Every year, the Freddie Awards ceremony is held in the United States and it awards airlines and hotel groups based on the popularity of their loyalty programs from frequent flyers.
The Freddies was introduced in 1988 by miles and points legend Randy Petersen. If you’re not aware, Randy is the incredible man behind websites like Flyertalk, Insideflyer, Milepoint and Boardingarea. The event was named after Sir Freddie Laker who is a very famous aviation icon.
This year the Freddies were held at The Hyatt Regency Jersey City. The total amount of votes this year was 4,203,657 which is a record.
This was my first time attending the event and it was fantastic to meet and catch up with some of my fellow bloggers. Altogether there were around 450 people at the event.
Freddies 2017
As I’m Australia-based I thought It would be appropriate to talk about the awards that one of our national airlines received tonight.
Virgin Australia received 2 awards this year which is 1 less than what they got last year.
The first award the carrier got was for ‘Best Award Availability’ in the Asia, the Middle East and Oceania region. The 3 runners up were El AL Frequent Flyer Club, Jetprivilege and Qatar Airways Privilege Club. This is Virgin’s 5th time getting the award, that’s a very impressive effort!
The second award the airline received at the ceremony was for ‘Best Elite Program’ in Asia, The Middle East and Oceania. The other three finalists were again El Al Frequent Flyer Club, Jetprivilege and Qatar Privilege Club.
I’ve talked about Virgin Australia availability quite a bit and do believe they were the right fit for the awards. Airlines like El Al surprised me but It doesn’t surprise me Qantas wasn’t on there as they are extremely reluctant with releasing award seats.
- Virgin Australia Los Angeles Business Class Availability Patterns
- Brilliant award space on the new Melbourne – Hong Kong service
Congratulations to Virgin Australia on winning the award and I’m glad to see you win an award for the 5th time in a row!
Featured Image – Freddie Awards
3 comments
So they were not in New York. They were in New Jersey. Two very different states.
Also do you mean the Hyatt Regency Jersey City?
I just wish Virgin Australia released more award seats on their LAX-BNE/LAX-SYD flights! I’m guessing you flew Virgin to NYC from Australia for the event?
All last minute space ;), I flew Thai and China Eastern First Class over.
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