I have mixed feelings on this. On one hand, I thought the pushing of the voting by airline and hotel companies tended to cheapen the awards. I sort of felt that a number of people voting might not be real frequent flyers or hotel stayers, and might instead be hotel employees and vendors.
On the other hand, I sort of found the publicity about the awards offered and the airlines advertising it offered represented some good publicity for frequent flyers, validated the sometimes crazy things I do for miles and finally held airlines and hotel companies feet to the fire when they weakened their loyalty programs.
I'm a bit worried that while there are good effects of this for Randy's employees, airlines and hotel companies will be less worried now about the impact of weakening their programs.
__________________ UA Premier Executive, Hyatt Platinum, ICH Platinum
I respect the decision, and especially the thought process concerning the ongoing careers of the employees (digression - the best boss/company owner I ever had (lamentably deceased) had the same type of concerns when she sold her company, and in fact she took less money in order to protect her employees).
It is a shame that the Freddie Awards could not have found a new sponsor / home (certainly Randy's knowledge of the industry should have given him some ideas as to a suitable new home).
Under that scenario, 2010 could have served as a year of transition, in which Randy's staff worked with the new sponsor in order to facilitate a smooth handover for 2011 and beyond.
__________________ * * * I Survived the Great FlyerTalk Outage of November 2009!!!!! * * *
Will Freddie Jr. Be forced into retirement as well?
Banish the thought! In fact FJr is on another trip at the moment, and Randy was presented w/ a map of where FJr has traveled to around the world at the recent Mod Do in MUC. IIRC FJr has traveled over 800,000 miles.
Randy...from a managment/employer point of view..kudos to you on worrying first and foremost about your employees. More should do that
From a FF point of view....I have to admit this saddens me. You claim you did it to protect our voice, but in reality you stiffled that voice. You decided because YOU didnt want to be our voice, we should have no voice at all. You did not provide us with the same "continuity plan" you are so concerned with for your employees. You should have found safe hands to put our voice in, but still let us have that voice.
+1
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Every artist was first an amateur. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
And in the what-if mode, a few people heard of my thoughts and expressed an interest in buying the Freddie Awards. That just did not feel right to me. It wasn't created for any reason other than to give voice to the frequent flyer -- you and the person you sat next to on your last flight or stood behind at the identified special check-in line for members at your last hotel stay. I couldn't sell that voice, it's not for sale and I just wasn't prepared to risk that future, thus a personal decision on my behalf to discontinue the Freddies after 21 years -- solely to honor a commitment to my employees that I would better prepare them for their futures.
It's been a great ride and I do hope that both the voice of the frequent flyer has been well served and that the efforts of the industry have been honored and recognized.
Wow - you got any openings in your company?
__________________
The views expressed herein are mine, entirely mine, and only mine. Go get your own.
As a small aside I'm surprised at the muted reaction to the cancellation of the Freddie awards as I would've expected a much stronger response to the end of an era. Does that mean the word hasn't filtered out to the wider FT audience? Or that the readership on ORP is relatively small? Or something else?
Today is the first I knew about it, as I didn't get any email about it, I don't visit ORP much anymore, and I just happened upon it today by chance.
__________________
The views expressed herein are mine, entirely mine, and only mine. Go get your own.
Originally Posted by Lehava
Randy...from a managment/employer point of view..kudos to you on worrying first and foremost about your employees. More should do that
From a FF point of view....I have to admit this saddens me. You claim you did it to protect our voice, but in reality you stiffled that voice. You decided because YOU didnt want to be our voice, we should have no voice at all. You did not provide us with the same "continuity plan" you are so concerned with for your employees. You should have found safe hands to put our voice in, but still let us have that voice.
The real thing that concerns me is that SOMEBODY will fill the void. There may be multiple entities that see money to be made from having a way to promote this or that airline as #1. Let's face it, that status means a lot to the airlines and hotels as we can see from thier advertising.
Turning it over to nobody, means somebody will do it.
As a small aside I'm surprised at the muted reaction to the cancellation of the Freddie awards as I would've expected a much stronger response to the end of an era. Does that mean the word hasn't filtered out to the wider FT audience? Or that the readership on ORP is relatively small? Or something else?
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
Agree.
Cheers.
I only found out about the cancellation by looking through the tabs on the home page. I will probably either be shot or exiled from FT for this, as a retiree I would be willing to donate my time to support the Freddies if they are held in 2010. Yes, I did volunteer to help with the next DL DO also in 2010 around the same time.
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Every artist was first an amateur. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Did I miss something? The Freddies were an award program successfully run by Randy for many years to honor those companies in the industry who had good programs/promos, etc, and due to the reasons he indicated have come to an end, regretful as that might be (and I will certainly miss them). Is there a reason he's supposed to keep them going for FTers? He was gracious enough to invite FTers to the Freddies, but it was never about us - other than we, like other frequent travelers of the various programs, voted (& got a free meal/drinks when he invited us to the awards). So I truly don't understand the stifling the voice, yada yada stuff.
BTW - if someone wants to create their own version of the Freddies & has the $$/time/staff/industry connections to pull it off, good on ya as the saying goes. No one is stopping you.
Cheers.
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Sharon
Last edited by SkiAdcock; Nov 23, 09 at 7:56 pm.
Reason: corrected companies for programs to make sense...
The real thing that concerns me is that SOMEBODY will fill the void. There may be multiple entities that see money to be made from having a way to promote this or that airline as #1.
Let's face it, that status means a lot to the airlines and hotels as we can see from their advertising.
Turning it over to nobody, means somebody will do it.
Glenn
Here is your big chance. You too can be a "somebody"!
Agree 100% with SkiAdcock.
None of our business, and if it means so much and is so obviously lucrative in the eyes of some .. give it your best shot.
I've gotten a lot more out of FT than a few free drinks and a meal, and good to see the FT core still remains, much as it has done for 10 years.
That is what FT does better than anyone, and the less fragmention the better.
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