Airline Program of the Year [Americas] American AAdvantage

Tell me who won that Freddie Award … American AAdvantage!

“My thanks to Randy and the Milepoint team. You have been an inspiration to us and helped us to make some changes to the program. And thanks to my amazing team here and back in Dallas!”

The granddaddy of all frequent flyer programs has done it again, winning Program of the Year in the Americas for a second year in a row. Even after all these years, it still delivers incredible value.

Elite members are happy and many would say that the program offers the best domestic award availability of any U.S. airline and some of the most lucrative international award redemptions in the industry.

Hotel Program of the Year [Europe / Africa] Le Club Accorhotels

 

“Celebrating our 5th birthday this year. 11 million members already, and program of the year in Europe!!! WOO!”

Le Club Accorhotels first time Program of the Year win will probably surprise many who aren’t loyal members of the program. Since 2001, Starwood and Marriott have been the only two programs to win the Program of the Year in Europe / Africa. Le Club members gave high marks to the multi-brand loyalty program of Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure, ibis, ibis Styles, Adagio and Thalassa sea & spa hotels.

Hotel Program of the Year [Middle East / Asia / Oceania] IHG Priority Club Rewards

“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.

Hotel Program of the Year [Americas] Marriott Rewards

“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.

25th Anniversary of the 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.

Memorable Freddie Awards Ceremonies

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.”