MilesBuzz! - Transferring from Skyteam to Star Alliance

Hi,
I did a search but couldn't find anything specific. If a similar thread exists, feel free to point to it.
Here's the scenario
A friend of mine has a DL Skyteam account, but with the recent devaluation of Skyteam miles, she's been tempted to switch to *A. On top of that, my friend recently moved to Egypt, and of course there's no Skyteam alliance airline in the region. She plans on travelling regionally on Egyptair and Qatar Airways (a UA partner) and to Europe on bmi.
In the US, my friend splits her time between Dayton, Houston and Louisiana. Now Skyteam airlines are usually the cheapest to/from and within these places, as a broad rule of thumb. But she figured that it's worth paying extra for *A since the miles will be worth more.
So the question is
-Can one transfer miles from Delta to Continental while it's still in Skyteam, then later on, transfer miles from Continental to United (or even keep it in CO)?
Thanks in advance...

DL does not let you convert points out to other programs.

CO does, the least costly method gets you UA points at a ratio of 1:0.6

http://www.insideflyer.com/tools/mileage_converter/

CO does, the least costly method gets you UA points at a ratio of 1:0.6
http://www.insideflyer.com/tools/mileage_converter/

Do note that this transfer is severely limited by three things:
1) Annual cap on transfers from Amtrak to other programs.
2) Restriction on eligibility to transfer out of Amtrak.
3) Restriction on eligibility to transfer out of Choice.

Thank you for the link.
Looks like it's gonna be difficult/impossible to move the DL miles. Seems that my friend will need to start over with a *A airline.
2 questions- a) which one is the best in terms of accrual, redemption etc.? Or are they all the same? Right now looks like UA's the way to go-if someone knows something I don't, please share.
b) Is is true that the Skyteam programs (DL etc.) are being devalued?