Continuing my search for an economical way to use my miles and avoid absurd fees, I tried a combination of 2 one-way flights, one with miles, one on Norwegian. One way on Norwegian is as low as $286. If I avoid using BA with points, flights on AA to Paris are 20,000 miles (before May 15th) plus a $5 fee (excellent!) but with a stupid schedule, 3 flights and 2 days to get there. And 1 possibility available. All the rest are BA flights, $326 in fees + 20,000 miles.
Next thought, why is AA allowing BA to do this to us? The only possible answer is that AA is selling these routes to BA, which then makes money with huge fees charged to us trying to find our way to Europe using our hard-earned miles. Needless to say, after that realization, which had never occurred to me before, even though I was aware of BA's exorbitant fees, I'm feeling very disillusioned with the AAdvantage program, to which before this morning I was a loyal supporter.