that same flight, if i were to buy it outright, online...would be $820, taxes included. so for $300 more than the airmiles flight, i could just buy it, and not have to spend ~5100 air miles.

...you see where i'm going with this.

any european destinations that it doesn't cost an arm and a leg in taxes/fees, when booking with airmiles? the only way i've seen it to be a useful program so far is to fly only domestic; within canada, and sometimes the US (last year i flew from ontario up to whitehorse, yukon for basically as many miles as it would've run me to fly to vancouver instead. taxes were only about $100. that's a pretty good deal.


any suggestions on international travel via airmiles, without getting taxed/gouged? (again, sorry if this is in the wrong forum.....mods, feel free to move it!)