Last night I attended the 2012 Freddie Awards in beautiful Newark, New Jersey at the Renaissance Newark Airport. It was actually a pretty impressive Category 4 airport hotel where many folks who stayed over were able to take advantage of their Marriott Megabonus Category 1-4 free night certificate. I know many people are constantly commented telling me that theses certificates are useless, but this saved some folks $139 + taxes which I’d consider a pretty decent value. I got to spend time with some friends in the travel blogging community and talk about miles and points up the wazoo – what better way to spend a night!
So overall it seems as though Starwood was close to sweeping the hotel categories, however, Marriott was able to peep through for a few. Hyatt had a pretty poor showing and was not even one of the top 4 nominations for most categories. I was pretty surprised by this, but oh well. The airline winners were all over the place. The most shocking winner, in my opinion, was that out of all of the loyalty co-branded cards the Delta SkyMiles American Express card won for the best loyalty credit card. I’d beg to differ, but again, oh well.
And the winners are…
Program of the Year
- Americas Airline: American Airlines AAdvantage
- Americas Hotel: Marriott Rewards
- Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: Jet Airways JetPrivilege
- Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: Taj InnerCircle
- Europe/Africa Airline: Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- Europe/Africa Hotel: Starwood Preferred Guest
Best Promotion for Earning
- Americas Airline: American Airlines AAdvantage
- Americas Hotel: Starwood Preferred Guest
- Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: Jet Airways JetPrivilege
- Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: Accor A|Club
- Europe/Africa Airline: Lufthansa Miles & More
- Europe/Africa Hotel: Starwood Preferred Guest
Best Promotion for Redemption
- Americas Airline: Delta Air Lines SkyMiles
- Americas Hotel: Marriott Rewards
- Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: El Al Matmid Club
- Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: Starwood Preferred Guest
- Europe/Africa Airline: Lufthansa Miles & More
- Europe/Africa Hotel: Starwood Preferred Guest
Best Redemption Ability
- Americas Airline: TAM Fidelidade
- Americas Hotel: Marriott Rewards
- Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: Etihad Airways Etihad Guest
- Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: Taj InnerCircle
- Europe/Africa Airline: airBaltic BalticMiles
- Europe/Africa Hotel: Starwood Preferred Guest
Best Customer Service
- Americas Airline: American Airlines AAdvantage
- Americas Hotel: Marriott Rewards
- Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: Jet Airways JetPrivilege
- Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: Taj InnerCircle
- Europe/Africa Airline: Lufthansa Miles & More
- Europe/Africa Hotel: Starwood Preferred Guest
Best Elite Program
- Americas Airline: American Airlines AAdvantage
- Americas Hotel: Marriott Rewards
- Middle East/Asia/Oceania Airline: Etihad Airways Etihad Guest
- Middle East/Asia/Oceania Hotel: Hyatt Gold Passport
- Europe/Africa Airline: airBaltic BalticMiles
- Europe/Africa Hotel: Starwood Preferred Guest
Best Loyalty Credit Card
- Americas: Delta SkyMiles American Express
- Middle East/Asia/Oceania: Etihad Guest Above Credit Card
- Europe/Africa: Turkish Airlines Shop&Miles Garanti Credit Card
Will any of you be attending Frequent Traveler University this weekend (also in NJ)? I will now be presenting with some others on Sunday on the topic of best credit cards. Hope to see some of you there!
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Delta was tweeting last night, as if they swept the awards #misleading
@Jason – Yeah, they were on top of their social media for sure.
[…] 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 […]
Seems a lot of bloggers at the Freddies. Were you guys comped?
@HikerT – Yup, many bloggers were there and not 1 person was comped. Even the bloggers who are helping to run the event had to pay for their own airfare. We all paid our own way, whether it be gas, hotels, airfare and then also took off a day or two from work, so this was anything but comped! But an awesome time nonetheless!
Talking about the usefulness of Marriott Megabonus Category 1-4 free night certificate. I used it for my friends trip to Hangzhou, China. There is a Category 3 JW Marriott there. The rate for the night I booked was 1388 CNY (about 219.99 USD) which I believe is a superb value.
My friend’s room was at 25th floor (out of 26 total) with the beautiful west lake view.
@Ryan – That’s awesome!
Those Marriott Megabonus certificates are far from useless — we just returned from a nice Rhode Island family vacation using them by staying at a SpringHill Suites — it was fine. Loved getting that $0 bill at the end! 🙂
Each of those Cat 1-4 Certif’s are worth up to 20,000 points or $200+. Far from useless!
Why do you think American Airlines won for program of the year?
[…] can read about it at Rapid Travel Chai and at Mommy Points. Deals We Like covered the results. So did the Points Guy. And Live and Let’s […]