Originally Posted by
Gagravarr
Using points for economy travel often works out poor value, as the taxes and surcharges can make up the bulk of an economy ticket's cost, and those are normally still payable on award tickets.
Given that, I suspect you'll want to travel with whoever has the lowest taxes and fees for your given routing!
LH charges a ton of tax and surcharge. UA charges almost none. don't know about the others.
if you travel on LH metal on a UA codeshare, one does not have the huge surcharges. FRA hs a horrible arport for transfer.
award tickets to fco can be difficult to find on occasion