I use AA primarily, so I'm not hugely knowledgeable about United/Continental, but I have been quietly stockpiling United/Continental miles and will use them someday. So I've saved a few blog posts that I thought would be useful when the time comes for me to try to redeem on Star Alliance.

Here is some homework if you are interested to do some reading. I thought these posts were useful:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemil...ead-of-united/

http://travelsort.com/blog/how-to-fi...ce-award-space

http://thepointsguy.com/2011/06/how-...-availability/