I was Continental gold several years ago. I agree with jaws43 that business first service is really nice. I sampled it on their SFO-EWR flights. In my opinion, Continental's business first and business class in United's 777 planes are better than first class in most domestic flights. Mileage earning ability was also excellent with Continental. However one area where I found them disappointing was the ablility to redeem the miles (thankfully the miles do not expire). I was not surprised when a couple of years ago I read the Inside Flyer article I had referred to in my earlier message.

Have things changed recently regarding being able to redeem miles?