From the interesting but who cares department? Todays FF Crier takes what was for me a surprising (editorial) stand:

There are 2 sets of awards results being announced this week, one
of which we're reporting (see the "Industry News" section), one
of which we're not.

We're NOT reporting the results of the annual Freddie awards.
Why? Because a popularity contest for frequent flyer programs is
a fundamentally misleading endeavor. And because it's misleading,
it's misguided... unless the goal is to generate ad revenues from
winner wannabe's.

Don't misunderstand. The Freddies do have entertainment value, as
do the polls we run on the FrequentFlier.com site. As, for that
matter, do the Miss Universe awards. Where the Freddies go astray
is in taking themselves too seriously, and positioning the
results as being somehow actionable. Not! You should no more join
the Freddie-winning frequent flyer program than you should
propose marriage to Miss Universe. (Hmmmm... bad analogy?)

The point being that the awards distract people from the real
considerations that underlie the choice of an appropriate
frequent flyer program by purporting to answer the question: What
program should I join? If you want help with choosing a program,
check out "How to Choose a Program" at
http://frequentflier.com/ffp-006.htm

Then, if you still want to see "the winners" (bathing suits, high
heels, hype and all), go to http://www.freddieawards.com


They could just as easily not reported/commented period!

BTW- Randy did a truly spectacular job and folks in attendance appeared to have a great time- but especially the Starwood and the CO representatives!

Not that I am agreeing, but they do have some points in that the Freddies is not a total representation of programs. If you find one program has a website used more often than others, then they might be able to drive more traffic to the voting. It would be interesting to see an awards questionare in every Airplane's magazine. Then we can get the perceptions of the occassional fliers too. But all in all, the Freddies are a great way to gauge how a company's customers perceive them....

Thank you Randy..

I have myself said before that one should choose a FF program based on their specific needs and travel patterns, and not on how it ranks in surveys.

They posted the OAG awards, but not the Freddies. I just don't get it.

Good rule of thumb is you can always use surveys and statistics to prove whatever you want. I take all of them, Freddie or not with a grain of salt.

The key here is repeated distinction and some overall consensus. Things I can say with relative ease are that Singapore Airlines is a good airline; maybe not the best, but good. That Pittsburgh International is a good airport. Maybe not the best, but good. There are others, but those are just examples.

All surveys and rankings are going to be subjective no matter how they profess otherwise.

The Crier claims that they think the Freddies are messed up because people sponsor them get prefferential treatment.

OAG sponsors The Crier, and only those results were printed.

I noticed that Tute - I tooke it to mean that the author of the Crier has a sense of humour. Presumably he expects you to apply the same caveats he uses for the Freddies to the OAG awards.