Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

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.

British Airways Executive Club status cards

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

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable 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

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 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

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year 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.

Comments (81)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Rich says:

    Well it has caused a few people to worry. Their GP is on standby, by phone only though, just in case they need help getting through it.

    • Rich says:

      That was a reply to a much earlier post btw – which hasn’t posted in the right place,

  • LostAntipod says:

    In a world where companies with modern IT prepare their cutovers offline, and implement them at times of low usage eg. Sunday nights, it’s so refreshing to see BA adopt a system upgrade approach right out of the 1980s.
    I won’t mention application containerisation , in case someone thinks I am talking about hold cargo pallets.

  • Thomas says:

    Oh $#@!, last time they fiddled with my account, they transposed my details with my aerclub and vueling, deleted one and compromised my data – Soooo looking fwd to this!

  • Roger says:

    Rob / Rhys,

    anything that you can share with wider audience?
    Hope there is no negatives news.

    • Rhys says:

      If we had something to share with a wider audience we would put it in the article!

      In this case we don’t actually know, either. Just speculation.

  • Ruben Menezes says:

    OTP – I have a BA companion voucher which expires early Jan 2022. I was hoping to use it for a long haul flight (but we all know what happened there…). Does anyone have any advice of what I can do under this situation and not lose the voucher completely. Any suggestions would be highly welcomed.

    • ChrisC says:

      Use the Manchester Strategy.

      Mentioned virtually every day in the main daily chat threads.

  • Ed says:

    Wonder if it might have any implications for anyone with a -90k Iberia balance

  • Diane says:

    After getting cut off 4 times this week on the phone to BA, (after holding for just over an hour each time) trying to book first leg of a 2-4-1 voucher trip, I just bit the bullet and booked my first leg online. This will cost me about £150 more as I will now need to book 2 x 1 way tickets. I am now dreading the same thing happening and me just not being able to get though to book the return leg. Has anyone got any tips on how to get through, best time to phone, or if the option of phoning a call centre abroad would be the best plan ? Any advice gratefully received. Thanks

    • DR says:

      Personally I have phoned the USA and they will do it – I normally start trying to phone
      about 15 mins before either 12am or 1am (time of year) our time – too early and they
      will advise you phone back – the USA call centre (which of course you are speaking to someone in the UK) even converted a FTV for our latest itinerary

  • Russel says:

    Will you be able to change or cancel Avios flights during that period?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.