Delta vs Continental: Is one easier for booking awards
 

I will be moving 53,000 points into one of these programs. They both use the same partners but do you find it is easier to book awards with Delta or with Continental? Or are they pretty much the same?

Both are pretty crappy. If you don't have to, I'd keep them in whatever program you have them in.

My guess is that you have AMEX Membership Rewards points and you don't want to reup on the annual fee. If this is true, post something on coupon connection and you could probably get a lot more for point that can be traded to any airline than them being on in one specific program.

That being said, if I HAD TO choose a program I'd pick continental. Delta is starting to impose fuel surcharges into its ticket prices so that if you redeem on DL of it's partners from Europe you pay about $250 in taxes where as with CO that same exact ticket would cost $50.

Again, check out CC. You might be surprised about the amount of stuff available.

I've always found their availability to be pretty much the same. Skyteam does seem to have less of the "reserved for our own elites" and "preferred relationship" business going on than Oneworld. One thing you might want to consider is the ability to redeem on non-Skyteam partners (DL: Singapore Airlines, CO: Qantas). If you're just looking at a straight Skyteam redemption, I would probably transfer points to CO, because of their better search engine (and the resulting higher likelihood of being able to book an award online), and because of the ridiculous DL fees (you are fairly likely to run into their $25 phone ticketing + $25 partner award fees).

Move to the program in which you have elite status. It will help you to get seats. From my experience as CO Platinum, it really helps.
Delta does have more international partners.

Yes, I am moving them from Membership Rewards since I am not planning to continue with the Amex card.

No, I do not have elite status on any airline.

I am not too familiar with coupon connection but isn't it for when you are ready to get a ticket?

Another question for the poster... are you planing to fly domestically or internationally?

If within the US you might want to consider transferring to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan which can get you tix on DL, NW, AA, and AS.

CC has all sort of different people on it some looking for deals for right now, some for later.

Both have their idiosyncrasies. It's really hard to make a blanket statement. If you are originating your travel in Europe, you definitely want to move to CO because DL has starting collecting fuel surcharge fees for awards ex-Europe.

If you are planning to redeem a business class award, I would avoid Continental's program.. their redemption levels are deliberately confusing, unlike most other programs (which tend to use a single consolidated award chart).

Alaska Airlines sounds like a safe choice.

Since DL's award chart is not so uniformly better, I too would tend to consider AS or even CO for the reasons mentioned by both of the above FTers.

I will be using the points for travel to and from Europe originating in the states. Are the higher taxes and fuel charges on Delta only if you originate your flights in Europe?

Currently, yes.

How does one move Amex MR to Alaska? I wasn't aware of this option.

There doesn't appear to be a direct transfer option but it's possible to move points via CO/Amtrak/Choice (losing some pts along the way).... unless Khabibul35 knows a specific method...

I could have sworn there was a way to do it directly...maybe I was wrong though.

to convert to AAMP, you would lose 23K miles
using this handy-dandy tool:http://www.webflyer.com/programs/mil...rter/index.php

Path #1 Miles/Points
American Express Membership Rewards (US) converts to (starting) 53,000
Continental OnePass (at a ratio of 1:1) converts to 53,000
Amtrak Guest Rewards (at a ratio of 1:1) converts to 50,000
* Choice Hotels Choice Privileges (at a ratio of 5000:15000) converts to 150,000
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan (at a ratio of 5:1) Total: 30,000