Golden Loyalty Awards

The Golden Loyalty Awards 2025 will celebrate excellence in the field of loyalty and provide you with a unique opportunity to gain recognition in front of a global loyalty audience. Winning or being nominated is great publicity for your company, demonstrating the brilliant work your team has completed over the last twelve months. Make sure they get the recognition they deserve by entering!

Winners in the airlines/partners categories will be invited to join a panel session on the closing day of the event, alongside the other category winners to showcase their initiative to the rest of the conference audience.

For suppliers, participating in the Golden Loyalty Awards is the best opportunity to get precious on-stage exposure: The three top-listed nominations will get that unique opportunity to pitch their innovations to the audience on the main stage.

Previous winners have demonstrated creative solutions to loyalty challenges and have achieved proven success with their strategies. Past winners, among others, include: Accor, Aegean Airlines, Air France KLM, Air New Zealand, British Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Finnair, Global Hotel Alliance, Iberia, Norwegian Reward, Qantas, Shangri-La and Velocity.

The winners will be presented a trophy with their logo engraved. Beyond that, we support all winners with full support to maximise their exposure, incl.:

• Presentation of their winning campaign to the Loyalty & Awards audience on stage
• Press release the day following the ceremony, also shared with PR departments of winners
  
• Marketing package for winners
• Photo material
• Publication on Loyalty & Awards website
• Post-event mailing to our entire database presenting the winners

Moreover, sponsoring the Golden Loyalty Awards is also an excellent opportunity for those who want to associate their brand with the best practices and innovations in the industry, and be acknowledged for that. Learn more here or contact Anna Khomukha directly.

• Nominations of airlines/partners may be submitted until 19 August 2025, 23:59h CET (GMT+2). Winners will be announced at the gala dinner at Loyalty & Awards 2025 only - no exceptions. The Supplier and Lifetime Achievement award categories only are open for nominations until 05 September 2025, 23:59h CET.
  

• Airlines/partners may choose to enter in several categories, but only one entry per category is allowed.

• Entries for the category "Best Supplier Innovation" are not available to airlines/partners. The “Best Supplier Innovation” is exclusive to suppliers with a minimum spend of 1,000 EUR on sponsorship items at the event, and suppliers may not enter in any other category.

• Entries for the category "Best Lifetime Achievement" are for individuals. Nominations are open both for self-nominations as well as for nominations of other persons.

• Airlines/partners: An executive representative of your company needs to be available to join the winners’ panel that will be held on 22 October 2025 at the event in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Winners/shortlisted candidates will not be published upfront and will be announced at the Awards gala dinner on 21 October 2025. Any nominating company not having registered at least one executive representative to attend the event by 19 August 2025 will be excluded from the nomination process.

• Suppliers: The three top nominations as determined by the judging panel will be invited to present their case in front of the audience on 21 October 2025 during a 8-minute presentation each. In that case, an executive representative of your company needs to be available for that presentation. All nominees will be informed by 24 September 2025 whether they figure among the three top nominations or not, but names will not be made public ahead of the event. The overall winner will be announced at the Awards gala dinner on 21 October 2025.

• The innovation/achievement your nomination refers to must have been launched between September 2024 and August 2025 in order to be retained. This does not apply to the Lifetime Achievement category.

• Your nomination must include clear KPIs underlining the success of your initiative.

• Your entry must be submitted online over the conference website. It must consist of a full description with a maximum of 3,000 characters (ca. 500 words) and of a summary with a maximum of 300 characters (ca. 50 words). The summary only might be made public. Optional supporting material can be submitted in addition to your entry as required.

• All information provided regarding the nomination stay confidential, only shared with our judges. Exception for the summary and for any marketing material provided that can be used by our media partner Bluewater for commercial purposes. Make sure to not include any sensitive content in these items.

• These guidelines also represent the official terms & conditions of the Golden Loyalty Awards.

Who can enter?
Entry is open to any loyalty program operators including airlines and non-airline loyalty program partners that have completed a new project or initiative between September 2024 and August 2025.

Suppliers/consultants are only able to apply for the Best Supplier Innovation category, but we encourage them to work with their airline/partner clients to produce a nomination for the other four categories. Supplier entries are only accepted from sponsors spending a minimum amount of 1,000 EUR on sponsorship items at the event.

What is the closing date for entries?
All nominations need to be submitted by Wednesday, 19 August 2025, 23:59h CET (GMT+2) except for the Supplier of the Year and the Best Lifetime Achievement awards (nominations will be accepted until 05 September 2025, 23:59h CET).

Which category should I enter?
Please read the category descriptions above and select the best fit for your project or initiative. However, if the organisers believe your entry would be more successful in another category, they will inform you directly.

Can I enter more than one category?
Airlines/partners can submit an entry for multiple categories, however, an entry form must be submitted for each award you enter.

What makes a winning entry?
Past winners have demonstrated creative thinking, innovative implementation and proven success in form of meaningful KPIs. Keep in mind that the judges are all loyalty professional, applying hance an inside look at the nominations! For more top tips - click here!

When will the winners be announced?
The winners will be announced during the Gala dinner held on Tuesday, 21 October 2025.

What is the cost of entering?
Submitting a nomination is free of charge, but we require attendance of at least one delegate at the event (airlines/partners) and a minimum spend on sponsorship items of 1,000 EUR for suppliers. Any nominating company (airlines/partners) not having registered at least one executive representative to attend the event by 19 August 2025 will be excluded from the nomination process.

Start now

Give yourself plenty of time to complete your entry. Writing against a deadline leads to rushing and compromise - give yourself the chance to submit your best possible entry. Submitting last minute won't give us a chance to get back to you if we feel that any enhancement to your nomination might increase your chances to win.

Choose the appropriate category

Make sure the category you have chosen is relevant to your project or initiative. Sometimes it can even happen that companies submit the same initiative in two categories with a slightly different description of the content. If you feel your initiative would fit well in two categories, please feel free to take this approach and your nomination will be considered under both categories separately.

Be clear, concise and avoid jargon

Avoid over-technical language and unexplained acronyms, especially those specific to your company. Specific facts and figures make things easy to understand and will ensure the judges can extract the relevant information quickly and easily. The quicker you get to the point, the easier it will be for the judges to understand the key elements. While the judges all have relevant experience, they won’t necessarily know the intricacies of your program. If it’s relevant to your entry, then describe the particular challenges you face.

Provide evidence

It is mandatory to go beyond marketing materials and provide concrete insights as to how successful your initiative was. Nominations will be judged in terms of creativity and results. Not providing sufficient quantitative insights into the results will not give you any chance to win. All information provided is confidential (except for the 50-word summary), so you can be assured that anything you provide will stay confidential to the judges.

Company size isn’t important

Judges take into account the relative size of each company involved and make their decision on the basis of the evidence in front of them. Small companies have succeeded in several categories in previous years.

Supporting materials

If you are going to include supporting materials; independent feedback, quotes or weblinks within your entry, then some guidance and context as to what they contain and why they are relevant is important. Tables, graphs, diagrams or images are usually very helpful and should be provided as supporting material.