SAS EuroBonus - Anyone invited to the Freddie Awards tomorrow?

SAS EuroBonus wins Freddie Award for third year running

For the third year in a row, SAS EuroBonus has received a Freddie Award for best bonus programme. The award is presented by Inside Flyer, a magazine for members of airline and hotel frequent-traveller programmes. A total of 82,740 international travellers voted in 1998. SAS Eurobonus received the most votes, scoring an average rating of 8.86 on a scale of 10.

Prizes were also awarded in six sub-categories, and SAS EuroBonus won in four:
Best newsletter
Best website
Best elite level for high-mileage travellers
Best airline promotion

SAS EuroBonus scored second prizes in the other categories: best award and customer service.

The prize will be awarded at a ceremony at SAS headquarters in Frösundavik, Stockholm on 23 April.

Anyone going?

I think the should/could invite YOU!

if webflyer-officials read this - it will be probably late - I hope they will think of YOU next time.

Thanks Rudi. Maybe next year? Could EuroBonus win 4 years in a row?

If EuroBonus is so popular, I'm surprised that so few members seem to be on these web pages. I can only conclude that the majority of EuroBonus members are Nordic citizens and that they don't have much interest in forums conducted in the english language.


[This message has been edited by Austman (edited 04-23-99).]

Austman: One slight correction (although I appreciate it is not your mistake). There were 82,740 votes cast in the International awards, but there were only 8,169 voters. Those 8,169 casted 82,740 votes.

Of those votes 75% were cast via the internet.

Perhaps the fact that SAS had a link from it's web site to the voting form was a significant element of it's success? Getting 15% of 8,169 votes (approx. 1225 votes) wouldn't be that much of a challange or an endorsement would it??

I will say no more.....

Nick

PS: I hope no-one takes offence, I think EuroBonus is a great scheme. It is just that with the number of voters involved a link from an airline web-site could make a massive difference.



[This message has been edited by Merry (edited 04-23-99).]

Merry, I didn't vote at all. But are you saying that as far as the Freddie Awards are concerned it was possible to 'Vote early and vote often?' Or are you saying that SAS has misquoted Inside Flyer re the number of voters?

But I SHOULD have voted (sorry EuroBonus for not doing so, please forgive me!) EuroBonus has been very good to me since I joined in 1992.


[This message has been edited by Austman (edited 04-23-99).]

I am saying that SAS has mistaken the number of votes cast (voters x categories) for the number of voters.

We are told InsideFlyer has three checks to ensure multiple votes are not cast, so I am certainly not saying that is the case.

I think InsideFlyer has done everything possible to ensure the voting is fair. However, by people like Hilton and SAS having links from their web pages to the voting site, they are obviously going to receive more votes.

Nick

I now see what Merry's saying and have cut and pasted the following from InsideFlyer's own report on the Freddies. I think that SAS has accidentally misunderstood the numbers. But none-the-less SAS were winners.

I could well imagine that for next year there will be more voting possibilities from other airlines' and hotels' websites. That will be good for the Freddies and good for the winners.

From InsideFlyer:-
In this year's international balloting, over 82,740 votes were cast by 8,169 individuals. Sixty-seven per cent of the ballots were cast via the Internet. The remaining ballots were received through the post or by fax. To ensure accuracy and maintain the "one-person, one-vote" philosophy of the Freddies, the ballots were subject to three audits using a variety of technology. Winners were determined by "value votes," allowing travellers to rank each programme between 1 and 10, with 10 being a perfect score. To qualify, a programme must receive at least 10 per cent of the votes of the category leader. This is the second year of value voting; the system was introduced to help level the playing field between small and large programmes.

Austman: I am glad that is clear.

However, I don't agree that links from airline/hotel web-sites are a good thing. I am sure that if LH, AF or Cathay had had links from the web sites this year the voting would be significantly different. After all why do some airlines do it is it doesn't give them an edge?

My take is this, if as a subscriber to Inside Flyer you cast your vote, you do so after considering the pro's and con's of numerous FF schemes - you do not go into the voting with a pre-defined bias.

If however you are one of the millions of people a month who look at the SAS site, and come across a link to the Freddies, you are much more likely to vote for SAS and score them highly because it is likely that they are your prefered carrier. SAS and Hilton etc are pushing people towards the Freddies who are likely to vote for them.

People who go to the web-site as a result of reading this board or reading Inside Flyer etc are being pulled to the Freddies and are much more representative.

I have no doubt that if Aer Lingus had a link to the Freddies on their web-site next year and including voting forms in their mailings they could win next year. But is that representative or reflective of the strength of the Aer Lingus FF program?

Nick

It's an interesting argument. Whether Internet voting is a reasonable reflection of how FF'ers rate a FF program.

SAS has misinterpreted the numbers, that's true, but that may have been accidental. SAS is also making some publicity out of winning the Freddies. And why shouldn't they? Such publicity is probably good for InsideFlyer magazine also. I for one had never heard of InsideFlyer magazine until SAS EuroBonus started announcing that they had won some Freddies a couple of years back.

I was in central Stockholm last Saturday and walked past the SAS city travel office. In the window was a big display that announced the latest Freddie awards that EuroBonus had won. The display stated that some 82,740 readers of InsideFlyer magazine had voted. Now this is also a stretch of the truth as internet voters are not necessarily readers of the magazine, although they did have to be connected to InsideFlyer's website (automatically) in order to vote.

As just about every major airline and hotel chain have Internet sites these days, I can't see why others don't copy SAS and Hilton and have voting direct from their websites too. It's easy enough for them to do. In SAS's Internet favour is the high per capita Internet usage that exists in the Nordic countries.

Perhaps then the Freddies would become a bit like Academy Awards. There, the film industry canvasses the academy voters. Airlines and Hotels etc can canvass their FF members to vote for them.

Is that a good thing? Or should InsideFlyer magazine only allow votes from their subscribed readers?



[This message has been edited by Austman (edited 04-26-99).]