Velocity wins a Freddie - Congrats

[markis10]

Congrats to VB on winning the Best Award Redemption, Frequent Flyer Program, Asia/Pacific Freddie last week, the only Aussie winner

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Pretty suspect. How many people really have taken awards on Velocity already?

 

[Damien]

Pretty suspect. How many people really have taken awards on Velocity already?

I suspect very few, but I really don't think they won because of their "ease of redemption" or even anything remotely related.

I think Velocity won because they were very new at the time of voting. Because of the nature of the airline, a lot of people who were previously happy to take lower fares instead of points suddenly started to care more about reward flights. This would have substantially elevated the number of votes submitted, and most of these votes would have been for Velocity - as the only program that these people were members of.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Even that seems suspicious. Many other programs in the region (remember it is Japan, Australia, NZ and pacific) have far more members than Velocity.

In fact I'm surprised there were enough votes for Velocity to even register.

 

[bambbbam2]

Sacre Bleu! :shock: Surely you aren't suggesting that some of these 'award' functions are in any way related to the sponsors?

:shock:

 

[serfty]

Even that seems suspicious. Many other programs in the region (remember it is Japan, Australia, NZ and pacific) have far more members than Velocity.

In fact I'm surprised there were enough votes for Velocity to even register.

Remember, the vote was not just a yes - no; it was a rating out of 10.

Maybe they had 7 people picking them and averaged 9.5. :roll:

(While Qantas had 3000 voters avergaing 6) :?

 

[Mal]

Why shouldn't DJ win a Freddie?

Their FF program is different and unique enough to actually be beneficial to Australians in the scheme.

Open redemption on rewards. Simple formula for working out how many points you'll earn etc etc etc.

Ability to book flights for friends (with a small charge - don't know how much!)

Free to join.

DJ deserve the freddie IMHO.

(Oh, and I think backlash against Qantas also helped )



// Removed reference to no fuel fines as there is a contribution towards taxes. What "taxes" means I don't know and not going to find out right now!

 

[serfty]

Besides all the above; The freddies might just well have little meaning.

Here's a thread on FT from the HHonors forum b•tching about Hilton not getting a mention: HH Skunked at the 18th Annual Freddies:

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Even that seems suspicious. Many other programs in the region (remember it is Japan, Australia, NZ and pacific) have far more members than Velocity.

In fact I'm surprised there were enough votes for Velocity to even register.

Remember, the vote was not just a yes - no; it was a rating out of 10.

Maybe they had 7 people picking them and averaged 9.5. :roll:

(While Qantas had 3000 voters avergaing 6) :?

My understanding of the methodology was they needed a minimum number of votes to win anything.

Another oddity is that Kris Flyer won an overall award despite consistently placing further down the rankings in the subcategories than some other asian FFPs.

 

[markis10]

They had 41K of voters for this award that could be confirmed as valid (Asia Pacific), thats not a bad sample and statistically quite a good one.

SPG did not feature as much as they have doen in the past, which to me represents the value fo their program that has been in decline for some time.

 

[QF WP]

Have just read my IF May edition (the joys of being off work sick )

To quote the editors:

If you haven't heard of VB Velocity, you're not alone. The ptogram is so new that it's barely out of the wrapper. Yet somehow it managed to garner enough votes not just to be included in this years Freedie's; but to win. Of course, availability is usually not a problem for a brand new program, so we'll see what next year brings

.

Correctly, it's not the number of votes cast that wins, it's the average ValueVote (rating between 1 and 10) of those that voted for Velocity. With 8.5 from 10, it's a good rating. It got 1.14% of the category votes (31,517); thus only 359 people voted for it. But they did mark it higher.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

IIRC a program needed at least 1% of votes made in a particular category in order to be considered for award. Clearly some categories get less votes than others. 30 odd thousand is not much in total for Australia, NZ and asia (which apparently includes middle east).

 

[NM]

IIRC a program needed at least 1% of votes made in a particular category in order to be considered for award. Clearly some categories get less votes than others. 30 odd thousand is not much in total for Australia, NZ and asia (which apparently includes middle east).

I wonder how many DJ staff were "encouraged" to participate in the voting process? Whatever way they got the votes, it was sure good for publicity.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

I wonder how many DJ staff were "encouraged" to participate in the voting process?

Surely you're not suggesting that the votes aren't anything other than happy Velocity members who have already gotten good value from the program?

 

[crazydave98]

NM, the first any of our staff outside of Velocity heard of the Freddies was when the award was announced, and I can assure you our Velocity staff are too few and too busy to be trying to rig a vote. If "staff participation" was a factor, surely Qantas with 10 times Virgin Blue's staff would have done a lot better? Maybe Qantas could run a competition amongst their staff - if you vote often enough you can gain immunity from the next mass eviction (1000 more staff to go at last count)?

KiwiFlyer, why is it so hard to believe that a lot of people are happy with where we gotten to with Velocity so far? We openly acknowledge it has a long way to go from the perspective of very high flyers such as yourselves, but we're working on it. We actively seek your views as evidenced by our participation in this forum, and as half a dozen members who met with Brett Godfrey a few months ago could attest to. We're committed to building and improving the program, especially the range of air & ground partners and recognition/benefits for our most active members. But this just doesn't happen overnight and it's also a bit of a chicken & egg process (as enhancements come on line we can gain more members which gains more partners which allows us to fund more enhancements...). We think our basic value proposition is a very solid starting point and that this is what the Freddie folk voted for. We're pleased, but not complacent.

cheers

CrazyDave98

 

[NM]

NM, the first any of our staff outside of Velocity heard of the Freddies was when the award was announced, and I can assure you our Velocity staff are too few and too busy to be trying to rig a vote. If "staff participation" was a factor, surely Qantas with 10 times Virgin Blue's staff would have done a lot better? Maybe Qantas could run a competition amongst their staff - if you vote often enough you can gain immunity from the next mass eviction (1000 more staff to go at last count)?

Hi Dave. Great to hear from you again. And congratulation on the Freddy award.

Perhaps your program's success was in part due to the dissatisfaction of many Qantas members that has resulted form their program "enhancements". With the way the voting works, votes can be positive or negative, and Velociy must have recevied a better mix than the other in the field.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

KiwiFlyer, why is it so hard to believe that a lot of people are happy with where we gotten to with Velocity so far?

Some good comments. I find it hard to believe there are a lot of folk who have already redeemed on Velocity, of the small proportion of travellers that know about the Freddies. Especially as DJ is in the same region as several major airlines with longstanding FFPs with more members.

Perhaps it is as NM suggests that there is a protest vote element. Perhaps it is people wanting to encourage Velocity to provide a good program (although yet to redeem awards themselves)?

Personally I have signed up but haven't used Velocity yet. Waiting to be won over. I do wish you all success, not least because some competition for QF in all facets can only be good.