2020 Freddie Awards winners
How did your favourites fare?
by Neil McPherson
3 May 2020
Source: 2020 Freddie Awards Winners
Overview of
The 2020 Freddie Awards winners were announced this week, via a virtual ceremony.
Our observations:
- Accor Live Limitless dominated in the Europe & Africa hotels programs, while starting to gain recognition in the Americas.
- Within the Middle East & Asia/Oceania airlines, Virgin Australia's Velocity frequent flyer program was similarly strong across all categories.
- Accor's recent Australian acquisitions have boosted its standings in Oceania particularly.
- Despite belonging to a regional chain (ITC Hotels are India's 3rd largest hotel chain), Club ITC outshone much larger rivals in the key areas of customer service and redemption ability.
- Similarly, in the Americas, Southwest Airline's program won in those categories as well as best overall.
Our congratulations to all the winners !
Winners by region and awards
Hotels
| Europe & Africa | Middle East & Asia/Oceania | Americas | |
| Program of the Year | Accor Live Limitless | Accor Live Limitless | Marriott Bonvoy |
| Best Elite Program | Accor Live Limitless | Marriott Bonvoy | World of Hyatt |
| Best Promotion | Accor Live Limitless | Marriott Bonvoy | Marriott Bonvoy |
| Best Customer Service | Accor Live Limitless | Club ITC | M Life Rewards |
| Best Redemption Ability | Accor Live Limitless | Club ITC | Marriott Bonvoy |
| 210 Award | Choice Privileges | Wyndham Rewards | Accor Live Limitless |
For our analysis and views on the individual programs, you can refer to:
Airlines
| Europe & Africa | Middle East & Asia/Oceania | Americas | |
| Program of the Year | Norwegian Reward | Virgin Australia Velocity | Rapid Rewards |
| Best Elite Program | Aeroflot Bonus | Virgin Australia Velocity | AAdvantage |
| Best Promotion | Norwegian Reward | Virgin Australia Velocity | Avianca LifeMiles |
| Best Customer Service | Norwegian Reward | Virgin Australia Velocity | Rapid Rewards |
| Best Redemption Ability | TAP Miles&Go | Virgin Australia Velocity | Rapid Rewards |
| 210 Award | TAP Miles&Go | AIr Arabia - AirRewards | Air Canada - Aeroplan |
About the awards
The “Freddies” are named in honor of Sir Freddie Laker in recognition for his contribution to commercial aviation and are one of the most prestigious member-generated awards in the travel loyalty industry. Over 4.2 million ballots are cast annually in 13 languages.. Members of travel loyalty programs vote for their most valuable travel loyalty program in one of three geographic regions: The Americas, Europe/Africa or Middle East/Asia/Oceania.
There are 6 awards for each region:
- Program of the Year;
- Best Elite Program;
- Best Promotion;
- Best Customer Service;
- Best Redemption Ability; and
- the 210 Award which is given to the best scoring program that is ranked by fewer than 10% of voters. It’s meant to recognize an up and coming program delivering value to members that may not yet be on the radar of as many frequent travelers.
Tip:
The methodology does seem to work against the smaller programs. Larger programs with more members have more potential votes. So
don't rule out a smaller program just because it doesn't appear amongst the winners. My view is that Melia Hotels and Alaska
Airlines are examples of this. The 210 Award does aim to overcome this to an extent.
If a smaller program (by number of members) does appear in any Freddie awards category, it has done an exceptionally good job to score more votes and rise above its larger rivals. That would be a program definitely worth considering - hopefully the routes/locations suit your travel patterns.