I voted 16 hours ago - and still haven't received an email to confirm my vote. Does this mean my vote was discarded?

I would email HOM on this. My email confirmation came back almost instantly.

Voted and confirmed.

Definitely - although I think their little contest for 50 cent flights is lame, the product itself breaks out of the mold of airline cards, which are all woefully underpowered compared to SPG Amex. Since it's a Mastercard, there is no way for them to give away as much per-dollar juice as an Amex, but the added benefits around the edges make it a card worth carrying whether you are a basic US member or a top-tier elite. The basic member gets a few elite perks, and the top-tier member can rack some significant bonus miles. ^

pinniped and gleff - to which mastercard do you refer w/ this 1st yr promo ? I somehow missed the original mention of the affinity.

FWIW, after the yanking of starwood PLAT from the AMEX CENT package, now I'm giving strong through to opening an AMEX/HH. Time to share the wealth a bit. Has there ever been a confirmation of HH Diamond bestowed for high volume AMEX/HH charging ?

I haven't voted yet, per se, but leaning to spg/amex card, starwood still for the hotel chain, and for the airline SWA. SWA is in such a transition w/ their new yield management scheme w/ seating its a little early but I still can get seats on SWA at least when and to where I need them.

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separately, pinniped, when you posted this statement <And I was fortunate enough to be able to go completely nuts on their Visa 2x promo that just ended.>...do you refer to the Canadian spg/visa ? If not, what Visa card had a 2x promo ?

There are so few travelers who are actually qualified to vote.

Most of us stick to our favorite programs, having our biases and never truly know the quality of service/flights/properties that the other guys offer.

That being said, I'll still vote.

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Sweet Willie, not to create a raging debate per se, here...but I find your last post eerie.

Could you not better say that there are so many *variations* of travel needs, experiences, goals, restrictions, and on and on that its tough to bring all experiences together in one voting effort which I suppose is one underlying freddie goal ? My travel patterns may be different from yours or the next guy's....but they are nonetheless my patterns, which respond to and are based on my collective needs for both business and pleasure travel.

How in the world could there ever be a "qualified traveler" ? Who would define "qualified" ?

Take a traveler who spends 50 nights a year in one hotel chain - BUT is bound to that hotel chain by corporate contract and has NO vote to jump to another chain. Contrast that with my experience, free to choose brands...10 nights (1/5th the stays of the other traveler in my example)...so I look around, shop, make informed decisions, and then select the brand of hotel...who is the more qualified ? I selected mine based on numerous input...the other traveler had no choice at all...all he is doing is reporting on his stays, while I am voting w/ my wallet based on promotions, locations, prices, etc. We both feed into the freddie collective input process...I submit neither of us is "more qualified than the other"... no ?

Am I correct in understanding that you did not like the way I said what I did or... could you clarify?

FWIW, I have never been called eerie, clarify?

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Sweet Willie, let me respond to your Q with a Q:
"There are so few travelers who are actually qualified to vote" <-- please clarify

It's the US Airways Juniper card. www.50centflights.com

Rumors, but no confirmation. I've called a couple of times over the past few months and can't find anyone on either the HH side of the Amex side who will fess up to knowledge of any Diamond level of charging.

It was the Marriott Visa card - U.S. based. From Oct 1 (I think) to Jan 31, you earned double base-stay points on all Marriott stays when you used the card to pay for the stay. So, every dollar spent at Marriott for those four months earned 25 pts./$ for a Gold member.

I interpreted Sweet Willie's post to mean that very few of us really experience enough of the travel providers to critically assess enough of them to make a really qualified decision. That same thought has crossed my mind every time I've voted in the Freddies. It's a popularity contest: I vote for the one I like the most, even though I have no knowledge of a dozen or more of the choices.

I agree with that partially - I think most of us have a good feel for the biggies, so when I vote for AA, it is definitely with solid working knowledge of most of the other major programs. For hotels it gets harder: how do I compare Marriott to Fairmont? And I don't know much of anything about a lot of those on the list...

Still, I cast my votes... :)

See: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=509447

Not confirmation sufficient for my liking, but there are certainly plenty of reports. See, for instance, this current discussion:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=520435

I believe I have a solid enough foundation to assess the wide spectrum of loyalty programs. Note, though, that I choose my region -- I'm in North America -- and am not asked about, say, Emirates Skywards with which I'm insufficiently familiar.

While I feel I'm relatively well-traveled, I have not experienced a significant number of flights on all the major carriers. For instance, I've had very few flights on Air Canada metal. Still, I'm familiar with the high (and low) points of Aeroplan and even chose to vote for it as having the best website (strictly due to the ability to search *A awards online - a great leap forward that has since been matched by NH).

Still, this isn't a survey of 'first class cabin seat products' which might require sampling each competing carrier several times. This is about the value proposition offered by loyalty programs. I'll concede that many travelers aren't familiar with the offerings outside of their usual carrier or hotel chain. But I do feel that a reasonable number of Flyertalkers and Inside Flyer subscribers likely are.

pinniped and gleff - thanks for follow-up as always. USAir = no go for me for grographical reasons though I am intrigued to see how available they make awards as a new entity (still have the US AIR ccard but its collecting dust); Marriott same until starwood mucks up a good deal, if they do. Starwood is still king across all brands, hotels, airlines, and all credit card affinity programs, for most bang for buck currency. I think you two well-informed affinity experts still agree w/me on this one ?

gleff, rhetorical Q regarding being qualified and such, and I sincerely value your conclusions and opinions on this one:
< do you think we ever have to truly "experience" the flight or overnight stay to be "qualified" for such a subjective, off-the-cuff award voting process as freddie awards ? I mostly gave up on freddie awards when Continental Nonepass won year after year, knowing I, as a simple mid-tier elite, could not get a simple award seat to a simple destination choice of mine, over years of trying (they have improved slightly in last year or so I must confess :)). Yet others felt differently and were clearly enjoying success w/ Continental, so Nonepass won year after year. WHo was more qualified to vote on Continental ? I say all of us. So, yes, it was a popularity contest and presumably "the majority" won. That I never flew Continental, though I surely tried, never made me more or less qualified. In fact, my null experience made me highly qualified to withhold my vote.

Half the factors, maybe even more, of how we decide the brands we buy, whether it be soup, toilet paper, or airline or hotel, are based on study/experience/perception/intuition and on and on, it seems to me. Does one literally have to buy and use the Walmart's cheap brand of single-ply toilet paper to know they won't like it and thus would never vote for it in my newly-announced "Mr. Whipple" toilet paper awards ?

Well, I don't actually want to FLY USAirways -- but I have no problem using their miles for int'l F awards on their *A partners! Had no problem booking (2) F awards on NH and TG on my preferred set of dates for a trip I'm taking in April...