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Freddie fun facts.
Eight hundred and sixty-four ballots. One car rental winner. A marriage proposal from the stage in Colorado Springs. Trivia gathered for the 20th Anniversary slides, expanded with research and with records pulled live from the results archive.
25 facts
- 01
January 1989
The very first Freddie results were not announced from a stage. They ran in the pages of Frequent, the newsletter that became InsideFlyer: no ceremony, no press release, no international categories and no trophies — just a tally of what roughly a thousand frequent flyers said was the best of 1988.
InsideFlyer / freddieawards.com, "The First Freddies" · 1989
- 02
Marriott won the very first one
Marriott — then the Honored Guest Program — took the first Freddie ever awarded, for Best Newsletter across both airline and hotel programs. Continental/Eastern won the first Best Frequent Flyer Program, and Diners Club Club Rewards was among that first class of winners.
Randy Petersen, InsideFlyer, "The 16th Annual Freddie Awards" · 1989
- 03
9 years with no ceremony
For the first nine years there was no event at all. Randy Petersen hand-delivered the trophies to program offices himself.
20th Anniversary "Freddie Fun Facts" trivia slides
- 04
Named, not sponsored
The award is named for Sir Freddie Laker, the British airline entrepreneur knighted in 1978 whose Skytrain carried more than two million passengers by 1981. He never funded the awards — the name is a tribute to the man who made cheap flying a consumer cause.
freddieawards.com, "Sir Freddie Laker"
- 05
864 ballots
Only 864 ballots were cast in the first Freddie Awards. By 2017 the annual count had passed 4.2 million.
20th Anniversary "Freddie Fun Facts"; freddieawards.com history page
- 06
5 ceremonies with Sir Freddie
The namesake himself attended five Freddie Awards ceremonies before his death in 2006.
20th Anniversary "Freddie Fun Facts"
- 07
2 winners that no longer exist
Two Freddie-winning programs belong to airlines that are gone: TWA Frequent Flight Bonus and Reno Air QQuick Miles.
20th Anniversary "Freddie Fun Facts"
- 08
1 presidential candidate
Senator John McCain received a Distinguished Achievement Award in 1997 — the only future presidential nominee to hold a Freddie.
Unverified — archive checkOur archive's earliest Distinguished Achievement Award is Senator Bob Graham in 1998, and there is no McCain entry in the results we have recovered. The 1997 citation may pre-date the published lists — if you have the event program or a press clipping, send it over and we'll confirm the year.
20th Anniversary "Freddie Fun Facts" · flagged unverified · 1997
- 09
13 ballot languages
Balloting has been offered in English, German, Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Korean, Turkish, Hindi and Arabic, across three voting regions.
freddieawards.com history page
- 10
The redemption category, retired and revived
The trivia slides say "Best Award Redemption" ran until the 11th awards in 1998, with Southwest Rapid Rewards winning it every year in the Americas airline sub-category.
Unverified — archive checkThe recovered results contain no category by that exact name. The closest is "Best Award", which runs from 1995 all the way to 2011, and its Americas airline winners are Delta (1995), United Mileage Plus (1996), Northwest WorldPerks (1997) and Delta SkyMiles (1998) — not Southwest. Today's equivalent is "Best Redemption Ability".
20th Anniversary "Freddie Fun Facts" · flagged unverified
- 11
One car rental Freddie, ever
Budget Rent-A-Car is the only car rental program to receive a Freddie: an Industry Impact Award in 1994 for "Play It Smart".
20th Anniversary "Freddie Fun Facts" · 1994
- 12
One ceremony, two hotels
The 1998 Freddies were booked into the Sheraton at 112 Central Park South in New York. The property was reflagged as the Westin Central Park South around the event, making it the only Freddie Awards held in two hotels at once - invitations under one brand, trophies handed out under another.
Freddie Awards ceremony records · 1998
- 13
The outdoor Freddies that never happened
The 2016 ceremony was set for The Park on the Las Vegas Strip - the first outdoor Freddie Awards ever. Rain moved it indoors to T-Mobile Arena, open just two weeks, on a calendar between a George Strait run and a Billy Joel show. The Freddies still have never been held outdoors.
Freddie Awards ceremony records · 2016
- 14
The only CEO to collect a Freddie
Gordon Bethune, then chief executive of Continental Airlines, attended the 1998 ceremony to accept OnePass's Program of the Year award in person and voice his support for a member-voted event. He remains the only sitting airline CEO to collect a Freddie on stage.
Freddie Awards ceremony records · 1998
- 15
The trophy is a lobby fixture
The statuette was designed to be displayed, not shelved — Freddies sit in the lobbies of loyalty program headquarters around the world, which is why programs campaign so publicly for member votes.
freddieawards.com history page
- 16
A proposal from the stage
During the 15th Annual Freddie Awards on April 24, 2003, in the Rocky Mountain Banquet Room of the Wyndham Colorado Springs, Randy Petersen proposed to Julie Armstrong.
20th Anniversary "Freddie Fun Facts" · 2003
- 17
"It's not me that matters"
Writing for the 16th awards, Petersen summed up the whole premise: "It's not me, as editor of InsideFlyer that matters, it's the consensus of over 250,000 travelers."
InsideFlyer, April 29, 2005 · 2005
- 18
1,138 wins on record
The archive on this site holds 1,138 individual Freddie wins across 32 ceremonies, spanning 1989 to 2026. Of those, 1,101 are member-voted awards and the rest are special recognition honors, which is why program leaderboards count slightly fewer.
From the results archive
- 19
123 for Starwood Preferred Guest
Counted by the exact name on the ballot — member-voted awards only — Starwood Preferred Guest is the most decorated program in the archive with 123 Freddies. Roll up rebrands and mergers and the order changes — see the lineage view.
From the results archive
- 20
11 ceremonies in a row
The longest unbroken run in the archive: AAdvantage — Best Elite Program, The Americas, won at 11 straight ceremonies from 2012 through 2023.
From the results archive
- 21
11 straight through 2018
Marriott Rewards — Program of the Year, The Americas — 11 consecutive ceremonies, 2008 to 2018.
From the results archive
- 22
11 straight through 2009
Rapid Rewards — Best Redemption Ability, The Americas — 11 consecutive ceremonies, 1999 to 2009.
From the results archive
- 23
10 straight through 2023
Rapid Rewards — Best Customer Service, The Americas — 10 consecutive ceremonies, 2013 to 2023.
From the results archive
- 24
9 straight through 2006
Club Rewards — Best Loyalty Credit Card, The Americas — 9 consecutive ceremonies, 1998 to 2006.
From the results archive
- 25
154 trophies for one category
Program of the Year has been handed out more than any other category in the archive — 154 times across all regions and sectors.
From the results archive
Know one we're missing?
The fun facts file grows: send a fact with a date and a source and it goes on the page. Meanwhile, the records behind these numbers live in the archive.