Originally Posted by
beyounged
I did not see much surcharges in the selection page, such as USA-EU on VS was showing 70-ish copay, so I assumed there is no YQ as this would easily be 1k+USD on VS. I cannot proceed further due to my 0 point balance. Same for AF/KL. I do not know if there is massive YQ showing up at payment, because that would be dealbreaker for me.
Russia does not need to open, it just needs MU available as a redemption option. MU has been flying to SVO the entire time. Whether it is possible to get into Russia is a totally different story.
There are no fees beyond those listed on the first page. So, IAD-CDG award in Y is 42K miles + EUR 55. That said, a ticket like that is worth may be $300 to me, so value for miles is less than 1cpm.
I just searched 2 months worth of dates and found no availability in J for that route.
For the money and effort involved in this promo, one could probably buy 500K Lifemiles which actually have availability in J for that route (sporadically, but still better than 0) and at a lower mile cost.