Cancellation of the Freddie awards?
 

I read in Community that this was announced by an email, presumably to select FT members. For those of us who didn't receive the email, can you or someone provide more detail? Both a FT search and a Google search didn't find any relevant info for me.

Thanks.

like wise I heard about this from the comm buzz section

is there a thread on it?

was there an email? I don't recall it..

if it was in talk mail.. I prob missed it since I don't read it

just curious what was behind the decision

:( Wow news to me, I would like to know more also.

Thanks for the interest. There was a general interest email I sent to a number of the loyalty programs as a heads up since this time of the year we typically begin to get inquiries.

I didn't post anything up here as it wasn't relative to FlyerTalk per se. But with this question, let me take a minute or two of your time to explain.

Yes, I've decided after 21 years to discontinue the Freddie Awards. And I have to admit, it's a little bit selfish. This last May I attended a meeting that some of my staff were attending. After every Freddie Award, those employees who worked on the Freddies (13 of them this past year) gather to go over the recently completed event and typically spend about 4 hours going over everything to take notes and document the adjustments we want to consider for the next year to make it even better. This was yet another great year for the Freddies with record voters (nearly 800,000), record turnout at the ceremony itself (400+) and record attendance by executives of various programs around the world. We're not an event production company and my terrific employees step out of their usual assignments to make this work year after year and I've been paternally proud.

But as I sat in the conference room, I heard the assignments of some of the employees as they were already starting work on the 2010 Freddie Awards. It dawned on me that this event had turned into nearly a year-round effort. There's a lot to it, not just the event but the voting, the technical things, etc. I mentally started to add up the number of hours that each employee might be contributing to this and it easily passed the 1,000-hour mark.

The selfish part? I've been doing this a long, long time, nearly 24 years to be exact and I've been turning some ideas around in my mind of how I need to mentor my employees in a number of projects that as a company we're really behind on. And I started to think how I was going to be able to spend the time necessary with my employees to make sure that they were prepared and set to continue on the things I had started should I start taking a few more days off than I might normally be working to spend on my ranch. I'm not retiring and have a number of years in the mileage game with me yet, but I can't just ride off in the sunset and not make sure that my employees future is set. Because the time I needed from my employees was actually on projects that were not being served well enough now, I had to identify how to create the mentoring time I felt I needed and as I counted up the hours in that Freddie Awards meeting, I thought I had identified a solution. A painful one, but nonetheless, a solution.

And in the what-if mode, a few people heard of my thoughts and expressed an interest in buying the Freddie Awards. That just did not feel right to me. It wasn't created for any reason other than to give voice to the frequent flyer -- you and the person you sat next to on your last flight or stood behind at the identified special check-in line for members at your last hotel stay. I couldn't sell that voice, it's not for sale and I just wasn't prepared to risk that future, thus a personal decision on my behalf to discontinue the Freddies after 21 years -- solely to honor a commitment to my employees that I would better prepare them for their futures.

It's been a great ride and I do hope that both the voice of the frequent flyer has been well served and that the efforts of the industry have been honored and recognized.

Randy...from a managment/employer point of view..kudos to you on worrying first and foremost about your employees. More should do that

From a FF point of view....I have to admit this saddens me. You claim you did it to protect our voice, but in reality you stiffled that voice. You decided because YOU didnt want to be our voice, we should have no voice at all. You did not provide us with the same "continuity plan" you are so concerned with for your employees. You should have found safe hands to put our voice in, but still let us have that voice.

I appreciate RP's update and long support for the FF community. It's times like this however when that continued support becomes viewed by some almost as an obligation or a duty to be carried out with scant consideration for the costs of time and effort required to make the event the success it's been. It reminds me of the small town councils and volunteer boards I've helped out on where the bulk of the work load is often carried by a few dedicated and capable individuals who are so good at what they do they are viewed by many as almost indespensable.

I also appreciate opting not to sell the awards as they could've become a pale imitation of the originals, always compared and criticized for not being the same. Selling them would've also brought out the boo birds so it seems there's no pleasing everyone all the time.

No, I can't fault RP for a making tough decision and think ending things on a high note is a better alternative than losing interest and letting the awards faulter and lose their lustre. I'll miss pondering my Freddie vote and the spirited discussion about nominees & winners/losers on FT but all good things come to and end. Just MHO.

Randy,

Thank you for offering an explanation to the FT Community. I respect your decision & commend your loyalty for your employees. Sorry to see the Freddie Awards go away as they did offer the Travel Industry a voice for the FF.

But why not continue them as awards without the ceremony? I understand all the management explanation, however the Freddies have become quite a decent name on their own, and the way that certain travel related sites have promoted them over the last 2-3 years has been amazing. Why not still have the awards, just without all the pomp and splendour. People vote, there is a deadline, and the awards are announced. These are the most credible ones out there and it seems such a shame to throw it all away.

Sorry to hear that you had to give this up Randy. What a great, great job you folks did on this.

It's a sign of how important the Freddies have become that Travel Industry Loyalty programs these days regularly brag about the awards they receive. And attending the cermony - what fun, and an opportunity to meet some of the industry folks is a real treat. I hope and believe the community can come up with a way to keep these awards going (it may have to go under a different name and we'll have to find a way to pool sufficient resources to keep such awards and a ceremony going - believe me, it is a really significant amount of work to do this).

In the interim, maybe we can come up with an online voting system to at least have an online announcement of some awards in 2010?

Does this mean that you won't be awarding DL the "Worst FF Program Ever" award, because of what they've done to NW? :D

I only attended on Freddie ceremony in Phoenix, but did enjoy it quite a bit, and know that it really takes a lot of effort to do it.

Honestly, if it's time and money that are the issue, I would have moved it to an online version only. Vote online, announce online, etc. This way the award stay around, but the overhead an much of the huge amount of work that would go into it, would be reduced.

Yea, I'm going to miss the opportunity to vote for them. (Of course I'm still taking the abuse and haven't been able to pack my bags and leave yet.) Not sure the travel industry would prefer us to add in the Freddy Worst in Class awards.

Thanks for the info Randy. While it’s sad to see the Freddies go, I totally understand where you are coming from.
Organizing priorities usually leads to painful decisions since one only has limited time and resources.
Thanks for the memories of the Freddies and good for you for thinking of your employees well being. :)

This makes a lot of sense to me and would likely preserve 80% of the value for 20% of the effort.

Randy, please look at the e-mail I sent you.

Another +1 from me for hfly's idea to keep the voting. And +1 for Lehava's comments too.

In 21 years, you haven't figured out a way to streamline this operation? Start outsourcing! :P Or look locally. There are plenty of people looking for work. FT Stimulus Package!

There are people who deal with these sorts of problems all year long. I'd bet that if you talked about some of the more painful operational details that cause it to be a year-round task, FTers could help you figure out ways to improve things.

I'm sorry if it wasn't clear enough. There's nothing painful about the Freddies, it has been a joy and there's not much that needs to be improved, it seems to have met the needs of many over the years. All I'm saying is that I personally want my employees time to be focused on some projects internally that will help them better prepare for the day when I will likely want to start spending a lot more time at my ranch than I do now. While not retiring tomorrow, it seems reasonable to me to look after the best interests of my employees. So, while i appreciate your constructive criticism, this really is not about the Freddies per se. And really, the Freddies is not all the pomp and splendour. In fact, you probably do not know that hosting the Freddies with an event is only half the story. For the first ten years there was no ceremony, just the voting and the awards which I then fly around handing out in private ceremonies. So really, I do know how all this works and have been there and did measure that in my decision.

I have been here a long time. And I rarely speak up. I really appreciate the amount of public reflection which you have offered to us, over the years, about some of your key decisions. Like others, I certainly don't always agree, but I always feel gifted with your willingness to share.

As a small aside I'm surprised at the muted reaction to the cancellation of the Freddie awards as I would've expected a much stronger response to the end of an era. Does that mean the word hasn't filtered out to the wider FT audience? Or that the readership on ORP is relatively small? Or something else?

I suspect it's something else.

Personally, I will not be sad to see these awards go away. While I have a great deal of appreciation and respect for Randy Peterson and Inside Flyer, I have always disagreed with what the these awards actually meant.

These awards were more of a popularity contest and measure of the programs PR success than a rational comparison of benefits or performance of the programs in relation to each other. Only those who have flown similar amounts on a vast number of airlines can have an accurate idea to how those airlines compare. Only those who have held similar status on several elite programs can truly understand how those status benefits compare.

With the Freddie awards, those who flew "their airline" mostly and occasionally flew someone else, the majority group of frequent flyers, were asked to vote for who had the better program. Either the voter would be happy with "their airline" and vote for it or they would vote for an alternative program they had little (but very positive) experience with. Who knows if those few experiences were normal or not? Who knows if those voting for their primary program realize what status benefits exist on other airlines or how their treatment on the airline they voted for was better only because of their status, what they are missing out on that they would highly value and what they have that they would really miss if loyal to a different carrier?

IMO - the Freddies did a good job of determining who was most popular and who had best succeeded in the PR department in the minds of the common frequent traveler. The Freddies were not a reasoned voice to who actually had the best programs/performance - only voters with similar amounts of experience across many programs could begin to speak to that. IMO - the awards would have been far more meaningful if people gave value scores to all entities being compared in several different areas and the opinions only counted when there was comparable experience accross the entities being compared. The fact that a Hilton Diamond thinks Hilton has the best program means very little if he is not aware of what Marriott status is, let alone the differences in benefits.

Appreciate the view. You might have missed it but the Freddies were never about being popular, in fact you'll often see where both small and large programs did well across the board. We never counted the aggregate vote of who gets the most votes wins. Each voter had to weight their vote for how that program delivered to them. I'm not sure that there could ever be an award that could measure all you are asking. The idea that the Lexus lover doesn't count because he/she never drove a Lincoln Continental doesn't compute. The Freddies were never meant to be a competition among each program and all programs would tell you that my advice to them was this was only about how well they were doing with their own members so focus on what you are doing and do it well. The facts are that these are "loyalty" programs and if they truly did work, any member would have a very limited experience with another program. But I think you'd find from any number of members and voters that there actually has existed experience with other programs. But the norm for any "best" is in the eye of the beholder. And regardless of any comparison, it's really pretty difficult for any program keep all their individual members loyal and pleased with the benefits and rewards they receive -- those that do the best job of managing and acknowledging and rewarding an average of their members have been justly rewarded. But it's just my view.

Thank You for your response! ^


Yes, exactly. So perhaps we agree the Freddies were about who had the happiest members rather than who had the most rewarding programs?

For a loyalty program to succeed, all they need is happy members. They need not offer the benefits a flyer would most enjoy from an objective benefit standpoint. However, the FF Inside Flyer reader who is trying to select the best program might be best served knowing who actually has the best benefits?

Unfortunate "end".

Cancellation of the Freddie Awards
 

As a newbie, I'm truly sad to hear this. I was praying that I would finally be attending my 1st Freddie this year/ whenever it would have taken place. The best of luck to u RP no matter what u do!

I remember talking to the AA Executive in PHX 1.5 years ago and when I wished her luck for the ceremony she just said "Oh, we never win!".

That made me thinking because I held status in most of the North American FFPs for at least some time each and compared that AA offered the best awards, the lowest taxes, the higest upgrade success and the best customer service (compared). I couldnt explain myself how some very "exotic" programms can win over that.

Anyhow, that one event has been a great gathering ! Alot of workforce is needed to drive that ceremony to it's success and lets not forget it's a pretty hefty investment in hours for any company not even talking about the expense itself.

Thanks for taking it so far ! ^

Whatever one thinks of the Freddies, one had simply to look at how proud the various carriers were, if they did well. In addition to trumpeting those successes in ads, etc. they also very actively encouraged voter participation on their own proprietary websites. That’s credibility. In a perverse sort of way, dropping them may be the sincerest form of tribute to their namesake. Always a straight shooter, who tried to build an airline that did what it said it would, Laker stands in stark contrast to today's carriers, who, in recent years have gone out of their way to back track on many of the basic tenets which underpinned what had become euphemistically known as loyalty programs. Well done, Freddie. As it turned out, this new bunch was never in your league.

End of an era. :(

Respect the decision, though. ^

Agree.

Cheers.

As I emailed Randy at the time -- a wise decision IMHO.

Life moves on .......................... @:-)

Glen

I thought about this up in PDX when I saw a freddies award plaque at the hotel lobby.

Have to agree with kokonutz on all statements.

I have mixed feelings on this. On one hand, I thought the pushing of the voting by airline and hotel companies tended to cheapen the awards. I sort of felt that a number of people voting might not be real frequent flyers or hotel stayers, and might instead be hotel employees and vendors.

On the other hand, I sort of found the publicity about the awards offered and the airlines advertising it offered represented some good publicity for frequent flyers, validated the sometimes crazy things I do for miles and finally held airlines and hotel companies feet to the fire when they weakened their loyalty programs.

I'm a bit worried that while there are good effects of this for Randy's employees, airlines and hotel companies will be less worried now about the impact of weakening their programs.

I respect the decision, and especially the thought process concerning the ongoing careers of the employees (digression - the best boss/company owner I ever had (lamentably deceased) had the same type of concerns when she sold her company, and in fact she took less money in order to protect her employees).

It is a shame that the Freddie Awards could not have found a new sponsor / home (certainly Randy's knowledge of the industry should have given him some ideas as to a suitable new home).

Under that scenario, 2010 could have served as a year of transition, in which Randy's staff worked with the new sponsor in order to facilitate a smooth handover for 2011 and beyond.

Will Freddie Jr. Be forced into retirement as well?

Banish the thought! In fact FJr is on another trip at the moment, and Randy was presented w/ a map of where FJr has traveled to around the world at the recent Mod Do in MUC. IIRC FJr has traveled over 800,000 miles.

Cheers.

+1

Wow - you got any openings in your company? ;) :) ^

Today is the first I knew about it, as I didn't get any email about it, I don't visit ORP much anymore, and I just happened upon it today by chance.

Reflects my sentiments.

The real thing that concerns me is that SOMEBODY will fill the void. There may be multiple entities that see money to be made from having a way to promote this or that airline as #1. Let's face it, that status means a lot to the airlines and hotels as we can see from thier advertising.

Turning it over to nobody, means somebody will do it.:td:

Glenn

I only found out about the cancellation by looking through the tabs on the home page. I will probably either be shot or exiled from FT for this, as a retiree I would be willing to donate my time to support the Freddies if they are held in 2010. Yes, I did volunteer to help with the next DL DO also in 2010 around the same time.