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Quebec’s cultural center, Montreal, and the nearby capital, Quebec City, are some of the chilliest urban areas you can find in North America during this time of year. But that’s part of the reason why it’s a great time to visit.

Named the best regional airline in Europe in 2014 by industry watchdog SkyTrax, Greece’s Aegean Airlines is one of those airlines that you may not have heard of and rarely have occasion to fly but might seriously consider squirreling points away in.

Who Is the British Airways Visa Signature Card Good For?

The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan has a unique program-within-a-program that is exclusively available to the 735,000-plus residents of Alaska: Alaska Airlines Club 49.

One of the most powerful tools you have when it comes to making the most of your miles and points is the strategic use of transfers.

Who Is the Miles & More Premier World MasterCard Credit Card Good For?

Booking award tickets isn’t the easiest thing in the world. For true peace of mind, you would have to book far in advance–ideally 330 days out to guarantee availability. With nearly a year before travel though, things can happen that could impact your trip, so its important to know what the airlines policy is on award ticket changes and the types of fees they’ll incur.

Many frequent flyer gurus will tell you to never use your hard-earned miles to book a domestic award ticket. While it’s true that there may be more value when booking a first class ticket to somewhere exotic like Bali, there is definitely a time and place to spend miles to get to destinations closer to home.

Earlier this fall, it looked like we had seen the last of the really high credit card sign-on bonuses for the year. Lufthansa offered 50,000 miles on its co-branded credit card, and Chase finished a big 70,000 point push on its business card, the Chase Ink.

But oneworld alliance airlines or at least the ones most relevant to North American travelers seem to have gotten together and decided that they really like the business that credit cards bring them. British Airways, American Airlines and US Airways have all thrown out 50,000 mile sign-on bonuses.

As one of the three major domestic carriers, United can take you nearly anywhere you want to go in the U.S., and its partner network, including the powerful 27-member Star Alliance, can get you most places in the world.

Frontier is a love-it or hate-it airline. Although it’s not quite in the same league as its domestic low-cost competitor Spirit, which recently solicited hate mail from travelers in exchange for 8,000 miles, Frontier is unapologetic about its high fees. Those fees allow them to offer low fares for people who want them, and a higher price for people who are happy to pay to be comfortable.

Who Is the Amex EveryDay® Credit Card Good For?

Every year Alaska Visa Signature cardholders get a present in the mail: a voucher for a $99 coach companion fare. This voucher is a nice bonus that helps offset the $75 annual fee. The physical voucher is more of a formality, since Alaska stores these electronically on the cardholders Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account.

Finding premium award seats to Australia is not easy. They are considered the ultimate prize in frequent flyer circles because the flights are long and the award seats are scarce. And also because business and first class travel on Qantas, the Australian flagship carrier, is great. It rivals premium seats from the best airlines in the world, including Singapore, Cathay Pacific, and Emirates.

Though it is known for its high fuel surcharges, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is actually a very versatile program offering many ways to earn miles and access high quality flights.

All Nippon Airways, or ANA, is a Japanese airline in the powerful Star Alliance, which includes North American carriers United and Air Canada. Don’t confuse ANA’s versatile award program, Mileage Club, with the similarly named Mileage Bank offered by the other major Japanese airline, JAL.

Who Is the United MileagePlus Club Card Good For?

British Airways Avios can be a difficult reward currency to maximize, with a distance-based award chart and massive fuel surcharges overseas. You can certainly get value out of short-haul awards on partner carriers, but what if you’re more interested in international travel?

For as long as I have known about the Starwood Preferred Guest program, I have been captivated by its Nights & Flights option. For 60,000 Starpoints, you get five nights at a category three hotel a mix of Four Points, Aloft and Sheraton hotels, with some Westins and 50,000 airline miles.

Cathay Pacific is the main carrier for China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, so it might not seem to be the best fit for flyers based in North America. But if you need to do a lot of travel to Asia from the U.S., it’s a very safe bet: It won the 2014 Skytrax Award for Worlds Best Airline.