2013 Freddie Awards.
Thanks for your vote this year and your interest in knowing who the winners are. More information about the winners is in our blog on freddieawards.com. Also on Milepoint, frequent flyers are posting their own opinions of who should have won.

THIS YEAR’S WINNERS ARE:

Program of the Year
Americas Airline: American Airlines AAdvantage
Americas Hotel: Marriott Rewards
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: Virgin Australia Velocity
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: IHG Priority Club Rewards
Europe/Africa Airline: Air France/KLM Flying Blue
Europe/Africa Hotel: Le Club Accorhotels

Best Promotion
Americas Airline: American Airlines AAdvantage
Americas Hotel: Marriott Rewards
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: Jet Airways JetPrivilege
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: Taj Hotels & Resorts InnerCircle
Europe/Africa Airline: Air France/KLM Flying Blue
Europe/Africa Hotel: Le Club Accorhotels

Best Redemption Ability
Americas Airline: AviancaTACA LifeMiles
Americas Hotel: Marriott Rewards
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: Virgin Australia Velocity
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: Hyatt Gold Passport
Europe/Africa Airline: Air France/KLM Flying Blue
Europe/Africa Hotel: Starwood Preferred Guest

Best Customer Service
Americas Airline: Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
Americas Hotel: Marriott Rewards
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: Emirates Skywards
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: Hyatt Gold Passport
Europe/Africa Airline: SAS EuroBonus
Europe/Africa Hotel: IHG Priority Club Rewards

Best Elite Program
Americas Airline: American Airlines AAdvantage
Americas Hotel: Hyatt Gold Passport
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: Virgin Australia Velocity
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: Hyatt Gold Passport
Europe/Africa Airline: Air France/KLM Flying Blue
Europe/Africa Hotel: Starwood Preferred Guest

Best Loyalty Credit Card
Americas: Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Credit Card
Middle East/Asia/Oceania: JetPrivilege HDFC Bank Credit Card
Europe/Africa: Flying Blue American Express Card

IMHO, these types of awards programs are nothing more that popularity contests. After all, how many travelers are actually able to compare one airline or hotel program to another. So mostly people just vote for or against their own program, depending on how they feel about it that year.

That being the case, I am so pleased to see Smisek lose.

I sort of agree with you - but the Freddies with some 2.9 million votes holds a degree of credibility in the industry (at least thats what the hotel and airline execs tell their own bosses when they apply for travel approval )

Unlike the FT awards, which in my mind, are executed poorly and are not regarded well at all within the industry...

I didn't even vote for the FT awards. The winners get a certificate in the mail. Can the airlines and hotels really get excited about that? My loyalty has been with the Freddies as I think they put a much better package together including an awards ceremony which I followed on Twitter tonight.

I'm glad to see that AA is so popular with 3 million voters. I do think they have the best elite program with systemwides without a copay/higher fare basis and 100% bonus miles for midtier flyers. I've made them my primary carrier for a dozen years now (UA used to be my backup carrier until the MMer changes). Now I'm flying 100% on AA and partners. I'll be on an Alaska flight in the morning.

This is the second year AA has been program of the year and elite program of the year for the Americas. I suspect a lot of their votes come from UA flyers who want to send UA a message. They may not even fly AA.

Congratulations to the organizers of the Freddie awards for the excellent job they do!

Koko, you have your years mixed up? Gary just posted this:

Very quirky award statuette this year. Its seems Voss, Amex and USA today morphed together:

The entire list in the first e-mail seems to be incorrect. This is the list of awards copied from the e-mail that I received this morning:

Announcing the Winners.
2013 Freddie Awards.
Thanks for your vote this year and your interest in knowing who the winners are. More information about the winners is in our blog on freddieawards.com. Also on Milepoint, frequent flyers are posting their own opinions of who should have won.

THIS YEAR�S WINNERS ARE:

Program of the Year
Americas Airline: American Airlines AAdvantage
Americas Hotel: Marriott Rewards
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: Virgin Australia Velocity
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: IHG Priority Club Rewards
Europe/Africa Airline: Air France/KLM Flying Blue
Europe/Africa Hotel: Le Club Accorhotels

Best Promotion
Americas Airline: American Airlines AAdvantage
Americas Hotel: Marriott Rewards
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: Jet Airways JetPrivilege
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: Taj Hotels & Resorts InnerCircle
Europe/Africa Airline: Air France/KLM Flying Blue
Europe/Africa Hotel: Le Club Accorhotels

Best Redemption Ability
Americas Airline: AviancaTACA LifeMiles
Americas Hotel: Marriott Rewards
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: Virgin Australia Velocity
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: Hyatt Gold Passport
Europe/Africa Airline: Air France/KLM Flying Blue
Europe/Africa Hotel: Starwood Preferred Guest

Best Customer Service
Americas Airline: Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
Americas Hotel: Marriott Rewards
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: Emirates Skywards
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: Hyatt Gold Passport
Europe/Africa Airline: SAS EuroBonus
Europe/Africa Hotel: IHG Priority Club Rewards

Best Elite Program
Americas Airline: American Airlines AAdvantage
Americas Hotel: Hyatt Gold Passport
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: Virgin Australia Velocity
Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: Hyatt Gold Passport
Europe/Africa Airline: Air France/KLM Flying Blue
Europe/Africa Hotel: Starwood Preferred Guest

Best Loyalty Credit Card
Americas: Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Credit Card
Middle East/Asia/Oceania: JetPrivilege HDFC Bank Credit Card
Europe/Africa: Flying Blue American Express Card

Ooof. How embarrassing. I must have pulled last year's list of winners!

I have edited my OP to reflect this list!

Lol, as I have pointed out elsewhere (including on VFTW), the old award logo is VERY phallic:



As George would say: Oh Myyyy....

This version coincides with my memory. I was there. Hyatt definitely took four awards.

in this month's insider flyer, it breaks down the voting.

some really screwing results - chase sapphire was ranked as like the 6th credit card? for US hotel program, i think Starwood was 4th and Hyatt was 5th. Marriott scored 2nd for best elite program - crazy considering their breakfast policy as well as their high tier system. based on the voting, it really shows that marriott and southwest really do a good job of getting out the vote

Really, AF/KLM swept Europe? I guess they did the best job of highlighting the voting to their members. They most certainly do not have the best European programme - since the changes a couple of years back, they have one of the worst

You must have missed the subtitle of all of the categories: 'Most Effective Spam Emailer Amongst This Group.'


Here is the list (in order) of companies that spammed me shamelessly begging for votes:

UNITED
American Airlines
Marriott
Starwood
UNITED (again!)
Hilton

Obviously my spam is set up correctly, and the airlines (hint not KLM/AF) who have my proper personal email address were not interested in spamming me I managed to not even notice the Freddies were voting...

UA's spam doesn't seem to have worked...

But hey, it does make a change that it wasn't LH which won Europe. The results of the Freddies for Europe have been a bit all over the place since they restarted (in whatever format they were called).

What they get for winning - a cert in the mail or a trophy - matters much less than what the respect/value in the industry plays out as. I still think that the FlyerTalk awards are worth less in that space than the Freddies, but for different reasons.