Good advice up above
Count me in as one who gave up on Continental long ago.
Back in the late 90s.
While I was flying and earning hundreds of thousands of miles with Continental I had no idea they would be virtually useless to a wide variety of destinations.

While reward inventory remains tight at a number of airlines I can't think of anybody less satisfactory then Continental .
Stingy would be a polite term
With that said next in line would certainly be their new partners Delta and Northwest/KLM. In that order.
The thing that amazed me is Continental kept winning awards year after year for what they did well. And many of us supported them.
Despite that this has been a severe ongoing problem for many years.
I tried to spread the word for a number of years but few listened.
The nice folks that work for Continental kind of blind you to the bottom line which in this case is ease of availability.

What I have suspected for many years is that most bank miles in a given program without doing a check of overall award availability first with whom they choose to do business with.Some published statistics exist too.
Many of those folks blindly invest in a company (self included) and its promotional offers until it is very often to late.
It is lesson that Continental taught me very well .One that will never be repeated again. At least in my case

Finally a large volume of Continentals customers are getting wiser after trying to use their miles.
It is finally coming back to effect their bottom line.
Think this new partnership will bail them out of a tough spot they otherwise might have found themselves in. The timing was right to help them hide behind the wall of their partnership.
Good luck with your choice.
Sounds like your on the right track.



[This message has been edited by 777 global mile hound (edited Dec 03, 2003).]