IBLib

This poll will determine which benefit for this rewards program will appear on the January ballot for the FlyerTalk Awards.

Please note that once you have cast a poll vote, it cannot be changed.

If you have a suggestion for a name change for one of the benefits listed, according to your specific knowledge of the program, post it below; for instance, if this program’s “Bonus Points” benefit has a specific name, that specificity will help voters when ballots come out in January.

You may vote in any or all of the nominations polls across FlyerTalk. Simply navigate to your favorite program’s forum and cast your vote!

Polls open Monday November 28, 2011
Polls close Friday December 9, 2011

Happy nominating!

For more information about the 2012 FlyerTalk Awards:
www.flyertalk.com/awards

coolfish1103

I hope the threads and polls did not get merged...

IBLib

What do you mean by you hope the threads and polls did not get merged? This is strictly a FlyerTalk Awards poll with the option to post other program benefits not listed in it. It is separate from any other EVA related threads.

Mabuk dan gila

Well, since they have no bonus points, stopped upgrading me, and I don't recall any fees ever being waived..... I guess the answer is Lounge Access.

ak333

Although I still get the occasional upgrade, my vote was for lounge access as well. It's definitely not for bonus points.

sawan

yeah, I feel the same way as well----- only "lounge access" can be chosen!

coolfish1103

I saw more polls than just these before and either they got deleted or they got merged. After all, one makes me wonder why only these airlines are selected. What's even more laughable is that Air Asia's FFP just recently got introduced, I am not even sure if there are enough experienced flyers in that program to even make the voting legit.

IBobi

Hey, coolfish -- were there any airlines in particular that you think got missed? We tried to be as comprehensive as possible.

Paul

coolfish1103

In short, take EVA Air and Air Asia out of the poll then you don't have to read what I wrote below.

Please ignore this post if you feel you are offended by helping this forum to set up a poll. Too bad there's no spoiler tag.

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I am not too sure if there's a need to make suggestions after I see Virgin Australia wins a forum right over other airlines in the Asia Pacific regions this year. I somewhat felt reluctant to give any thoughts on this topic or even update the sticky thread I have in this section. In any case, I know Flyertalk is mostly non-Asia based and I know I did not donate $ to the forum or help manage the forum... so what can I ask?

First, I don't understand the criteria of EVA Airways or Air Asia getting picked for this. What about EVA's main rival China Airlines? What about the 3 big airlines in China? or even Garuda Indonesia? Even if there's absolutely nothing to write home for the above mentioned airlines, all of them except Garuda Indonesia (easy to achieve tier 1) at least have alliance accrual abilities where EVA and Air Asia has none as of now. To be honest, I don't even think EVA's FFP warrants a poll in the Asia Pacific region. EVA probably has the worst FFP I have ever seen if we take budget carriers out in Asia Pacific.

In terms of every benefit (or downgrades) that EVA Airways will be proposing starting from Year 2012, I am not too sure if there is even a best benefit (?) that EVA Airways offer. Prior to the latter half of 2011, the best benefit one can vote for this airline would be Gold being complimentary upgraded to Diamond after 8 years of tier status. Now, that's officially gone except for 1-2 years of members and some benefits were also ripped within those members.

The only one I can see is Diamond Member Privileges over others in all sorts of FFP amenities such as getting upgrades cleared earlier, 4 upgraded vouchers and etc. However, I am not even too sure if that warrants a vote because it's applicable only to Diamonds and this poll about the entire program.

Also, maybe I am being quite sharp, but none of the poll options listed above actually make lots of sense. It just seems to me it's a poll based on airlines operated in the U.S. and no real homework was done.

Bonus points? EVA has none unless you count birthday miles... not sure why it is even an option (though CI, CZ, and GA has this offered in the top tier but not polled).

Complimentary upgrades? Not sure if it's really complimentary like U.S. domestic or overbooking forced. Prior to 2008, maybe for Gold and quite often for Diamond before the Evergreen Deluxe to Elite shrink due to overbooking. Since 2008? Maybe for Diamond and rare for Gold. Now? Probably rare for Diamond as well due to the diluted population.

Lounge Access... I think the only reason people voted for this one is because there aren't really other viable options (but why is extra luggage (?) accrue non-status based mileages to Asiana (?) not options if lounge is one?). I guess maybe that's the best benefit EVA can offer to all their members compare to some American Airlines (or Singapore Airlines) where you get no lounge access unless it's an international flight or unless you are at least in Tier 1 or 2.

Though, in reality, lounge access for EVA is really a joke for the low tier members. Speaking in CI or CZ's perspective, every member in the lowest tier can use the lounge no matter what ticket they have (so why is BR selected for the poll with this option?). For BR, that's not the case. Silver in Economy? Sorry, benefits have been ripped and officially only allowed in Bangkok and Taipei. Book Evergreen Deluxe or Elite, be a Gold or Diamond member or wait at the boarding gate at all other destinations.

Fee Waiver? EVA Air is not an American based airline and has not yet introduced all kinds of convenience fees for the passengers to pay or avoid with higher status.

IBobi

I can clarify a few things:

1. All airlines with a FF rewards program have been nominated for both Best Program and Outstanding Benefit.

2. At this stage, there are no winners or losers -- this poll represents on the benefits nominated for this particular program, to determine which single benefit will end up on the January ballot.

3. No nominations polls have been deleted or merged; we consolidated some Hotel programs with more than one poll into a single sticky post, so as not to post 2-3 stickies in a forum, but all polls that were posted are still posted.

4. China Airlines, China Southern, Air China and Cathay Pacific all have polls and are nominated. There's no non-Asia bias. If you're aware of an airline with a rewards program that was missed, what is it?

5. In terms of the benefits listed in this poll, bonus miles in various forms, and upgrades are both mentioned in the program literature for EVA; fee waivers can mean waivers for award tickets or other types of fees -- it may be that there are *no* waiver of any kind for EVA, but in that case, nobody will nominate it and it won't matter that it's in the poll. I'm more concerned with missing benefits that *should* be in the poll but are not. Even then, they can be suggested here in the discussion thread.

6. Benefits that are only available to top-tier program members are still benefits, and can be voted upon by any FTer even if they themselves do not have access to those benefits.

Take at look at www.flyertalk.com/awards for full details of the FlyerTalk Awards; in short, this nominations polling will close on Friday, and full voting will take place in January and February 2012. Be sure to vote

coolfish1103

I know CX has it's own forum so CX's poll will go where it is suppose to be at.

But, these are the # of polls I see as of now on OAASPFFP: http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/4730/pollsz.png

I know I voted the CI thread in this forum and saw the CZ thread so I know they existed before. If they are not merged or deleted, then the only other option is they got moved. Since you said there are no bias then I am not too sure where else am I (or the fellows who visit this forum) are suppose go track down the poll? The link you supplied served no help (sign up/contact/like us?) in attempt to track down the polls.

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Anyways, I just spent about 30 minutes trying to find the poll and *BINGO*, where is the CI or CZ polls I saw before located as of now? In the Skyteam forum! I am not too sure why they are moved and I know far more members visit OAASPFFP forum than Skyteam for any information on CI and CZ. No one voted for the CZ poll as of now and only 1 other person besides me voted for the CI one, probably enough to warrant a sticky move. With that in mind, I guess the Air China ones are in Star Alliance section...?

You might as well have 1 universal sticky in all forums that provides a post where it directs all Flyertalk members into a specific poll forum to make votes for all airlines in different threads. It's tiresome to even try to hunt down the polls when the polls are playing hide-n-seek with us.

Voting period is almost over and I know the result is going to be skewed. I won't go further on this issue.

IBobi

I understand the confusion.

We had originally posted all the polls in their programs' forums, and posted the ones with no dedicated forums in "other programs" for their region.

We received some notes that the best place for the "other" programs would be their Alliance forums where applicable. So they were moved there.

Today I am having stickies with links to the polls placed back in each of the "other" forums, so we'll have coverage in both places.

Hopefully that will take care of the problem -- thanks for pointing it out!

Paul