Qatar Airways club wins top awards

QATAR Airways Privilege Club (frequent flyer programme) has won eight major awards at the annual Freddie Awards in the United States.

Over 450,000 frequent flyers cast their votes in numerous categories covering the airline, hotel and car rental industry.

Named after the airline industry veteran, the late Sir Freddie Laker who pioneered low-cost travel across the Atlantic, the awards represent “excellence in frequent travel programmes.”

Qatar Airways's awards included the one for the “Loyalty Programme of the Year in Europe, the Middle East and Africa region.”

The awards were presented at a ceremony held at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia.

Recently, Qatar Airways had won the Frequent Flyer Programme Innovation Gold Award in Vancouver, Canada.

The full winning list for Qatar Airways at the 2007 Freddie Awards includes “Programme of the Year Europe, the Middle East and Africa”, “Best Newsletter and Communications, Europe, the Middle East and Africa”, “Best Newsletter and Communications, Asia Pacific”, “Best Website, Asia Pacific”, “Best Customer Service, Asia Pacific”, “Best Customer Service, Europe, Middle East and Africa”, “Best Award Redemption, Europe, the Middle East and Africa” and “Best Elite Level Programme, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.”

Qatar Airways chief executive officer Akbar al-Baker expressed his delight at the latest awards and said it came at an historic time for the airline as it prepared its entry into the US market this summer.

“For an airline that has not yet even started flying to the US, being recognised with these awards is a true recognition of Qatar Airways's position as a quality, international airline in a highly competitive market where frequent flyers are savvy travellers.

The accolades awarded to Qatar Airways Privilege Club demonstrate the hard work and dedication by our staff in making our loyalty programme one of choice for frequent flyers, he said.

“We recognise that frequent travellers spend a lot of time on the road and in the air and I wish to offer my sincere thanks to voters for endorsing Qatar Airways and our Privilege Club.

“We already have a good database of Privilege Club members in the United States, which we expect will grow significantly over the next few weeks and months as we step up our activities to promote our new flights to the United States this summer,” al-Baker added.

Qatar Airways set to launch four flights a week between Doha and New York on June 26, followed by non-stop daily flights from Doha to Washington DC beginning July 19.
Senior manager (loyalty) Iain Webster said the latest awards reflected the amount of work Qatar Airways Privilege Club had put into re-launching its programme to become “one of choice”.

“It is gratifying to receive such overwhelming support from frequent flyers, especially as we recently relaunched Privilege Club and redeveloped our website where members are able to access their accounts and redeem Qmiles for flight awards on-line.

“Qatar Airways Privilege Club has made great strides over the past few years with new benefits and features for our members. We are also proud to have introduced the world's first self-service frequent flyer recruitment kiosk at Doha International Airport, where new members can enroll and receive their membership card within minutes,” he said.

Source: Gulf Times Newspaper