Hmmm....this might be getting too complicated, but perhaps what I'm really saying is that I want the broader portion of the major programs (that is, everything beyond the simple domestic tickets that few of us redeem) considered in a separate Freddie Award.

That would recognize the fact that all of these airlines truly are competitors inside the U.S. If you had to select the best airline program for a domestic US award, Southwest would certainly win.

Then, in a separate category, we would be asked to consider the broader programs among the Big Six. We would vote based on elite treatment, int'l upgrade award policies, award seat availability, strength of network, blackout dates, etc. We would take the domestic side of things off the table: we all know WN has the strongest offering in that area if you can live with their blackout dates.

This is why they won't let me be the Supreme Commander of the Freddies. I would hose things up pretty bad. Next Category! Best Program for Upgrade Awards to the UK on Deep-Discount Fares!!

Well, Randy does keep joking about someone else hosting the awards in the future . . .

Or Best Lost and Delayed Bagage Award

"Industry Impact Award

"Randy calls Air Canada Aeroplan to the podium to pick up an Industry Impact Award. In 2003, Aeroplan introduced personalized elite-level benefits, allowing members to select from several "Experience" benefits packages. Randy makes no secret that he thinks this is a groundbreaking achievement, and openly calls on other programs to follow Aeroplan's lead."

Quite honestly, this may be the least deserved honor of the day. If this is the direction other programs are going, then watch out. On the surface this looks like a positive innovation, but actually it is retrograde and quite discriminatory. Some of the better options were available only to those cohabiting, since they involve spouse benefits and hefty status miles bonuses. Also not mentioned, is the fact AC made upgrading more costly on NAmerican routes, and reduced the number of SWUs one can earn at threshold levels.

True, some of the choices worked better for some than others, but the overall selection sucked, and making selections in a timely fashion was not evident among many FTers who could not get access to their enrollment forms until February!

Make sure this program "improvement" does not spread!

"Priority Club offered award nights at 50-percent off during a 60-day period in the summer, and members responded, largely because it�s rare to see such a generous offer in the middle of the high-travel season."

Again, gotta really wonder about the folks doing the voting. Yes, this was a pretty good deal, but the text above is a bit misleading: These half-price awards were for InterConti hotels only, and not at the other groups in the IC stable. And this is hardly IC's "high travel season". In fact, it is just the opposite. IC relies on high-end business travellers more than most chains, and so July and August are their low travel season! Thus it made sense to offer award stays at 15K per night instead of the normal 30K. Check out their paid promos and you can see how IC adds lots of perks to rooms booked during this Northern Hemisphere summer period, as well as Weekends year round.

By the way, Air Canada is not the first carrier to offer a slate of choice benefits for elite members to choose from.

After United's "Summer From Hell" in 2000, they offered elite members a slate of extra goodies to choose from. It was known as "The Gift of Choice."

Old discussions of this benefit:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=95656
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=91527
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=91060
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=91015
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90843
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90840

Interestingly, United didn't really keep up with the personalized benefits. And their version of it was 'extra benefits' on top of the usual, rather than a menu which traded off with existing benefits.

I am a little puzzled. My understanding is that the voters are the subscribers to INSIDE FLYER and Flyertalkers
.
It was pointed out in an anbove post, that'we' Flyertalkers are the subscribers to INSIDE FLYER for the most part. And for the most part do not fly those Coach Budget airlines, that are sweeping up the Freddy Awards. And in effect, the Domestic Carriers, which fly internationally with First Class, Business, and Coach are frozen out of much chances of winning the coveted awards.

Perhaps it is time for additional and further differentiation of low cost low service airlines from those long established Large Domestic/International airline, that serve more then just the lucretive routes
.
The masses would be flying as cheaply as they can rather then collecting miles and anything not tied down in the Airline Lounges! But why are not their Forums more active with Posts, if they harvest the Awards. And they would have to be a member of this Board or subscibe to Inside Flyer to know when and how to vote.

I don't get it! Must be missing some important information like who else is voting besides us mainliners.

Well, there were over 275,000 voters.

It isn't just Flyertalkers and readers of Inside Flyer.

Many of the programs promote voting among their members. I think several sponsors promote it, too (e.g. USA Today online, Amex Skyguide).

So it isn't just us!

And the way voting works, it isn't that airlines like Frontier and America West are getting the highest percentage of votes -- just that they're clearing the 1% threshold necessary to be eligible for an award and then receiving the highest 'value vote' (rated highest by members voting for the program on a scale of 1-10).

That's why smaller programs can win awards.

This is what gets me- while it's great to open the field up for the little guys with such a low threshold, there doesn't seem to be any weight given to balance of program value.

Is a program with a 7.68 value rating that helps/affects 2% of the flying population a better program than one valued at a 7.59 by 12%?

I don't know.

I don't mean to sound like an apologist for the big guys, but in the attempt to keep it from being a popularity contest (as Randy stated, IIRC), the 1% seems a bit low, allowing a really insignificant program (in terms of overall passengers served) to win easily (if it's a good program). Of course, I'm all for the "editor's choice"-type awards, awarding innovation, regardless of size.

If an FF programs falls in the forest, and no one flies it....

I guess there's a reason why I work in qual instead of quant!

I was surprised to read this in the Voter Profile page:

Perhaps it is just me, but that number seems really high. While many frequent fliers and FTers are wise beyond their years, I didn't think they were all so old.

I want to know the really important things. What were the door prizes, and who won them? I saw a post that gfowler won something - I hope it was something terrific, given all the miles we have due to him. And I also saw that hundreds of thousands of miles were given out. Tell me more!

25K *points, IIRC. Seemed like most other door prizes were won by people from the programs....

Doc won something as well.

Other prizes included 2 Frontier tickets, some NASCAR tickets, 100K Diners points, week-long car rentals, and a few other things I can't recall.

Yep, doc gets to go to NASCAR.

Best Bonus Promotion - Airline (International)

Judging by the numbers, a few votes either way might have changed the results in this category.

Swiss TravelClub takes the top spot with its AmEx Platinum Card 30,000-mile welcome bonus. KLM Flying Dutchman places second with its own AmEx bonus, wherein members who applied could keep their present elite status until March 2006.

How close was it? TravelClub earned a ValueVote of 8.004 and Flying Dutchman finished right behind with an 8.002 ValueVote.

http://www.freddieawards.com/events/...p?event_key=10

I am so angry that Joh and I did not vote for KLM. Our vote might have tied them the award?

Those billions of miles they gave us and others last year was one of THE great promos out there of all time. We sure voted last year.