Since 1988, the Freddie Awards have been recognized as the industry-leading award for frequent flyer and loyalty programs for airline and hotels.

You can now vote for the 2015 Freddie Awards, and I thought I would also share my votes. You can vote in each of 3 different regions: Americas, Europe / Africa, or Middle East / Asia / Oceania. I voted in the Americas region

There are 11 different categories – and you can vote for a top 3 in each category.  Here were my picks – what about yours?

Program of the Year (Airline / Hotel)

For Airline, this was a tough one.  With Delta removing their Award chart, Southwest devaluing their currency (again!) and the snafus on United’s “Great Dane” mistake fare, most of the news in the airline industry seems to be negative! I went with

1. American Airlines
2. Alaska Airlines
3. Southwest Airlines

For hotels, I went with

1. Hyatt
2. IHG
3. Hilton

That goes along with my philosophy that for our family, budget hotels DESTROY the so-called “nice” ones, for a variety of reasons

Best Promotion (Airline / Hotel)

I don’t really get involved with most airline promotions, so I didn’t vote on that.  For hotels, I went with

1. IHG’s Into the Nights – yes, there were TONS of bugs with it, and I ended up not personally participating, but I felt like it was the most (potentially) lucrative promo out there.

I didn’t pick 2nd or 3rd as none of them were applicable to me.

Best Redemption Ability (Airline / Hotel)

For Airline redemption ability, I voted:

1. Southwest Airlines
2. American Airlines
3. United Airlines

….. 999. Delta Airlines 😀

For hotel redemptions, I don’t normally have a hard time getting any kind of redemptions, so I voted

1. Hilton HHonors (I have had good luck getting free upgrades to 2 BR suites with Hilton Gold status)
2. IHG
3. Hyatt

Best Customer Service (Airline / Hotel)

I haven’t had a ton of interaction with many airlines / hotels customer service, but my 2 second thoughts were:

1. Southwest Airlines
2. Alaska Airlines
3. American Airlines

For Hotel:

1. Hyatt
2. Hilton
3. Best Western

SEE ALSO: List of Airline and Hotel Twitter contacts)

Best Loyalty Credit Card

There are lots of good cards out there (I have most of them!).  For best card out there, I interpreted that as the best ones to have, irrespective of bonus amounts

1. Club Carlson Visa (last night free redemption)
2. IHG Rewards Visa (1 free night at any IHG plus the 80k bonus)
3. Citi American AAdvantage (American’s Reduced Mileage Awards – why you need to be talking about them)

Best Elite Program (Airline / Hotel)

For overall best, here were my votes:

1. American Airlines
2. Alaska Airlines
3. Southwest Rapid Rewards

Hotel:

1. Hyatt
2. Hilton
3. IHG

Have you voted yet?  Let me know your thoughts (i.e. how stupid I am!) in the comments!

Newsletter Signup

Join the PWaC newsletter filled with credit card and travel tips

Join Now!

You have Successfully Subscribed!