Voter Profile

Legend
Freddie Awards focus on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined not by how many votes a program receives but by the overall merits of each program as reflected in "Value Voting." Value Voting asks the voter to assign a number between one and 10 to the program he or she votes for - 10 representing the highest member value. The popular vote is still important; however to be eligible to win a Freddie Award, a program must receive at least one percent of the votes received in the category.

History and Facts
For 18 years, frequent travelers have made their picks for the best frequent traveler programs via the Freddie Awards. Introduced by InsideFlyer magazine publisher Randy Petersen in 1988, the Freddies allow members to rank programs from their point of view. The awards have grown in stature and importance and are the most prestigious consumer-generated awards in the industry.

The Freddies were inspired by the late Sir Freddie Laker, who in 1978 was knighted by Queen Elizabeth ll for his contribution to commercial aviation and the British economy. Known for his pioneering marketing ideas within the travel industry, Laker founded Britain's first all-jet air carrier, Laker Airways Limited. He also founded the "SKYTRAIN" service, which revolutionized the airline industry by offering no-reservation, low-cost air service. Mr. Laker passed away on February 9th, 2006.

In 1995 the option to vote online was introduced and now all voting is done via the Internet. This year's co-sponsors of the Freddies are Points.com, Awards For Mortgages And Real Estate, Priority Pass, Executive Travel/SkyGuide, BookingBuddy.com and InsideFlyer. These partnerships allow not only the readers of InsideFlyer magazine, but all travelers, the opportunity to choose the best programs that airlines, hotels and credit card companies have to offer.

This year, over 390,000 voters participated. To ensure accuracy, votes were subject to no less than six audits using a variety of technology (68 different types of reports were referenced). We used only ballots that had been confirmed by those voting. A total of 103,330 ballots could not be confirmed, 83,400 from the Americas, 9,079 from the Europe, Middle East and Africa area and 10,851 from the Japan, Pacific, Asia, Australia area.

Demographics
Of those that voted, 50,019 generously took a few minutes to complete a profile. Here are some of the highlights:

• 73% redeemed more than one award in the past year
• 21% redeemed four or more awards in the past year
• 3% took 30 or more trips in the past year
• 53% carry two or more credit cards that earn either miles or points
• 71% are elite members of at least one program
• 37% are elite members of two or more programs
• 66% are male
• 34% are female
• 53% consider themselves business travelers
• 47% consider themselves leisure travelers
• 48% have individual incomes over $80,000
• 77% are college graduates
• 41% have completed some postgraduate work
• 6% have more than 1,000,000 miles and points in all accounts

• Took an average of 13.6 domestic trips in the past year
• Took an average of 3.1 international trips in the past year
• Belongs to 3.1 airline programs
• Belongs to 2.9 hotel programs
• Has 225,000 total miles and points
• Is 52 years old

• Votes were cast from 164 regions/countries
• 31% of voters had voted in previous Freddie Awards
• Voters for the Americas Freddies: 306,470
• Voters for the Europe, Middle East, Africa Freddies: 42,204
• Voters for the Japan, Pacific, Asia, Australia Freddies: 41,729
• Total votes cast: 390,403 accounting for 19,910,502 individual choices
• 100% of the votes were cast via the Internet
• 103,330 ballots were eliminated from voting (did not confirm vote via follow-up email)
• Ballots were subject to six audits before results were finalized
• 23% increase of the numbers of voters from last year

The Awards Ceremony
This year, the Freddie Awards were held at the Four Points Sheraton Los Angeles International Airport in the California Ballroom where almost 300 guests of the industry, media and program members gathered. We'd like to extend a very sincere thanks to the employees at the hotel who provided expert assistance in working out all the ceremony details. We could not have asked for better treatment and the service provided by all hotel employees was outstanding in every respect.

Notes
Word is getting around; last year we had voters from 156 regions/countries of the world, this year 164. Most of the new voters continue to come from the Middle East, India and Asia. Traveling appears to once again be on the rise as reflected in our numbers. Last year the average number of domestic trips taken was 13.6, this year it was 14.9. Members also have once again confirmed that they no longer need to belong to several frequent flyer programs to gain the benefit of building miles into a single frequent flyer account. Thanks to the benefits of the many alliances of airlines and frequent flyer programs around the world, travelers have streamlined the programs that they belong, to reap the maximum rewards that are offered. The business/leisure traveler mix is holding steady at 53/47 percent. Today, everyone has miles and this is reflected in the makeup of members voting in the Freddies.