British Airways Executive Club frequent flyers have their airmiles grounded
(2021/11/18)
- Reference: 1637259910
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/11/18/ba_exec_club_down/
- Source link:
UK airline, British Airways, is improving its Executive Club frequent flyer programme by, er, removing access.
The company told loyal customers: "From the afternoon of 13 November 2021 until the morning of 17 November 2021 (GMT), you'll be unable to log in to your Executive Club account or spend your Avios online or by contacting us" – but as of today, things continued to be down. And just in time for the easing of travel restrictions, too.
Exactly what British Airways was and is still doing during this time is unclear. Attempts to login are greeted with a terse "We're improving the Executive Club", although having flown on the airline, we hesitate to think what those improvements might be.
[1]
Click to enlarge
After all, it recently dispensed with complimentary inflight catering on short-haul flights in favour of having its cheerful cabin crew charge passengers for Marks & Spencer sandwiches. Still, it's an improvement on having an aircraft [2]squirt plane-juice into one's lap , as experienced by this hack on one of the company's elderly Boeing 777s.
British Airways and IT competence are words that rarely seem to appear in the same sentence, as evidenced by incidents such the [3]great 2018 data blurt, in which the airline's systems were compromised for over two weeks.
[4]
Register reader David, a member of the Executive Club or, as he put it, "just another member that's noticed how rubbish their IT is," pointed out the problem.
[5]
[6]
Other users took to the forums to remark on the woes. One [7]remarked : "Anyone who works in IT will be killing themselves laughing at a scheduled outage of nearly 4 days! For any modern business it's just unthinkable being offline for that long.
"Speaks volumes as to the God-awful mess their backend systems and processes must be in."
[8]EasyJet flight loadsheet snafu caused by software 'code errors' says UK safety agency
[9]RAF chief: Our Reaper drones (sorry, SkyGuardians) stand ready to help British councils
[10]Japan's aerospace agency hooks up with Boeing to make planes quieter when they land
[11]Engineers' Laurel and Hardy moment caused British Airways 787 to take an accidental knee
Harsh. But, if one has ever found oneself at the sharp, pointy end of British Airways' systems, fair. Even non-customer facing systems tend to totter occasionally – in 2018 flights were grounded after [12]loading systems fell over .
The Register contacted British Airways to check what has befallen its Executive Club, but the company has yet to respond.
[13]
In the meantime, we can console ourselves that, along with a return to travel, there is also a return to the good, old fashioned, BA cockup. ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/11/18/ba.jpg
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2019/11/07/blood_snot_fears_ignite/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2018/09/06/british_airways_hacked/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YZbbHw52dhVSUI33lT2@CwAAAQs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YZbbHw52dhVSUI33lT2@CwAAAQs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YZbbHw52dhVSUI33lT2@CwAAAQs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.headforpoints.com/2021/11/12/avios-and-british-airways-executive-club-accounts-unavailable/comment-page-2/#comment-737082
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/18/easyjet_loadsheet_snafu_code_errors/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/10/raf_skyguardian_drones_local_authorities_help/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/20/jaxa_boeing_acoustic_research/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/19/ba_787_landing_gear_pin_aaib_report/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2018/07/19/amadeus_british_airways_outage_load_sheet/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YZbbHw52dhVSUI33lT2@CwAAAQs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The company told loyal customers: "From the afternoon of 13 November 2021 until the morning of 17 November 2021 (GMT), you'll be unable to log in to your Executive Club account or spend your Avios online or by contacting us" – but as of today, things continued to be down. And just in time for the easing of travel restrictions, too.
Exactly what British Airways was and is still doing during this time is unclear. Attempts to login are greeted with a terse "We're improving the Executive Club", although having flown on the airline, we hesitate to think what those improvements might be.
[1]
Click to enlarge
After all, it recently dispensed with complimentary inflight catering on short-haul flights in favour of having its cheerful cabin crew charge passengers for Marks & Spencer sandwiches. Still, it's an improvement on having an aircraft [2]squirt plane-juice into one's lap , as experienced by this hack on one of the company's elderly Boeing 777s.
British Airways and IT competence are words that rarely seem to appear in the same sentence, as evidenced by incidents such the [3]great 2018 data blurt, in which the airline's systems were compromised for over two weeks.
[4]
Register reader David, a member of the Executive Club or, as he put it, "just another member that's noticed how rubbish their IT is," pointed out the problem.
[5]
[6]
Other users took to the forums to remark on the woes. One [7]remarked : "Anyone who works in IT will be killing themselves laughing at a scheduled outage of nearly 4 days! For any modern business it's just unthinkable being offline for that long.
"Speaks volumes as to the God-awful mess their backend systems and processes must be in."
[8]EasyJet flight loadsheet snafu caused by software 'code errors' says UK safety agency
[9]RAF chief: Our Reaper drones (sorry, SkyGuardians) stand ready to help British councils
[10]Japan's aerospace agency hooks up with Boeing to make planes quieter when they land
[11]Engineers' Laurel and Hardy moment caused British Airways 787 to take an accidental knee
Harsh. But, if one has ever found oneself at the sharp, pointy end of British Airways' systems, fair. Even non-customer facing systems tend to totter occasionally – in 2018 flights were grounded after [12]loading systems fell over .
The Register contacted British Airways to check what has befallen its Executive Club, but the company has yet to respond.
[13]
In the meantime, we can console ourselves that, along with a return to travel, there is also a return to the good, old fashioned, BA cockup. ®
* Total Inability To Spend User Points
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/11/18/ba.jpg
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2019/11/07/blood_snot_fears_ignite/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2018/09/06/british_airways_hacked/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YZbbHw52dhVSUI33lT2@CwAAAQs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YZbbHw52dhVSUI33lT2@CwAAAQs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YZbbHw52dhVSUI33lT2@CwAAAQs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.headforpoints.com/2021/11/12/avios-and-british-airways-executive-club-accounts-unavailable/comment-page-2/#comment-737082
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/18/easyjet_loadsheet_snafu_code_errors/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/10/raf_skyguardian_drones_local_authorities_help/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/20/jaxa_boeing_acoustic_research/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/19/ba_787_landing_gear_pin_aaib_report/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2018/07/19/amadeus_british_airways_outage_load_sheet/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YZbbHw52dhVSUI33lT2@CwAAAQs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: The nice sharp pointy end is on a Concorde
Fruit and Nutcase
I read somewhere that Sir Arthur Marshall was quite proud of the fact the part of Concorde that would reach it's destination first was built by Marshall of Cambridge.
Re: The nice sharp pointy end is on a Concorde
Foxglove
I have a very nice model of Concorde courtesy of BA's shit service.
A 10 hour flight from Denver to London (years ago) with a broken entertainment system (I only ever have the map view 'cos I'm a nerd) and dodgy aircon meaning I left bored and dehydrated.
I complained, as I always do if I'm unhappy with a service, and got a £200 voucher to spend on their website.
I opted for a Concorde model, it's the sort you would see in travel agents' window display.
Quite large, very beautiful.
Not as large as the real thing but I like it.
I doubt if BA would even reply to a complaint these days.
For obvious reasons I haven't flown for a while but my last few short haul flights were with easyJet.
Better service on board than BA.
Cheaper than BA.
Better customer service than BA. (Yes I did need to contact them - my fault but they were very helpful).
The nice sharp pointy end is on a Concorde
Sadly retired...
I haven't been a member for years, since I stopped flying so much for the company, but I was impressed with their apology for losing my reservation one time from New York to LHR. They did get me on the plane - middle seat of five on the back row, in a plane returning New York Marathon runners to London, mostly without benefit of shower...
They kindly sent me a dozen bottle of wine to apologise - which was nice. Shame that the delivery driver lobbed it over my eight foot fence onto a concrete driveway.