<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PG:
the utility of transferring miles to another program is a little overrated, since you always lose a fairly big chunk in the conversion.</font>
Indeed, because of the conversion loss I would go further and say that transferring out of a program is the
last thing to do.
The best advice is to spend time upfront choosing your programs so you don't have to transfer out.