<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by nako:
Please note, though, that I said "theoretically," as the horror stories of actually redeeming CO miles, let alone for 5 award tickets for the same flights, are well-documented in the CO board.</font>
True, but don't forget NW, and soon (hopefully) DL redemption.
20,000 miles converted to 40,000 points will get you free companion tickets on AS, HP, YX, UA, and US. Not the best use of converted miles, but not the worst, either. Availability on HHonors flight rewards is generally more liberal than the stingier FF programs (UA is particularly easy to book IME; HP pretty good, too).
See some pointers here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum57/HTML/005940.html