2022: The 11th Annual Flyertalk Awards!

In December, FlyerTalk places over 130 polls in its online forums, asking its community of experts to nominate the single most Outstanding Benefit of each of the world’s travel affinity programs. The chosen benefit is then placed on the official ballot for that program in January.

In January and February each year, qualified voters are sent to this page and asked to submit a six-part online ballot, ranking their top four programs in each award category. There are two awards (Best Rewards Program, Outstanding Benefit) in three geographical regions (Americas, Europe and Africa, and Asia/Middle East/Oceania), creating the opportunity for up to 18 total FlyerTalk Awards per year.

Ballots are audited, and tabulated using a single-winner voting method (a modified Borda count) with a proprietary weighting system, awarding each a unique Quality Score. This ensures that small programs, meeting a modest minimum qualifying percentage of votes cast, have the same chance of winning as the largest players in their industry; high program participation does not necessarily equate to a high Quality Score. A perfect Quality Score, receiving nothing but first-place votes, is 10.

In early March, FlyerTalk announces the winners of the FlyerTalk Awards. This announcement is picked up by multiple worldwide news services, and the winning programs proudly display their trophies — digital as well as physical — for 12 months, until the slate is wiped clean, and the next year’s voting begins. Trophies are shipped to the winners’ PR departments, or picked up at FlyerTalk headquarters in Southern California – or even proudly hand-delivered by that program’s FlyerTalk moderator team!