OMNI: Catman's Freddies Review!
 

No, I could not wait to post this!!! I've had such a fun time... it was one of the best luncheons I've been to and perhaps the most fun awards ceremony to attend. I hope to be able to go next year.

Also got a surprise... you'll have to read the rest of this LONG report to find out what!

I was listed by my REAL name with my NYONE
News affiliation and the "CATMAN" reference!


Thank all the Inside Flyer Crew for making me feel welcome! I got a chance to meet some of the airline executives, two very fellow sales reps from Lufthansa, The Corporate affairs V-P of Diners Club who made a very good pitch for me to join Diners, and the President of Continental Greg Brenneman. The airline, hotel and other representatives were really interested in what the travelers had to saw.

It was great to meet NJ David who made an appearance and BOOMER who stuck around to talk to me after the awards.

The Inside Flyer staff was very friendly. Karen spotted my very dashing black tie with golden cats on it, talked to me and helped me
get situated.

Randy also spotted me out, and he's even nicer in person than from I noticed in his writings. A very friendly guy who beat me to my pledge to shake his hand to thank him for his work. He shook first, and thanked everyone here on FlyerTalk for their contributions and me for being the most talkative of you guys. (I think he finds some of my postings a hoot.)

He also talked to me afterwards. He really knows how to work a room, trying to meet and talk to as many people there as possible. I already consider Randy a friend! Randy's the kind of guy I would take to a Broncos game (GO BRONCOS!!!)

Sir Freddie Laker... special guest. I was too intimidated to go up to him and talk to him.
He made a few good points (correct me Inside Flyer) which I'll paraphraize here -- saying the miles and the upgrades are great, but what really impresses him is the F-A who smiles and is friendly and the captain who talks to his passengers frequently. Good points.

Randy's a great host, talks off the top of his head, clearly, entertaining, knows how to inject nice and sometimes dramatic introductions to the winners (DO they know that they've won beforehand???) A few of teh winners, Like Hyatt and Southwest, appeared a bit surprised. I like that in an awards show.

Randy: have you thought of having your own show? Or hosting one of these boring and static awards shows? In fact, the Freddies finished 20 minutes early which Randy joked "Now everyone can make their flights!"

Now the surprise: after I came in... Karen approaches me and gives me this very nicely wrapped box. She said it's a gift from Randy and the Inside Flyer crew for my many contributions to FlyerTalk. I was stunned, speechless, suprised. I thanked Karen and Randy later... and will thank everyone at Inside Flyer for the terrific shirt and the mug. I feel like I've won my own FREDDIE!!
Thank you again!!!

Again: I had a fabulous time and can't wait to do it again next year!! CATMAN

Way to go Catman! Guys just wanna have fun!

The event was fun.

I was a good chance to talk to some senior people at companies I do business with.

The folks from Diner's Club were great. It was good having a chance to talk with the manager of Onepass's service center. I'm sure that contact will help at some point in time. The folks from Skyguide were wonderful at answering questions.

BTW: I have an extra Feb Skyguide courtesy of the folks at AMEX, anyone who wants it, email me, first email gets it. I'd be more then happy to send it out.

The Inside flyer folks gave out Freddies Coffee mugs, paperweights and chocolates.

Got to chat with Catman. We are going to try and plan a NY area FlyerTalk dinner sometime in the near future.

One thing you might want to check out is the scores in each category, especially the hotels. You'll notice that, with the exception of the newsletter category, an almost dead heat between 1st, 2nd and in some categories between 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

I too have an extra SkyMiles guide if anyone wants it...

Now I could hold a little contest: winner is the first person who can tell me (via e-mail) what are the names of my CATS!~

Nah! First person who e-mails me with their address gets the skyguide.

It's 7:05 p-m NYC time. I seriously need to go off line and earn some serious frequent sleeping miles (You guys how HOW important those miles are!) cATMAN

If you need any more convincing about Diners Club, just look in the Diners thread... I'll be happy to dig up any extra information if you have questions that aren't covered.

(It's a great card!)

I am sooooooooo envious and jealous! We will probably see Catman change his moniker to Rancat or Catran or Ranman.

P.S. I was there for the whole live broadcast and I did not see a person with a Cattie on.

[This message has been edited by JAWS_II (edited 01-28-99).]

Not wanting to deprive anyone......


I've posted three more pictures of the event.

In addition to Randy with yours truly (on our rogues gallery:

http://members.aol.com/flyerpics/wanted.htm

I've temporarily posted three more candid shots of the event at

http://members.aol.com/flyerpics/freddies.htm

I'll need to remove them soon to make more room for more rogues, so save them if you want them.

Dave

NJ David... thanks for posting the pictures... and if any especially JAWSII doubts I was there... there's a pix of me to prove my presence!

You could have another career as a photographer!

And we have a winner in my SkyGuide giveaway:
Jeffrey M Silveira who was able to tell one of my cats names! Congratulations and the SKyGuides on the way! CATMAN

Catman ~ I would bet that the airlines and hotels are strongly encouraged to send someone if they won an award. They may even be told that they've won, but probably not which award or how many they won. This may be why they were surprised, at what they won, especially Hyatt since it looks like they did especially well.

What I want to know is how the Southwest person traveled to NYC? Must have been a great flight and long limo ride.

The Southwest lady probably flew first class on U-A or CO, got a suite at the Plaza, took a limo from the airport and had comp breakfasts and dinners.

Or she flew S-W to Providence and took Amtrak to NYC.

OR S-W just dropped her off at E-W-R and flew on to Baltimore or whereever.

Beckles, thanks for the explaination on winners. I guess there were several foreign airline represented (including a Virgin there, smoozing very well, sorry Merry) to make contacts, catch up with fellow airline people and mostly to meet Sir Freddie and RANDY (and find out who this CATMAN is.)
CATMAN

Catman, How do you know? (about the Virgin, that is).

NJD, Is Catman the one with little hair and the shiny head?

SW could have flown to Providence, Amtrak to New Rochelle, then Metro-North to Grand Central, that way she could have rear facing seats the entire trip.

As for the winners being told in advance, I spoke with Pam Lewis, we were at the same table. The winners were told that they had won something, but not what or how many.

Of course I'm still skeptical. Greg Brenneman, President of Continental was there and they won the big freddie. No other airline sent their president. Was Greg tipped off? It's not a big deal that the winners knew. Of course Randy did indicate that security in Denver required them to open all the boxes containing the Freddies, so many a security agent at Denver tipped someone off. Maybe the security stuff at Denver was just a setup to find out who won.
Maybe I should go back to work http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Just to clear a few things up, and no doubt muddle some others, the following companies very at the freddies and didnt win or sponsor them:

TWA
Finnair
Delta
Visa
BWIA
Virgin(Atlantic Airways that is)