Guava

None of these have very high fuel surcharge at the moment. For a long-haul ANA flight, we are talking about $86 USD vs. $450 on a long-haul LH First flight segment. If the fuel surcharge savings from using Lifemiles is low, then the justification for paying for more miles per flight segment/trip on it goes away. Even if we just limit the universe of potential mile purchase opportunities to *A although that is clearly a false assumption (as one can also buy AA miles in lieu and etc.) If you are asking well, maybe fuel surcharge will go back up in the future. That future is unknown when and if it will happen and buying miles emphasizes on the fact you must have foreseeable need or else your miles risk being devalued suddenly by the airline - purchasing miles to just bank them is almost always a terrible proposition.

Here is a concrete example to counter your listing of ANA, Asiana and etc. LM currently charges 90K miles each way from North America to North Asia (Japan) on ANA First Class with little possibility to connect to elsewhere in Asia given the lack of First Class short-haul flights within Asia. LM also charges 115K miles each way from Europe to North Asia in First Class, which is where an European resident will have to pay to fly ANA First Class. In each case, the savings in fuel surcharge is no more than $86 or less. Alternatively, I could pay 55K miles or 60K miles using another FFP's miles respectively for ANA First Class award between Japan and North America and Japan and Europe. The amount of miles I save per one-way => (90K - 55K) = 35K or (115K - 60K) = 55K. Based on a return trip, say LHR/CDG/FRA to NRT/HND on ANA First, my savings in miles = 55K X 2 = 110K miles in lieu of $172 USD in cash savings. But because LM doesn't allow for mixed cabin connections, by using LM, I will have to pay an extra 22.5K each way for flights to reach my final destination in North Asia (other than Tokyo) as a separate ticket incurring possibly even more taxes as my connection airport thinks I depart there even though I will be merely connecting. The extra cost of = 22.5K X 2 = 45K Lifemiles + an unspecified amount of extra airport fees and government taxes. Assuming the connection point in Tokyo, we are talking about an extra tax/fee outlay of another $20 USD.

Here is a summary of actual costs and let's use a non-NA departure to placate those who claim my considerations is biased towards NA departures, which, I am obviously not.

Sample itinerary: FRA-NRT-TAO-NRT-FRA (Europe - North Asia award)

FRA-NRT-FRA in ANA First Class
NRT-TAO-NRT in ANA Business Class

Fuel surcharges: (€67+€14) X 2 = €162
Current ANA Fuel Surcharges until July 31, 2015

USD/Euro Exchange Rate: Currently, 1.12 USD/€

Total Fuel Surcharges payable: €162 X 1.12 = $181.50

Additional Japan International Passenger Facility Charge payable if using LM redemption to connect to North Asia other than Tokyo: (¥2,090 - ¥1,050) X 2 = ¥2,080 = $17.50

Total cash savings using LM redemptions: $181.50 - $17.50 = $164 USD

Total mileage required with LM: (115K + 22.5K) X 2 = 275,000 miles

Total mileage required on an alternative FFP: 120,000 miles

Extra mileage required using LM redmeptions = 275K - 120K = 155,000 miles

Given that the current 2.2X LM promotion is targeted so only the 2X promo is publicly available. Therefore, using the latter, the best value per mile is exactly $0.0165 / LM mile. Otherwise, the value per mile of the 2.2X promo is $0.015 / LM mile.

Extra mileage cost: 155,000 miles X $0.0165 = $2,557.50 disregarding the constraint for now that one cannot buy more than 150,000 LM per year.

Adding everything up: Extra Mileage Cost - Fuel Surcharge Savings + Additional Tax/Fee Payable = $2,557.50 - $181.50 + $17.50 = $2,393.50

I hate to break it to you but using LM to fly ANA First by paying so much more in mileage cost is just downright illogical. The fuel surcharges will have to rise to the stratosphere in order to make economic sense of using LM redemption on ANA given the major constraint of LM not being able to do mixed cabin award.

Same as above, the savings on fuel surcharge do not justify for the much higher mileage cost. Plus, if we are getting into Business Class awards, as opposed to First Class awards, then the number of alternative options increase significantly. For example, one of the more popular *A Business award redemption is with Eva Airways (BR), which doesn't have First Class. However, programs such as Aeroplan and a few others do not levy fuel surcharge for flying on BR, therefore, LM loses its key advantage here. Not to mention, these alternative programs often offer free stopovers which LM does not do. So if you are keen on using *A Business awards, even if you can get all your segments on one award unlike the First Class award, you will still have to pay more by breaking up your itinerary if you want stopover(s) and/or do open jaws but paying for the "ground sector" instead as an extra redemption or cash cost.

Like I said, I know what I am talking about when I said the loss of LH F class redemption = death sentence. It really is. People who insist on paying more by punishing themselves with illusions of ANA and others being acceptable residual alternatives because they can't do the homework properly on their own is not my problem.

Indeed, by paying an extra $2300+ vs. other alternatives for the exact same trip, same class and same airline in actual total cost.