yea i'm waiting to see what Amex will charge me when I cash in my points for an EU flight this summer. You rack up hundreds of thousands of points - which means you have spent that much on your card right? so when the time comes to use your points, they slap you with a fee to do it, like they did when I went to London. So I have to pay to get points and then pay to use the points
I feel your pain.
but airlines and more doing it now too. charging fees for everything absurd.