Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.This morning I am introducing a new feature to my blog; Reader Email Sunday. Basically, about every week or so I will select a couple questions from my inbox and answer them online so that everyone can view my response and offer their own comments. As always, feel free to contact me here if you have your own question and you may end up on the front page of www.thepointsguy.com!“Hi, I have had an an Amex card for many years and have never used thepoints. I have now accumulated over 1 million points and am planning touse them for travel. I notice Continental Airlines is dropping out ofthe Amex redemption program and presumably all of their Star Alliancepartners[?]. I am considering moving 400,000 or 500,000 points into myContinental account before end September as Continental goes to a lotof the places I wish to visit. If I do so will I be able to transferpoints from Continental to other Star Alliance partners after Sep.30?Does it make sense to put all these points into my existingContinental account [where presumably they will continue to notexpire?]. Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks, Steve H.“TPG: First off, congratulations on accruing over a million points to one ofthe best programs out there. I’m a big fan of Membership Rewardspoints and they can be extremely valuable if used correctly.As far as Star Alliance transfer partners are concerned, they are notall leaving the program. In fact, you’ll still be able to instantlytransfer points to Air Canada Aeroplan. You can also transfer to ANA(All Nippon Airways) and Singapore Airlines - both of those transferstake about 48 hours. Each of the three have different award charts,which means there is no one best program for all awards. Check out this post on the Star Alliance transfer partners and expect more postson the topic leading up to Continental’s departure from MembershipRewards.As far as moving points to Continental, that’s not a bad ideanecessarily, but I’d wait as long as possible unless you need to bookawards before September 30. I do not believe Amex will run a transferbonus to Continental, but crazier things have happened and there’s noreason to jump the gun and transfer before you have to. And since Continentalprobably won’t have a transfer bonus you should consider taking advantageof one of Amex’s current 50% transfer bonuses to Delta (registration required)or British Airways. At 50% there is a huge value to be had if you use those milesappropriately.Overall though, I do think Continental/United has a solid frequentflyer program so transferring isn’t a bad idea. Continental.com has apretty good award engine (which they will use once merged) and theyallow one-way awards - even on Star Alliance partners, at relativelylow rates. So to sum it up, I think transferring is a decent choice(though you should leave a good amount in Membership Rewards so you canredeem in Skyteam and Oneworld as well).
