Virgin Atlantic levies
heavy fuel surcharges on its own flights, but can offer some great values for domestic travel on partner Virgin America.
Some things to bear in mind are that you will want to avoid flying on British Airways operated flights as those come with
very heavy fuel surcharges (often more than a cash fare would have cost you).
Virgin is not the best use of rewards points —
adding heavy fuel surcharges to flights across the Atlantic — but you may be able to find good values on domestic flights with some of Virgin's airline partners.
You can also use Avios to fly British Airways within Europe, because unlike trans - Atlantic flights, they do not impose
heavy fuel surcharges for travel on the continent.
From Japan Airlines» search engine and the ITA Flight Matrix,
heavy fuel surcharges showed up on Emirates, Qatar, Finnair, China Eastern, Air France, and Royal Jordanian.
Virgin Atlantic itself pretty much only flies to / from the UK, and they tack on
heavy fuel surcharges to their award flights.
ANA will pass on
heavy fuel surcharges with many of its partners but United is an exception.
However, I don't generally recommend to fly with British Airways to Europe because you will get hit with
heavy fuel surcharges.
Avoid redeeming Asiana Club miles on airlines with
heavy fuel surcharges (such as most European airlines, including British Airways, Lufthansa and others) for transoceanic travel.
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.