British Airways On Business points extended to June 2024 – website still down after 6 months

There was a spark of life from the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme yesterday.

If you are a member, you should have received an email with your current points balance, albeit you can’t verify it because there is no transaction breakdown.

It is now an astonishing six months since the On Business website went down. Even by the standards of British Airways IT, this is quite an achievement.

I have been told by two separate sources what has happened, although I can’t repeat it. That said, is anything really so bad that you can’t resuscitate a website after SIX MONTHS?

The good news is that all On Business points have been extended until the end of June 2024.

You can still earn and spend On Business points

You CAN still make redemptions by calling On Business. You can’t check availability online, but as On Business seats are driven by the availability of the cheapest cash fares you can get a decent steer by pricing up a cash seat on ba.com. I managed to book one myself so it is definitely possible.

According to Flyertalk, the fare buckets you need are:

• First Class – A
• Club World / Europe – R
• World Traveller Plus – T
• Euro / World Traveller – V

Go into ba.com, try to book a cash seat on the flight you want, look at the fare bucket shown (click on the flight number during the booking process) and if its A / R / T / V then the On Business callc entre should be able to book it.

Whilst On Business points are – in theory – being added for cash flights you take, there is no easy way to check this. It is a revenue based scheme, with the points earned based on what you paid for your ticket less certain taxes and charges, so working out what you are due is very difficult.

How does On Business work?

If you’re not familiar with it, On Business is the other British Airways loyalty programme. Instead of rewarding flyers, it rewards your company when you travel.

It is fundamentally the same as Avios in structure. You earn On Business Points for every flight your company books. They can then be redeemed for flights or for upgrades.

You can collect both Avios and On Business Points on the same flight. You collect Avios as a flyer and On Business Points as a company.

We have a two-part overview of On Business here. You can’t join at present until the website comes back to life.

Fresh applications for the British Airways Accelerating Business American Express card also remain suspended. This card awards bonus On Business points for BA flight bookings, plus Avios for day to day spending.

At least, based on the email yesterday, the scheme is not dead and buried – although at this stage I think the majority of members would accept a ‘1:4’ or ‘1:5’ conversion rate into Avios and walk away.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 2023)

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:

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

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

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.

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.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

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.

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