A New British Airways Executive Club App Is Launched & I Have No Idea Why

a screenshot of a phone

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British Airways has launched a new app for its Executive Club members (free to join here) and, having seen the press release detailing all the joys and functionality of the new app, I’m left wondering why the airline has bothered developing this in the first place.

Here’s how British Airways describes the new app:

The app has a simple, intuitive design, to help members navigate its different features. These features include the ability to access and make purchases through the British Airways Avios eStore – an important way many members collect Avios. Customers can also see different ways they can spend their Avios including a helpful tool which says how many more Avios are needed until a member can book reward flights to different destinations. As well as this, customers can see the latest Avios deals, view their last five transactions, and buy Avios, view account details and access their statement via different links.

a screenshot of a phone

There’s a very good chance that I’m being old-fashioned and out of touch here (I’m sure someone will tell me soon enough!) but do all that many people really shop through the BA portal on their phones? Isn’t most online shopping done from tablets, laptops and desktops where everything can be viewed a lot more easily?

I know that I can already view my recent Avios transactions on the existing British Airways app so that essentially means that BA has built a new app just to show people how to spend their avios and to allow them to buy some more.

Why?!

a screenshot of a phone

Carolina Martinoli, British Airways’ Director of Brand and Customer Experience, is quoted as saying the following:

The app is a great way that members can manage their balance and stay up-to-date with the latest ways to collect and spend Avios anywhere in the world. And with handy tools like the ability to see how many Avios are needed to book reward flights, we hope it’ll help members make the most of their balances.

Well, members can already mange their Avios balance with the existing British Airways app so that means that this app is all about showing people how they can spend their Avios and how they can spend more money to get more Avios…and that’s about it.

Couldn’t this have simply been incorporated into the existing app?

Bottom Line

If BA had already had a good and stable website this new app would just go down as being a colossal waste of time…but BA doesn’t have a good or stable website.

The British Airways website is one of the buggiest airline sites I’ve ever encountered and yet here we have BA using their IT department (such as it is) to develop a mostly pointless app when they could have been ironing out all the issues with the existing IT infrastructure instead.

I have no idea who green-lighted this new app but they clearly have no idea what BA loyalists really need and clearly have no understanding of how frustrating the existing website can be.

Whoever authorised the development of this app over fixing the website should be out of a job by the end of the day….sadly they won’t be.

4 COMMENTS

  1. Hmmm, the app you show there looks suspiciously like the former AVIOS app before it was recently discontinued. Avios was set up by IAG as a separate company and many UK brands had direct relationships with that (rather than BA). Now that IAG decided to close the Avios company as a standalone company and merge everyone into BAEC accounts, I assume they are just repurposing the app.

    • Ah…that’s interesting. So it’s not actually new after all….just rebranded and reissued as “new”.

  2. Could this be part of the reason that I cannot enter the BA site from Canada? For the last three days I have to go to the US site, change countries to Canada and then the site functions for me.

    • Anything is possible when it comes to BA’s IT but I’d guess that there’s some other issue at play here…I’m just not sure what it could be.

      Just to check that it’s BA and not something else I’d try clearing your cache and see if that helps.

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