Keep reading all these postings on various blogs (View from the Wing, One Mile at a Time, etc) about transferring credit card points into Delta, Aeroplan etc. accounts in order to redeem international first and business seats on Air China/China Southern/China Eastern.

Here in Hong Kong we have a more direct option, since some credit cards allow us to transfer directly into the frequent flyer programs for Air China and China Southern (and to a lesser extent China Eastern).

But I vaguely recall reading that you sometimes end up having to go through all kind of hurdles if you want to redeem directly with some of these programmes from Hong Kong?

Can anyone share their experiences of how painful (or otherwise) it was? Which is the best of the three programmes for transferring in credit card points for mileage redemptions? And whether its realistic to try to use these programmes to redeem flights on their Skyteam/Star Alliance partners?