oliver2002

Deloitte published their audit report yesterday, it seems the ADAC not only added a digit to the vote count, but also swapped the Audi Q3 with the BMW 3 series: http://www.dw.de/embattled-adac-pres...gns/a-17421735

oliver2002

Some insight on how the voting 'works':

lacuadra

Freddie Award category:
Blog With Most Deceptive Content!
The winner is.....tah duh!

itsaboutthejourney

Dare we make nominations here?

Randy Petersen

Always a pleasure to hear from a member of FlyerTalk interested in attending the Freddies. It's actually pretty easy, simply send me a note: r a n d y [a t] f l y e r t a l k [d o t] c o m.

Also, if you have the time I'll provide the accurate answers to a number of statements made on this thread because if you are hoping to make any decisions to come, it is best to have the correct answers. So here goes:

Even Moderators will occasionally make an error (not many errors though, as they are very helpful around here.) Fact is that the Freddie Awards were started in 1988, well before Milepoint and actually well before FlyerTalk. The true statement would be .... Milepoint is associated with the Freddie Awards as a sponsor, similar to the way that Kayak is associated with FlyerTalk's very own awards. Simple.

Actually, the truth is that the Freddies continue to be open to FlyerTalkers AND there is never a fee. I'm not sure why this statement is here—in the entire history of the Freddie Awards (24 years for the actual Freddie Awards) there has never been a fee to attend the event.

Actually, the new and the old Freddies do not require and never had required an invitation. Simply let us know and we'll do our best to make it happen for you. NOW, there was a change in the way we try to accommodate a few years back and hopefully you'd find with reason "that's cool and makes sense". In the early days we always had an open call, really not even putting out a formal notice but welcomed one and all. However, as that grew, it was clear that system became broken. What happened is that FlyerTalkers would post in an open thread started by other FlyerTalkers about going to the Freddies. We would monitor the thread and prepare seating accommodations for those members who posted in the thread. However, as time went on, we were finding that the actual number of those who said they were coming was far greater than those who actually showed up, in other words, the 'no-shows' kept growing and put a lot of pressure on us trying to plan since we had to make room in the room for those who said they were coming and also ... had to pay for the estimated crowd. One of the last ones we had the open call to attend had nearly 40 FlyerTalkers who said they were coming and did not show up. When you are pre-paying at times $115 a head for the event, that was a rather expensive situation for us since we never really had sponsors in the early days, I funded it myself because I love knowing that frequent flyers have a voice. Anyway, maybe 2008 we decided to change that up a little and simply ask those who wanted to come to register. It put a little more sense of responsibility on those members who signed up and as well because we would send reminders to them we found that they would often reply to let us know that their plans had changed. Now I can appreciate that there are likely tens of thousands of FlyerTalkers who are smarter than I, but the newer system seems to work OK. The strongest suggestion actually was to start charging a fee to attend the Freddies and thus that would likely led to a better head count, however, I started it as a no-fee (after all, these are your voices that the Freddie Awards represents). Anyway, even with a small registration there's still a few no-shows but its far better than it used to be. The no-shows were problematic for two reasons, 1) the extra cost and; 2) when we were in ballrooms that had a finite capacity, no-shows were taking a place from someone else that might have wanted to attend but the headcount wouldn't allow it. While i guess we could have begun "overbooking" as airlines do, we simply ask that those wanting to attend be just a bit more responsible. Nothing more.

Actually, you don't have to suck up to anyone. Simply let me know you are coming, let me know if your plans on attending change and we're good to go. Every year dozens of frequent travelers, some FlyerTalkers, some not, some not even part of any social forums write me or contact us via the Freddie Awards website and we try our best to accommodate them. It's not a cool kids thing, it's not a velvet rope, it's not an invitation, it's trying to be responsible to managing those who would love to attend and the physical boundaries of the event location.

Actually I remain generous to this community around the Freddies and those wanting to attend can use the same method as I posted at the top of this post. I'm not sure I actually know The Forward Cabin, but I'll do my best to help. As for the "business" part, the change as explained above isn't so much a business (i still had to fund a shortfall in the expense of last years Freddies and the contributions of the sponsors) as it is trying to be responsible to those who would love to come. My guess is that most like to know that if they come they will have a seat and not be told some "I'm sorry, can we put you in the hallway and as well if there is any food left over we'll give you a voucher for it".

Love this "to be fair" stuff. Actually you can search the threads of FlyerTalk and see that while members started threads, I actually would post my formal invite in March. For instance, the notice in 2009 B.S. (B.S.= Before Silliness) was posted on March 11, 2009 and I don't see a thread that I started being posted in February. Let me explain. The reason we don't post an invitation in February is because all our attention until Feb. 15 is spent solely on making sure the categories and entries and listing are correct, the local language translations are in place and the voting platform itself is ready for the voting. For instance, this year we started on that part in December, had in-house meetings here at the House of Miles with the outside tech group we hired to completely revamp our voting platform the first week of January and have worked full-time to get all that into place. It was quite a project as started from scratch. During that time Ed flew out to Seattle for a few hours to take pictures of the Museum of Flight as well as get some dimensions, etc. That is all we have done so far in terms of the actual event location. We'll now monitor voting over the next week to make sure all is working OK (there's always some snags ... those still using IE6 have some problems with the new responsive voting design, etc.) and then starting on or about March 1st we'll turn our attention to actually planning the event. At this point we have no idea how many tables/seats we'll have available which is why we don't actually post in Feb. We post when we have a good handle on the physical setup of the event. Typically it is posted at least a month in front of the event which is when we really have a good handle on things. Last year I wasn't able to post until early April because it was the first time we ever had the event not at a hotel ballroom. We had it in the atrium of the corporate headquarters for USA Today and it's really not that easy to have concrete plans and answers from a venue like that when dealing with employee flow through the atrium, fire marshall's who are interested (as so are we) in ensuring the setup makes for contingency plans, etc. My guess is that with these types of external considerations that it was not actually until 5 days before the event we really had an idea of the actual table setup and seat capacity, and we still had a problem with two tables when it got going. We did learn quite a bit .... hotel ball rooms are much easier! So while I will welcome those that want to send an interest to attend my way, I likely won't post any "invitation" until maybe mid-March because by then I should know better about how many seats our layout will have. And no, the idea of having a Woodstock with open seating for acres and acres likely won't work.

You are welcome to visit freddieawards.com and see for yourself the actual categories which travelers around the globe vote on. And just for your information, there are no blog categories. Over the years I have awarded a few "Impact" awards and actually FlyerTalk is the only non-industry organization I have ever awarded something to—something to be proud of. The Freddie Awards have always been respectful in both their goal to give voice to the frequent traveler and also to help the frequent traveler be part of the event. Hopefully you'll support these goals.

SO, there you have it, bringing forward a few explanations which don't seem all that much out of being reasonable, trying to help FlyerTalk be a place where valuable information can be found and helping a fellow member (The Forward Cabin) find out the facts of how he/she can attend the event. Hope this helps.

r.

kokonutz

Thanks for the details, Randy. But that's a lot of words.

So I will attempt to summarize:

Send randy an email if you want to go to the Freddies or keep an eye out for a thread about attending them. You will be required to register and pay a fee and seating may be limited.

Did I get that right?

wharvey

I want to say the Randy continues to be generous. I have only attended one award ceremony in my early years on this forum and he was the most gracious host. There was no cost to me and I met many FTers at the event.

Thanks again Randy!

Randy Petersen

Koko, you and I share the same goal for FlyerTalk—trying to ensure that the correct information is posted for which members can make decisions from. Less inaccurate info, fewer words to correct. It may be a struggle at times, but we're both still at it and both happy to do so. Thanks for your continued support of FlyerTalk.

Randy Petersen

NO ... thank you, you were the perfect guest. And if ever it works for you again, please let me know, no invite ... or black tie required.

kokonutz

Sooo...that's a yes? My summary is correct?

obscure2k

"Brevity is a great charm of eloquence."

Cicero

jackal

So there's a fee now? I skimmed Randy's post but didn't encounter that, and it's too much to go back through a second time. The last time I attended, there was no fee for me or my guest.

Microwave

I just re-read his post and it appears that there is not nor has there ever been a fee (my emphasis added):

kokonutz

I read this passage differently:

i had assumed there was a 'fee' missing from the bolder sentence.

He issue is furthe confused because randy stopped doing the Freddie's for a year or two, and the program that briefly took its place did charge a fee.

Which is why I asked. And am still confused by the non-answer. But maybe I am the only one.

I'm sure randy will come round and clear it up at some point.

fti

Nothing to clear up. There is a REGISTRATION, but it is very clear that there is no registration FEE. See the bolded texts quoted above in post #24. Seems to me it can't be any clearer than it is.

Also, you know what "assume" means...