Apr 25, 2013 | 2013 Freddie Awards, Program of the Year
“Thank you to our members. We look forward to providing more rewards in 2013.”
IHG Priority Club Rewards has inched past last year’s winner, Taj InnerCircle, to claim Program of the Year for Middle East / Asia / Oceania. Priority Club Rewards clearly appealed to its membership base with solid, uncomplicated promotions, effective marketing and quality service. PointBreaks are a perennial crowd pleaser that give members the opportunity to redeem points for hotel stays for only 5,000 points per night.
Apr 25, 2013 | 2013 Freddie Awards, Program of the Year
“It is nice to see that our members are as enthusiastic about the program as our employees are. We work hard for this. Thank you!”
Marriott Rewards has won Program of the Year in the Americas for the sixth consecutive year. This is the 14th time through the years that the program has won this honor in the Americas.
Marriott is all about consistency—in the guest experience, customer service and loyalty program—and their members showed their appreciation by turning out to vote.
Apr 25, 2013 | 2013 Freddie Awards
For the 25th Anniversary of the Freddie Awards, we took a look back at the winners, almost winners, one-time winners and more.
All-Time Biggest Winners
For the 25 years that we’ve been handing out these prestigious awards, Marriott has won the most overall with a very impressive 124 awards—that’s an average of five awards per year. Starwood follows Marriott with 113 awards and Continental won the most of any airline at 50 awards.
Longest Winning Streak in a Single Category
Southwest won 11 consecutive Best Award Redemption Freddie Awards to take this distinction.
The Most Freddies Won by a Single Program in a Single Year
Starwood hauled away a whopping 17 Freddie Awards from the 17th Annual Freddie Awards ceremony.
All-Time Program of the Year Winners
Continental won 10 Program of the Year Freddies in the Americas before it merged with United. Alaska Airlines comes in second place with five wins for Program of the Year. In the Americas hotel arena, Marriott takes the top spot with 14 wins. For airline programs outside the Americas, SAS won the most with seven and Starwood takes the top hotel spot internationally with 14.
Adjust for Inflation
Only 864 ballots were cast in the first Freddie Awards. This year, there were over 2.9 million—that’s a 335,548 percent increase.
Highways and High Raves
Budget Rent-A-Car is the only car rental program to have received a Freddie. Budget was awarded an Industry Impact Award in the 7th Annual Freddie Awards for their “Play It Smart” program.
Apr 25, 2013 | 2013 Freddie Awards
The 10th anniversary of the Freddie Awards was the first time there was an actual award ceremony and Petersen chose to host it in New York City. Since then, award ceremonies have also been held in Colorado Springs, Los Angeles, Arlington, Phoenix, Fort Lauderdale, Houston and Newark. This year, they returned to the D.C. area to be held at USA Today’s corporate headquarters in McLean, Virginia.
Participants of the events may remember Petersen presenting the awards through the years wearing a top hat and tails with gloves, a cowboy hat and a Hawaiian shirt, among other notable clothing choices. And he proposed to the love of his life, Julie, at the Wyndham Colorado Springs event in 2003. (She said yes.)
This year has seen the most international voters of all time and an increase in the overall number of voters. While the Freddies have grown and expanded, the Freddies remain true to the original vision. Petersen says, “It’s still about the voice of the individual frequent flyer trying to tell everybody out there that these programs are delivering great value.”
Apr 25, 2013 | 2013 Freddie Awards
The earliest Freddie Awards only had a few hundred voters. It was a young industry and there weren’t that many people playing the game. To help get out the vote, Randy would take a bundle of ballots wherever he was traveling. When staying at a hotel, he’d wake up early and go down the hallway on every floor and slide a ballot under the door of each hotel room. He got caught a few times when security would notice and ask what he was doing. He says, “I never got thrown in jail but they were trying to figure out what I was doing.”
The original ballots were paper ballots and needed to be stamped and mailed. Freddie voting has gone from mailing, to faxing, to online and now voters are turning to mobile devices. Over 25 percent of the votes this year came in via a mobile device.
Randy says Freddie Awards ballots have “gone through everything except the Pony Express.”
Apr 24, 2013 | 2013 Freddie Awards
The House of Miles staff arrives safely at the Hilton Tysons Corner.
The “Strong” in our “Flying Strong” luggage tags means:
A. The type of coffee you need when you wake up at 5 a.m. to catch your flight on time.
B. How you feel after making it to the hotel with all of your luggage and co-workers accounted for.
C. A word in one of the mottos of a charity embraced by the Milepoint community.
D. How you feel when you push your neighbor’s arm off the plane armrest, thus winning round one of Armrest Wars.
Apr 24, 2013 | 2013 Freddie Awards
The idea behind the Freddie Awards was a simple one. Freddie Awards founder Randy Petersen was frequently asked, “Who has the best frequent flyer program?” The answer was easy for him to answer for himself, but the best program isn’t the same for everyone. What’s good for Bruce in Seattle or Bob in Fort Lauderdale is different than what is best for Sharon in Memphis because the airlines serving the areas are different and people have different types of redemption patterns. Maybe they want upgrades and status instead of free flights and discounts.
Randy started the Freddie Awards as a way to make it easier to answer the question he was repeatedly getting asked as frequent flyer programs became more popular. With the results of the Freddie Awards voting, he could tell people which program won Program of the Year or Best Elite Program and the answer would be more objective and universal than his personal opinion.
This year, over 2.9 million people voted in the Freddie Awards and in less than 24 hours, this year’s winners will be revealed.
Apr 24, 2013 | 2013 Freddie Awards
From the “You can check in but you can never check out” department, here’s a sneak look at the new logo proudly displayed on the custom room key cards at the Hilton Tyson’s Corner—host hotel for this year’s Freddie Awards.
Apr 22, 2013 | 2013 Freddie Awards
We were excited to see the Fed Ex delivery gal this morning, as she brought us a very special, top-secret package. Enclosed was this year’s brand new Freddie trophy. Nope, we can’t reveal the trophy to you just yet. We couldn’t even give the cheerful delivery woman a peek.
You don’t have too much longer to wait though, the unveiling will be at this year’s Freddie Awards, just 3 days away.
Apr 26, 2012 | 2012 Freddie Awards
Congratulations to all of this year’s Freddie Award winners!
Robert Wuhl says, “Thank you again for letting me host this event. Have a great year and drink your pants off tonight!”
