The Freddie Award voting period is about to end (March 31) so that means your time for getting your vote in is also running out! The Freddies are a great chance to participate in the voting process with millions of others from around the globe.
Vote for Your Favorite Loyalty Programs – The Freddie Awards
Link: Freddie Awards
The Freddie Awards have been happening for a long time, introduced by BoardingArea and Flyertalk founder, Randy Petersen. Randy is not only a genius in the travel loyalty space but he is also one of nicest people you will ever meet. He started the Freddie Awards as a way to give voice to the people that use loyalty programs and make sure that those programs that work the best for travelers get noticed.
Now, I will say that, over the years, my picks have not always been the ones that were ultimately winners in various categories! 🙂 Part of that can have something to do with the footprint of the program (for example, for years, Marriott was absolutely huge to the footprint of the Hyatt program) which means that fewer guests may use one program than another. But, it is still great to make sure I vote for the programs that I find have been the best in the previous year.
All it takes is a couple minutes of your time to register your vote and those will all be counted and announced at the Freddie Awards on April 27 in Washington, DC.
There are some categories that I think most of the companies don’t do well in – like best customer service for airlines. If it is phone service, they are all pretty bad. The single exception is if you get Air Canada/Aeroplan right when they open at 7AM ET :). But, as companies rely on social media, that is one way that companies can differentiate themselves. I have found both United and Hyatt to be awesome on Twitter while others like British Airways and Aeroplan to be horrible.
Voting ends March 31 so go ahead and vote!
While I find the awards a little dubious considering some past winners, OMAAT had some interesting insight as to how individuals can have more effect: If you loathe a program for Bonvoying you repeatedly (for example), DO NOT exclude them in your voting. That will only let the people who vote for Marri- err – that hotel chain to have a say.
Let’s say 10 people are voting and only one votes for this company and the person ranks it as first place, then any competitor would need to have 100% first place votes to tie for first. If you vote for this company as being in third place even though you think it belongs in tenth place then your vote will drag down the average. If enough people rank a bad program in third place rather than ignoring it, then some of the smaller programs people actually like may win the top spot.
Pardon the inelegant phrasing.