Freddies

The Freddies – Winners & Drinks…and AA’s Direct Status Match

by Adam
by Adam

Who knew the Freddies crowd could party?  Just arrived back home at 345am EST after a great night.  As a new blogger it was great to meet and chat with some of my mentors – Ben Mutzabaugh from Today In The Sky, Frugal Travel Guy Rick Ingersoll, and of course Frequent Flyer Guru Randy Petersen.  Not to mention my fellow Boarding Area bloggers including Mommy Points and The Weekly Flyer and everyone at our esteemed table 35!   It was also fascinating to speak with some of the leaders of our favorite loyalty programs, more on those conversations in a future post. Hosting duties were handled by Robert Wuhl from HBO’s Arliss.

Full analysis tomorrow but American’s AAdvantage swept the Americas category winning Program of the Year, Best Promotion for Earning, Best Customer Service, & Best Elite Program. I definitely agree with the assessment, I constantly find AAdvantage miles the easiest to redeem on both AA and their partners, especially when compared to Delta SkyMiles.

SPG swept the Europe/Africa category winning Europe/Africa Program of the Year, Americas & Europe/Africa Best Promotion for Earning, Best Promotion for Redemption Europe/Africa & Middles East/Asia/Oceania, and Best Customer Service & Best Elite Program Europe/Africa. I was honestly surprised that SPG did not win more Americas awards.

Marriott won big in the Americas with Program of the Year, Best Promotion for Redemption, Best Redemption Ability, Best Customer Service & Best Elite Program.

The Delta SkyMiles American Express card won best loyalty card.  I’d venture to say that the Chase cards have had better promotions and provided greater value last year, though of course I am always partial to my trusty SPG AMEX card.

What are your thoughts on the winners?  Any surprises?

PS  – Why not sample the benefits of the big winner?  American is offering a DIRECT STATUS MATCH for United fliers discontent after the merger. No flying is required.   Check out Getting Status for the full details.

a white candy wrapped in a tie

a group of people sitting at a table

a group of people on stage

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

Adam is the proud Founder and CEO of both Point Me to the Plane and point.me. An international consultant turned TV programming strategist, Adam currently works full-time on both websites. His obsession with points and miles dates back to his freshman year at college. After browsing Flyertalk and Mileage Workshop, Adam pulled the trigger and signed up for his first Citibank AAdvantage credit card and MCI phone line (yes, landlines still existed). Back then, both deals were churnable and in no time at all, the college freshman had enough miles to travel to Europe and Asia in First Class for free, multiple times. Needless to say, he was hooked! Fast forward a few years and Adam of course ended up in a career with a heavy travel requirement…which meant extra miles for awards! As his colleagues and friends started to hear about and see pictures from his trips, they wanted in on the secret and Adam began to assist them with their bookings, Juicy Miles was born. At the same time, Adam started an email newsletter to prevent those less obsessed co-workers from squandering their point collection opportunities. The bi-weekly email covered everything from upcoming promotions, guidance on maximizing points, and redemption advice. The distribution quickly expanded outside the office and Point Me to the Plane became a BoardingArea blog.

1 comment

A quick social media report from the Freddies - The Wandering Aramean April 27, 2012 - 2:29 pm

[…] on who won which awards as some of the other folks here on Boarding Area (read their reports here, here and here) but I was at the event and I did see a few interesting trends, at least with respect to […]

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