My wife and I recently attended the 2018 Freddies Awards for loyalty programs. The winners and losers were both predictable and confounding depending on the award. Some made perfect sense while others left the room gasping. Which ones made sense and which didn’t, more importantly – why?
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Winners: Le Accor, Southwest, Norwegian?
For those not in the loop, the Freddie awards are given to the best in travel loyalty programs for hotels, airlines and credit cards. The voting is open to the public and this year 4.4 million cast ballots for three regions, the Americas, Europe/Africa and Asia/Oceania. Some of the winners of categories this year made sense and some did not. It’s the absence of many carriers that spoke louder to me more than the winners. Take a look at the list of the winners from the Americas and another for Europe.
Take a look at the winner for Best Elite Program, American Airlines. I was a big fan of the program but recently left. Up until last year, I think they really did have the best elite program but now, there are few differentiators from Delta and United.
Alaska, who continues to award status and miles based on distance flown and without revenue requirements, didn’t make it into the top four. Southwest was a close second but they offer next to nothing for elite benefits. Logic would suggest that if American, with all of their millions of elite flyers, partners, and global reach were finalists then it goes to reason that their peers would be just as close. Delta and United didn’t crack the top four. In fact, Delta made the top four in just one category and United never made it to the finalists in any category. Southwest won every other category in the Americas airline category with the exception of the 210 award (awarded to up and coming programs).
Marriott cleaned up too. They took home every category for hotels with the exception of two going to… MGM, one of which was the 210 award. It should be noted as well that the 210 awards are the only ones that are not determined by the 4.4 million Freddies voters. Marriott won – not SPG. Let that sink in.
The other two regions had similarly beguiling results. Europe & Africa airline awards were split between Norwegian and Aeroflot. The hotels were dominated by Accor (four wins), Marriott and IHG each with a single win, IHG taking home the 210 award. Asia/Oceania seemed a little truer to form with the hotel category splitting six awards among four chains, Accor (2), IHG (2), SPG with Taj taking home the 210. Airlines in Asia/Oceania were mostly awarded to Virgin Velocity (4) with Emirates winning Best promotion and Saudia Alfursan taking the 210 home.
Some of the Results Make Sense
SPG, Hyatt, and Alaska are premier programs with smaller footprints. It’s a volume issue to a certain degree which is why the major programs like American, United, and Delta should win the categories and frankly, this is why I think American did in part. The volume issue is exactly why the Freddies hand out a 210 award, as Gary Leff said at the event it’s handed out to programs “to watch” – the ones that may not have the volume of votes, but have some of the highest scores. Their customers tend to rate the companies the highest but they just don’t have enough customers to compete on a larger scale.
So when Hyatt and SPG don’t win but Marriott does, some of that could be down to footprint. Except when it isn’t. For the years 2013-2016 Hyatt won Best Elite every year in the Americas. People loved Gold Passport – I loved Gold Passport (RIP). When they changed the program late in 2016 requiring in some cases 140% more nights to qualify for top tier status, the voters penalized them and have not forgiven them for their actions. SPG won every voted category in 2017 for Asia and Best Elite program in Europe. In one year (the year they began integration with Marriott) they went from six Freddies to one in 2018.
It seems the voters are punishing programs when they feel they have made adverse changes. That resonates with me as I have said that Hyatt went from my #1 program despite their small footprint to fourth – maybe I re-qualify and maybe I don’t. From a must-have to could do without in 18 months.
Southwest winning the Americas is logical for the other categories. Do they have the best redemption ability? Yes, yes they do. If they have a seat to sell, you can use your points to buy that seat at a rate of 78 Rapid Rewards points per dollar of the fare. Best promotion/best credit card were both a result of their exceptional Companion Pass offer last year that enables a lot of people to travel for less. Best customer service? Sure, they aren’t dragging people down the aisle and they rap through the safety announcement. Why not? Virgin Australia has a similar following in Asia/Oceania though they couldn’t be bothered to attend the event so a Delta representative collected their trophies all night.
Some of the Results Make Sense
Marriott, who for the purposes of this award year were separated from SPG, cleaned up. This supports my volume argument, they have a huge program, but so does Hilton. Last year I compared the first quarter bonuses from the chains. I loved Hilton’s 2k Every Stay, Everyday promotion that made every customer an equal opportunity benefactor. If you stayed 10 nights a quarter you did well, if you stayed 50, you did really well. But Marriott Rewards best promotion, really? Even if you disagree with my selection for Hilton, I don’t think anyone would say that Marriott’s MegaBonus was the best in the business. Except of course, the voters.
How about Le Accor in Europe/Africa and Asia/Oceania? It was a running joke how often the Le Accor rep was on stage. In some cases, she was still getting her picture taken from a previous win while they announced another award for the chain. At one point, I think she was instructed to stand next to the stage. I asked some fellow bloggers at Boarding Area what they thought about this afterward. I suggested that maybe I needed to learn more about the program since their following is so significant. But Summer of Mommy Points pointed out that their rewards consist of €20 discount vouchers per 2,000 points and that there really isn’t much to write about. She’s dead right. The chain has a big footprint, some 3700 hotels worldwide but there isn’t much to the program. Are their customers that loyal or is something else afoot?
What became clear to me, and from other interactions including attendees that were neither travel writers nor associated with the programs, is that some of the programs are just better at marketing the Freddies to their customers. I know that American has heavily marketed the awards and voting to their customers during voting season, but also showcased their award on airport screens throughout the year. How does Aeroflot beat out Lufthansa, British Airways, and KLM/Air France in Europe? Gary Leff mentioned their fantastic rates on upgrades to business class tickets using miles – that could be it. But it doesn’t seem likely to me. How does Norwegian win Best Promotion and Program Of The Year? Marketing. Can anyone tell me what that promotion was and if they took advantage of it?
Blogger Bubble
Maybe it’s because as both a reader of many travel blogs and a part-time writer of one, I am trapped in a bubble that insulates me from what’s really going on outside of the huge programs. But I don’t dispute most of the categories Southwest won, I voted for them in a couple. I hold Avianca miles and think they have made some great strides as a program, the 210 award is fitting for them.
However, I can’t for the life of me understand how IHG won Program Of The Year in Asia. Accelerate is a great promotion (they won that too) but how does the chain compete with SPG, Hyatt, Marriott, and Hilton? The Best Elite program went to SPG in Asia, so it’s not down to member numbers and if so, wouldn’t Hilton rank higher as the only hotel chain that offers free breakfast to Gold members and also has a huge footprint. IHG hates their top-tier elites – how did this happen?!?
What do you think? Did the awards make sense? Which was the best fit and which the most beguiling?
Good observations. My guess on all this is that southwest wins based on size of program and blind loyalty from those that think they are a discount airline and never fly on any others. IHG wins Asia as they have a big footprint there and offer good hotels and service while IHG Europe treats customers more poorly than in other regions.
“My guess on all this is that southwest wins based on size of program and blind loyalty from those that think they are a discount airline and never fly on any others.”
I don’t think that’s entirely fair. I do fly Southwest, but also fly several of their competitors. When it comes to customer service at least, they’ve consistently been far more proactive and helpful when I have a problem than, say, AA. So yes, they do get away with the false premise of being a “discount” airline, but I’d say they do generally walk the walk when it comes to taking care of customers. This is one case where the popularity contest did get it right, I think.
I don’t know why you’re lying about having gone to the Freddie’s. Very strange.
Color me confused. I seem to recall being there, others recall me being there. I hope I didn’t dream it.
Why on Earth would Kyle lie about this? It would be amazingly stupid, destroy his reputation, and would be super easy to verify. Is there some particular reason that you’re making this accusation, or is it just a troll thing?
Perhaps they confused me with Matthew who was unable to attend. Pictures of me at the event are publicly available on the Freddies website. My personal highlight of the event was serving Peter Greenberg some M&Ms who sat next to me.
Is Jacques jacked on drugs?
I’m with DaninMCI. Some other things about this are super weird. For instance, Accor has an incredibly bad reputation for customer service, an unimaginative rewards program, and very little outsized value possible. So how could they possibly carry that many awards? You’re probably right that it’s just a combination of size and marketing, but when an obviously inferior program wins top honors, particularly that often, it devalues the awards for everyone.
Your prior post about talking to Marriott executives brought something else to mind: Remember when Delta said that if they won a Freddie, they were doing their job wrong? So, providing value and service to their own customers meant doing their job wrong? Well, due to their strenuous efforts, they didn’t have to worry about winning, but the mindset is still troubling, and seems to be spreading. It just seems to get a bit more discouraging every year.
I liken it to All-Star voting in the major sports. It’s almost entirely a popularity contest driven by how the teams market their players, which is often proportional to how “big market” the team is. Sometimes, popularity and merit just happen to coincide. Other times, they don’t. I don’t ascribe very much value to the Freddies mostly for that reason.
I would love to know who it is that votes for Velocity in the customer service and redemption categories.
As a Platinum member of the program, the service aspect has been significantly worsened in recent times. Members with elite status were taken care of by a very helpful, knowledgeable team, however this is no longer the case and those servicing members display an inability and/or unwillingness to understand customer questions and issues – I’m having to initiate chargebacks to get any traction on anything with them in recent months.
As for redemption ability, again this is an utter joke for the vast majority of international routes. It is extremely rare to find a single non-Economy award seat available on any of the [MEL|SYD|BNE]-LAX legs and the upgrade capacity (which is only available to Gold and Platinum members) comes out of general award inventory – this problem has only become worse since the refit of the 77W sub-fleet and the removal of the SYD-AUH route (with the metal used being deployed for LAX service instead).
With Aeroflot winning so many things, it could be possible that they used click bots for their vote total, I wasn’t able to find the vote totals on the Freddie Website
Maybe the Russians are required by their government to vote for Aeroflot.
I agree…Russian collusion
I guess I’m less picky. For me Delta is by far the best in most of these categories. It seems strange that a no frills airline can be top in so many categories.
There is a ‘feature’ that will always put Southwest ahead of any other domestic airline, and that is their exceptional cancellation policy. You either get your money/points back or the funds are held as a credit in your SW member’s account, far from the ‘use it or loose it’ practice that brings so much revenue to many airlines. And you can cancel up to the very same day of the flight. Talk about a friendly airline.
Well there’s a key reason why that doesn’t qualify for awards at the Freddies. The award show is for the loyalty program and the cancellation policy is open to anyone flying the airline – it’s not part of the loyalty program. I agree that Southwest’s cancellation policy is a great reason to fly them, but their loyalty program includes nothing for of interest under the 110,000 point companion pass, a best-in-class feature of Rapid Rewards. If you fly 109,999 miles with them, the only thing you get that a non-elite like myself would also receive, is priority boarding. In turn, had you flown American, United, Delta or Alaska, you would have had international upgrades, lounge access on international flights, complimentary food, higher point earnings, first class and premium economy cabins, among a host of others. Mad Men was an excellent television show that won many Emmy awards deservingly, but it never won an Oscar because to qualify it would have had to have been a movie, not a television show. Likewise, for all of the reasons I love Southwest, their loyalty program is undeserving of the accolade.