Freddie Awards Voting Has Begun!
 

It's February 1 and voting has begun (and ends Feb 28th).

http://www.freddieawards.com/

I voted for United as program of the year and best elite level. It has a truly industry-leading award chart -- fewest miles for the best international premium class awards -- and its 1K program can't be beat for international upgrades from reasonable fares without a co-pay.

On the other hand, not a single one of my votes went to Northwest, Delta, or Continental. Together they've been increasing mileage costs on premium-class awards and (Continental and Northwest especially) offer generally poor award availability. This really is the leftover alliance (with stingy partners Air France and KLM). On the other hand, best redemption has to go to American... (with a nod to all Star Alliance carriers for making it possible to easily travel to Asia in business or first class on points.)

I didn't vote in the best newsletter category. I really don't have an opinion on this one. I guess DL's is pretty good for offering bonuses, I like United's emails, and I don't particularly find anything useful from Continental. But I don't really have a strong opinion.

Here's one a bit out of left field, I'm not really an active member in the Aeroplan program but I voted Air Canada as having the best website for one and only one reason. Air Canada allows you to search and book Star Alliance awards online. This is huge. (ANA is a new entry into this field, too new IMHO to warrant a vote.)

I had considered voting Hyatt as best hotel website, but decided not to since they took the ability to book gift certificate stays off-line. Removing website functionality gets a big :td: from me. Starwood is a perennial winner here but I really can't understand why, except as part of a general trend towards rewarding the program (which has a great award scheme and a good Platinum program but which is weak on the earning side outside of the SPG Amex).

Every year Randy and his team make great efforts to ensure the validity of the voting process. And I wouldn't expect him to divulge internal processes here (since that might make it easier to game the system...). But I wonder how allowing multiple votes is avoided, since all you seem to need is a unique email address. I wonder if one couldn't just create a bunch of Yahoo accounts (being careful to avoid IP matches)?

I also wonder about categories like best bonus where programs have several different bonuses up for voting. Now, maybe each bonus really is standing on its own. But it seems like a program offering lots of bonuses throughout the year could wind up competing with itself (eg Starwood partisans might be split between nights and flights, cash and points, and 5k miles for transferring 20k .. and a program with only one bonus listed might run away with the award).

Finally, I'm not a fan of 'value voting' since each person's scale is different. Some folks might think they're rating a bonus highly if they give it an 8 but another person might value it the same way and give it a 10. I understand this procedure gives smaller programs with fewer members a chance to be recognized, but it seems quite imprecise and I know that ties are often broken by several decimal places... creating an illusion of precision that likely doesn't exist. That said, there aren't usually too many surprises so it may work in practice.

Anyway, go cast your vote! :cool:

What a great opportunity for programs to hear our voices -- they do take these awards seriously, as evidenced by the campaigns that many of them mount with their members to get out the vote, and the ad campaigns they run which include the award when they win it.

What? You did not vote for United.com as the best website? :D

Uh... no. @:-)

Biggest drawback there is functionality. More often than not it times out rather than pulling up my itineraries. :eek:

Simple and functional, clean and elegant should be the key here. Can you get the information you want? Can you easily find flights and make a booking? How about awards, is there a powerful yet easy to use interface with search algorithms that actually find what you're looking for?

Thanks, gleff, for the reminder. Too bad your blog is not on the list. Would've voted you the best!

Indeed, most people cannot discriminate among consecutive options on a scale of 1 to 10. That's why surveys often use only a 5-point Likert scale. Also, an odd number of choices allows for a "neutral" response, which is not available on a 1 to 10 scale.

And yet another 10 from my ballot goes to Accor Hotels :D

Don't forget to click on the link in the email you receive... your vote does not count until you do that.

William

I agree. DL and CO did not receive any of my votes....and they also don't receive any of my dollars if I can help it. I wouldn't have voted for NW for anything, but I continue to be impressed by their website and gave them the nod for that.

Actually even Likert scales are bad but just not as bad. Some people tend to more easily give out 1's and 5's while others hardly ever do. The bigger the scale the less accurate it is. Strict comparisons would be more accurate, aside from the fact that most people do not have experience with all programs. Maybe it would be better if people would indicate what programs that they have experience with and from them which is the best. Then you can calculate a percentage of votes a program gets from the ballots where the voter indicated experience with that program.

Just an idea, I guess there is no perfect solution.

I give out 10s and 1s, period. I want my vote to have an impact.

For airlines, I voted a few AA-related things. No real reason other than the fact that they haven't screwed me over lately. I didn't capitalize on any major airline promos this past year, but I did redeem a crapload of AAdvantage miles and always seemed to get exactly what I wanted flight-wise. Next up is PVR for Spring Break - 4 seats on the same flights on our first choice of dates, all done online, all with good seat assignments confirmed, no hassle.

For hotels, I moved all of my votes from last year from Starwood to Marriott except one - SPG Amex continues to get my vote, even though they're sort of in my doghouse for excluding me from certain promotions. On a base level, I couldn't find a GOOD reason to vote for another credit card. I didn't think Diner's deserved this award BEFORE they watered down the card the way they have. Anyway, for the hotels, I have found too many problems with Starwood lately. Basic process problems. And I was fortunate enough to be able to go completely nuts on their Visa 2x promo that just ended. :)

Thanks for the reminder gleff ^

I used to vote the Diners as best, but definitely not this year after their "enhancements". I now keep it solely for car rentals.

SPG Amex rates #1 credit card in my book.

For next year's Freddies I'll have to take a second look at the new US Mastercard, 2-years fee-free and 50% mileage bonus for the first 12 months of charges is certainly innovative.

Thanks for the reminder, I voted! ^

Thank you,

I have voted as well!!!!! ^