British Airways Executive Club ‘unavailable’ for 3 days in November

You may already have received the email that BA Executive Club will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance and improvements to the underlying tech.

All British Airways customers are being emailed today to warn of a scheduled outage of ALL Executive Club functions for a 3.5 day period, between 3pm on the 13th and midnight on the 16th of November, so that you can plan ahead.

What will happen?

ALL Executive Club functionality will be unavailable during the scheduled improvements. That means you WON’T be able to:

• Check your Avios balance or transactions
• Redeem your Avios for flights or any other redemptions
• Combine your Avios
• Transfer Avios to another member
• Claim missing Avios
• Change or update your Executive Club personal information including email address, address, password etc
• Manage your Household Account, Family & Friends or travel companions list

The engineering work does NOT affect flights and you will still be able to add your BA Executive Club number to any flights you take. You can still check in and use Manage My Booking as normal.

It only affects British Airways Executive Club – Iberia Plus, AerClub and Avios.com accounts will remain unaffected.

Will Avios transactions still post?

Yes. Any Avios transactions during the downtime (which could include Avios being deposited in your account from flights taken, or from Amex, or other partners) will credit once the scheduled work has completed.

They may take a little longer to appear whilst BA works through all Avios earned globally during the period.

Why is the outage happening?

Whilst not confirmed, this is likely to be related to the ‘Global Loyalty Platform’ project which has been ongoing at IAG for several years.

The platform would form a global hub for all Avios programs rather than having them managed separately by British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus etc, in a similar structure to how milesandmore.com is the single hub for all Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, LOT and Brussels Airlines mileage activity.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)