Beware of fuel surcharges when booking a flight, whether you are using miles or cash. The practice of imposing fuel surcharges blossomed around 2004 when world oil prices spiked. But they can vary greatly from one carrier to the next, even on carriers flying the same route with the same aircraft.

El Al is the flag carrier of Israel. It flies to Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. Matmid, El Al’s loyalty program, has two award redemption charts. One is for the those who live in Israel and have the airline’s co-branded credit card, as well as Executive Circle elite status holders living outside of Israel. The other chart is for everyone else.

Delta’s free open jaw on round-trip award tickets will allow you to see more while paying the same price in miles and cash. But the airline’s booking policy is important to know about if you’re traveling to Europe, since it adds fuel surcharges to one-way flights that originate there.

Middle East Airlines, or MEA, is the flag carrier of Lebanon. It flies to 39 destinations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa out of Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport. MEA does not fly to the United States.

Known as the City of Gold, Jerusalem is a holy place for three major world religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. One of the oldest cities in the world, no trip to Israel is complete without visiting its ancient religious sites, such as the Wailing Wall and the Temple Mount. The ancient walled quarter in the center of town, known as the Old City, is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Vietnam Airlines, the flag carrier of Vietnam, is based in Hanoi. The airline flies to 52 destinations in 17 countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Australia. It doesn’t offer flights to North America.

Sri Lanka, a small island nation located off the southern coast of India, is a land of cultural wonders and natural beauty. Despite its small size, the island has the highest biodiversity density in Asia, making it one of the top biodiversity hot spots in the world.

If you’re collecting miles and playing the frequent flyer awards game, you’re probably already familiar with the airport taxes, fuel surcharges and other fees that often get added to your ticket. So when you finally earn that “free” flight you’ve been saving up for, you don’t expect it to be completely free.

Lufthansa’s Miles and More is one of the best frequent flyer programs among European carriers. Despite some heavy fuel surcharges by Lufthansa and most of its European partners, the Miles and More program has enough sweet spots to make it very valuable, and award flights could be a true bargain under the right  circumstances.

Though it is known for its high fuel surcharges, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is actually a very versatile program offering many ways to earn miles and access high quality flights.

British Airways Avios can be a difficult reward currency to maximize, with a distance-based award chart and massive fuel surcharges overseas. You can certainly get value out of short-haul awards on partner carriers, but what if you’re more interested in international travel?

Who Is Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Good For?

In recent years Virgin Atlantic’s frequent flyer program hasn’t garnered any Freddie awards the Oscars of the airline frequent flyer industry but the airline has been consistently raking in accolades from Travel Weekly Globes for favorite airline to Business Traveler magazine for best premium economy.

Africa is vast and amazing, so well focus in on getting to three popular destinations on the continent: Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; and Dar es Salam, Tanzania.

There are many ways to get to the Holy Land using miles. Just about all of the major airlines fly there, with the exception of American Airlines. But you can still use your AAdvantage miles to fly to Israel on merger partner US Airways or one of American’s alliance partners.

Determining whether an award ticket was worth your miles used to be a simple equation.
For most airline award redemptions, miles are valued at approximately one cent per mile. You multiply the required miles by $0.01 and then compare it to the price of the flight you’re considering.