I had this dilemma a couple weeks ago.. But with the BA 50% bonus, I went scouring for available space on a South American trip with LAN. Found it all with stopovers, called up to go through the process and transferred the MR into BA while on the phone.

Then the wife ran into my office shouting about landing a new teaching job and while that's awesome, my heart sank. We're not going to South America this fall. At least I hadn't already paid for the award so no cancel fee to pay. Ah well, they'll still get put to use next year. I may just go for another companion certificate instead too.