Confused about required amount of miles to travel
 

I am confused about how many miles it takes to travel to different destinations. I have a lot of miles with AA, United, and Delta and sample miles for destinations do not seem to match up when I actually try to redeem miles. For instance, a roundtrip USE<-> SE Asia sample is 80,000 miles but when I go to redeem it is 115,000 + $115 each way. This has occurred on a number of occasions when I actually go to redeem miles for an international flight. Am I doing something wrong? I am newer to redeeming miles in this manner. Your insight is appreciated.

Most programs have more than one redemption chart. One is for flights operated by the same airline as operates the program. This chart might have several levels, for "saver" and "standard" awards, and perhaps also "peak" and "off-peak" seasons.

The program may also have another chart for flights operated by their partner airlines, and for itineraries operated by two or more airlines.

There are also routing rules. An airline might divide Asia into two or more parts, and it may cost more to connect in one part of Asia if you're end destination is in a different part of Asia.

Another kind of routing rule is direction of travel: AA, for example, considers US<->India awards to be trans-Atlantic only. If you want to fly trans-Pacific (say, because you're starting from the USA west coast), it has to be booked as two separate awards (which doesn't cost double, but does cost more).

If you're referring to Delta, they have (for now) three award redemption levels and are famous for being one of the stingiest about availability at the lowest level...though the DL forum has excellent advice about ways to construct your searches to better the odds of finding low level.

You will always pay some manner of taxes and fees for an award redemption, from the chump change level for a domestic award to a bit more internationally....and some airlines levy a hefty "fuel surcharge" as well.

Gotta look for the low level award i would check every day till i get it. Also something you have to break down an award segment by segment to get it.