In years’ past, the May issue of InsideFlyer has typically been our “Freddie Issue”–the issue where we announced the winners of the annual Freddie Awards naming “the best” of travel loyalty programs in several categories. As you no doubt have heard, the Freddie Awards are no longer. In light of this, we were interested in a recent poll conducted by the StarTribune.com from Minneapolis-St. Paul titled, “Whose frequent flyer program is best?” Winning (when we last checked), with 21.9 percent of the vote was, not too surprisingly, Southwest Rapid Rewards. What some might find a bit surprising, is that Delta SkyMiles was a breath away from being voted the best at 21.4 percent. American AAdvantage came in at third place with 17.4 percent of the vote. At the bottom of the barrel (of only six airlines) was US Airways with 4.3 percent of the vote. We should point out the editor’s note below the survey, “Instant polls are intended as entertainment. They are not considered to be true measurements of public opinion.”

Running concurrently, USA Today ran an online survey asking basically the same question to choose from the same six airlines, “Which U.S. airline has the best frequent flyer program?” Southwest Rapid Rewards was once again at the top with 28 percent of the vote, followed by Delta SkyMiles with 22 percent of the vote. The bottom again was represented by US Airways at seven percent of the vote.

You can view the Star Tribune survey at http://insideflyerus.wpengine.com/link/?2386 and the USA Today survey at http://insideflyerus.wpengine.com/link/?2387