Originally Posted by
eightblack
All I ask for is that the powers that be consider that we are now a truly global community, and that nominations reflect that (rather than a purely US centric view of the world)
Indeed! The awards will be given out among three wordwide geographical divisions: The Americas; Europe & Africa; and the Middle East, Asia & Oceania.
Originally Posted by
itsaboutthejourney
VERY interesting announcement.
Will there be a formal ceremony or just awards announced/posted online?
At this time, for the 2012 awards at least, there is no central gathering planned. Multiple simultaneous local mini-events however are a possibility...
Originally Posted by
tycosiao
The first thing that came to my mind is that would it actually matter to the different programmes out there?
Will airlines, hotels and what not, improve on their services and offerings to vie for this award?
I think any awards program strives to do two things: reward the programs that are really making it happen for their customers, and motivate those that are not measuring up to do their jobs better. Given the tremendous influence that FlyerTalkers have, I would say woe betide those who fail to heed the results of our polling.
To that end...
Originally Posted by
joshwex90
Can we have negative awards as well, where we show the US airlines that they're just not on par!
We're not terribly interested in specifically calling to the carpet those programs who failed to impress their customers this year. We prefer the carrot to the stick: striving to win, rather than trying not to lose, should produce better results than a bunch of programs jockeying to be sure they do the bare minimum. Like FlyerTalk itself, the Awards are about excellence in travel.