The Freddie Awards (Frequent Traveler Awards) took a year or two off; this is either the first or second year they're back, with "that other mileage collecting web forum" as one of their main sponsors. http://www.freddieawards.com/

My inbox, Twitter and Facebook accounts are all getting bombarded with requests for votes. I've gotten requests from:

United (current balance in my MP account: 100 miles and I've not credited a flight to UA in years)
Delta (my last flight on DL was about a year ago)
AA (I've not set foot on an AA plane in over 7 years and just keep my account alive with dining)
Marriott (Got a soft landing to Silver after 6 nights as Gold last year)
Hilton (diamond)
Hyatt (credited 1 night last year)
Wyndham (account only used for Grand Slam)

Plus probably about 12 tweets and dozens of "plugs" on the various airline/hotel facebook pages.

From US... crickets....

Since the Freddies are based on "people's choice" and no other criteria-- just whoever gets the most votes wins-- I'm kind of surprised that US isn't even trying at all. Maybe it's a case of "nobody really pays attention to those awards anyway so we don't want to spend the resources" but if you can get a nice little award or title to put after your company name just by drumming up votes, why miss the opportunity? Especially if you've been blanked year after year after year (to my recollection, US has never won a single award from the Freddies).

Other cool things I've seen other airlines and hotels doing lately:

-AC sends twitter discounts (similar to the now-discontinued Twares on UA) about 2-3 times a month

-United recently ran a random upgrade promo: they'd tweet an airport and a gate, and if you were already ticketed on the flight and were one of the first however-many people to find their Twitter rep, they'd upgrade you free to E+. All the ones I saw were for International flight so this was a pretty neat prize, and one I'm assuming didn't kill any revenue to deliver as I'm guessing the E+ seats, unsold a half-hour before boarding, would have gone out empty

-Hilton would tweet a hotel location a day in advance, and the first 100 people who showed up at the appointed time and showed that they "follow" Hilton on Twitter got a free night certificate

-DL seems to have ongoing contests and promos on their Facebook page

-DL, AA and WN all have very active Facebook reps who speak on behalf of the company, offer assistance, resolve problems, and help explain rules


Now, I know none of this will affect the quality of the flight in the long run, but the social media presence and the active participation in the Freddies are ways to help any company make their customers feel engaged. If I feel like I'm connected to a company beyond the transaction at hand, I'm more likely to be loyal to them, and choose them over another vendor for future transactions, and I'm more likely to be forgiving when things aren't 100% perfect. When there's so little difference in hard or soft product on a domestic Y flight (which is what the bulk of the general public would be buying), finding a way to make the pre-trip and post-trip experience "fun" and "engaging" may be the only way to set yourself apart, and turn a comparison shopper into a loyal customer. As an already loyal customer, I actually think these types of interactions are fun, and just wish I could have some of that fun with a vendor I already support. Makes me kinda jealous to see UA handing out E+ upgrades to Amsterdam....

I think once again US is missing the boat, being very short-sighted in an attempt to save a dollar (because there's no way they don't know the Freddies exist, or that they don't see what the competition is doing on Facebook). And as a fairly loyal US customer, I wish that, just once, US could do something innovative; something worth talking about, in a good way. It's getting kind of embarassing to admit I fly US when all we see are stories about people getting kicked off planes and getting yelled at.