other options in the form of transfer partners....(including delta).

I just used Amex points to book tickets for my family home from CPH to DC during the peak of summer for 20K points each. (transferred them to Avianca, flying on SAS metal). Such a flight on Delta would have cost me 64K delta miles each. (it's not just the fact that IAD is not a Delta hub; the same flight back to ATL would have been 86K miles each)

AMEX (or Chase) gives you more options to move miles to different airlines. You have to do a little more research when finding the flight to figure out which airline gives you the best value....but it's worth it.