Virgin Blue's loyalty program, "Velocity", has taken out the "Best Award Redemption" title (Asia Pacific region) for the second time in two years. The program was also ranked in the top five in seven out of the nine categories, including running 2nd for 'Best Bonus Promotion' and 3rd for 'Program of The Year' and 'Best Website'.

The prestigious awards were announced at the recent 19th Annual Freddie Awards in the United States which are designed to acknowledge excellence among frequent travel programs in the airline, hotel and credit card industries.

Recognised as the premier consumer-generated awards in the industry, the Freddies allow frequent flyers from 164 countries and regions to rank their favourite travel programs according to merit. The voting is focused on the quality and value derived from the programs, not just on the number of votes received.

Over 430,000 travellers from the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Japan, Pacific, Asia and Australia voted in this year's awards.

Virgin Blue Chief Executive, Brett Godfrey, said, "When we launched Velocity, our vision was to create a loyalty program that was of genuine value to members and most importantly, transparent and easy to redeem points. We are proud the program has achieved that goal and been recognised for the second year running by the very people who use our program."

He continued, "The 'any seat redemption' policy is all about giving travellers the flexibility to use their points and we are pleased travellers are taking advantage of this new found freedom. Points are pointless if you can't go where you want, when you want", he finished.

Virgin Blue's Velocity, launched in November 2005, revolutionised the way members redeem points by offering an 'any' seat redemption policy for the first time in the Australian market.

Other key Velocity benefits include free online membership and no blackout periods and an increasing stable of partners offering a range of earn and burn opportunities ranging from airlines, hotels and car hire to flowers, food and wine.