Denver airport named best in America

NEW YORK -- Denver International Airport was named the best airport in North America for business travel in a survey by Business Traveler magazine.

Denver knocked O'Hare International Airport out of the top spot in the annual poll by Business Traveler magazine. The Chicago airport had been named No. 1 by survey respondents for the previous six years.

Despite its financial struggles, United Airlines won top honors in the categories of best frequent flyer program and best airline in North America. United is restructuring in order to emerge from Chapter 11 in February.

Singapore Airlines was named best airline in the world, and British Airways won for best business class service.

In awards for hotels, The Peninsula Chicago was named best individual hotel for business travel, while the Marriott won for best hotel chain in North America and for having the best hotel rewards program. The survey named Hilton as the best first-class hotel chain for business travel and Hampton Inn as the best economy hotel chain for business travel.

Business Traveler readers gave Orbitz the No. 1 spot in the category of best Web site for booking travel, while American Airlines won for having the best airline Web site.

The magazine's award for best credit card went to American Express, which was also honored for having the best credit card rewards program.

Hertz won for best car rental company.

Business Traveler has conducted its reader poll annually for 17 years. This year's survey was sent to a randomly selected sample of 2,000 of the magazine's 60,000 subscribers. Nearly 500 responded.

Complete results of the survey, which polled readers' top picks in 39 categories, are in the magazine's December-January issue.