Why is the BA app simply so bad?
 

Ever since the loyalty changes I have been flying more on other airlines. I've now got to experience multiple trips on Lufthansa, KLM, SAS and used their mobile apps and they are simply MILES ahead of BA in terms of mobile app. With the BA app I can't even view a booking let alone get boarding updates, transfer updates, baggage updates and the list is simply endless. Also as an Android user I feel like the Android app is neglected even more than the iOS app. If the other airlines are able to get this sort of technical uplift, why is BA so incapable? Even EasyJet has nice features like showing live FlightRadar24 updates of an inbound aircraft directly in the app. Surely BA can hire some better people to improve the app?

Your last sentence: therein lies the clue.

Because they still sell enough seats so as far as they are concerned the App is adequate

I agree wholeheartedly. I have to add that it is better than it was - but that is like saying that the fresh tasteless tomatoes are better than the week-old tasteless tomatoes that got slung in the bin. Of course BA could afford to hire superior people but that would cost a lot more than those engaged at the moment. BA's IT is, for an airline that considers itself prestige; unfit for purpose. I suppose that the next time that it crashes the Powers That Be will blame everyone but themselves.

That which maddens me most is when you are on hold to the Gold Line and this smug female intones that I can do most of this online. Do they think that I ring them for the want of something better to do? I could take my hairbrush to the lot of them.

Wholeheartedly agree with this experience(s). Having become a free agent, it’s obvious that other airlines (of a similar vintage) have worked out what should be in the app and what on the website.

Just to take one example, SAS. Their app will show you a low fares calendar in the app. The app will also show you how complete boarding is. It strikes me that the BA app really does show up the gulf in customer focus compared to “the market”.

The substandard quality of the app is, in reality, just another example of BA’s reluctance to invest serious money in certain aspects of the customer experience - until and unless exec management perceives there to be an identifiable correlation between ongoing failures and a decline in forward bookings.

In similar vein : Group Boarding by Priority (my own most recent experience in June being so poor it was actually comical !) which, years after first inception, remains highly inconsistent ; delays in picking up calls by Gold Members - as referenced by PUCCI G above. And various other issues too of course.

But whilst load factors and yields are high …….. why spend, and why worry ?

Back in early 2022 Mr Doyle sent his ‘jam tomorrow’ email to BAEC members, in which he stressed his commitment to restoring BA’s premium carrier status ……. or so it seemed. It was written almost in the style of apologia pro vita sua, but three and a half years on, there are still big question marks as to much has been achieved in terms of reversal of the Cruz-era cost-saving cutbacks.

The bit of that which always sticks with me is
3 years and 6 months later, no sign of it.

I wonder how important the App is to the majority of BA's customers especially oldies like myself? I downloaded the Lufty one and ran out of patience figuring out how to use the thing. We managed to take 4 flights just fine without it.

I think the app is a huge convenience for many travellers. A well-designed mobile app can save time and streamline the experience — from managing bookings and checking in to accessing boarding passes and receiving real-time updates. For example on the SAS app I can know whether or not I can spend more time in the lounge based on the boarding progress rather than sitting around the gate on BA. The LH one gives you transfer gate information and even walking directions as part of the app too.

There’s also untapped commercial potential. For example, on a recent KLM flight, the app offered me an Economy Comfort seat upgrade at a last-minute discount — all within a few taps. It’s a smart, targeted upsell that BA is currently missing, and something the mobile-first generation would definitely value.

I am old, fly a lot, and think it's very important. Accepting that a sample of 1 (2 if I include you) is not really representative, but I fly using AA in America and their app is just streets ahead both visually and functionally. Qatar, same story and their customer service delivered over social media through the app is just awesome.

@ HIDDY :

So, yes, in all fairness, the app is probably not that important to those who fly once in a blue moon, such as your goodself.

BUT …..(efficient) apps have gradually become an extremely useful - and increasingly preferred - means of managing a whole range of everyday-life ‘tasks’ and general admin, whether that be travel-related / personal banking / online shopping / health management / navigation etc etc. In that sense, the genie is well & truly out of the bottle.

As to your frustration with the Lufthansa app : I’d say that the same applies to websites : if they are difficult to use, that is invariably down to a lack of investment, expertise, and attention to detail on the part of the respective business rather than the ability of the end user. The whole point is to make the customer experience easier - not harder ; something which many, many companies seem to manage perfectly well.

PS - the TK app is a pretty good one 👍

I am not an oldie, but not on good terms with new technology, however, I do agree that having a good app is very convenient for passengers. I was connecting at FRA on LH last week and my 1H40M connection eventually become 0M connection by the time we took off. During the flight I was able to track our progress to FRA as well as check whether LH has rebooked me. At the end, my connecting flight was delayed by 40 minutes, which I also found out via the app, so I made it. Having the app and receiving information through it saved me a lot of anxiety. Plus, the bags tracking functionality, connecting gate info (with directions!) as others have mentioned.

On the other hand, I have no use for the BA app apart from displaying the membership card when asked or checking whether there is a ticket number. No other useful functionality for me. Maybe because I am an Android user, and I heard that BA was not a fan of our kind?

As we hope to travel more it looks as if I'll have to get to grips with all this new mobile technology or we'll be getting left behind. A new phone might help as mine is ancient.

That may well be true - but even if so, it’s hardly an award-winning app for iOS users either (despite some recent improvements / updates)

Whether it's the app or BA's other digital channels, a company which is living in the digital world of the 1990s. It was a pioneer with OLCI but unfortunately has been stuck in that era ever since.

It's just funny that even if they fixed the bugs and issues in the existing app - feature wise they'd still be behind 😂

On the plus side, you'll probably get a good trade-in price for your old one...
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...14c318d93.jpeg

It's not simply bad .. it's actually bad in quite complicated ways too in my experience ( try a booking with more than one pax , especially if some are kids, for example ) .. the lack of innovation , missing basic features and persistent bugs really is a very poor combinations .. there's worse apps out there for sure, but not many from companies that aspire to the level of excellence that BA claims to

Everyone above is talking about nice additions to the app, while I can't even get the app to reliably show all my bookings.

You? With a smartphone? Now I have heard everything. I suspect that you have to boil a kettle to listen to steam radio. Frankly I am amazed that you have one. That one works where you live in the wilds (not that I am envious) and can only assume that Mrs HIDDY got it for you so that she could find you. Frankly the BA App is as useful as a chocolate tea pot as it always seems to get in a tizzy when I need it most. I have no idea whether Android works better than Apple; but my first phone was android and over my dead body would I have anything Android again. My sister (Rich Bltch) went and got herself an Iphone from day one. No vulgar contract phones for her - my BIL is loaded (he needs to be). He flies a lot and he cannot get the wretched App to work reliably.

Whilst we are about it, Boys and Girls, what do you all find particularly useful. IRROPS? I'd love to know as like HIDDY I never use it when I am travelling and perhaps should - assuming that it choses to work.

Why is it so bad.... because a great British business offers a consistent product!

The BA app works fine for me
 

I have used the app for 7-8 years on several Android phones and it works fine for me. I. See all my bookings, use MMB, when permitted (by destination or transit country) do online check-in, etc. No issues.

QR is improving (in app menus, incl. wine list is nice!), but QR and AA still have a way to go. Both better than BA, yes, and an area of investment for them - for all of the constant maintenance & outages, BA seems to just bug fix minor things here and there and anything complicated routes out of the native app to basically a mobile web page (or errors completely). That's not a well-functioning app at all.

UA is probably best in class - My Trips / SDC / LiveUpdates / InApp Notifications / Pre-order Meals / Flight Status all a breeze; once you've boarded it switches to onboard services; helps you real-time with connections, etc. DL wouldn't be too far behind. LH's is fine with me for core functions (haven't had anything too complicated with them, though).

(iOS here)

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4a9c680de2.png
Release Notes from the last year show nothing significant.

I second the comments about the UA app. It is simply brilliant at pretty well everything. Having just had a whole load of IRROPS on AA, I can testify that the AA app is at best mediocre.

But the BA app is completely useless. It claims to do very little and fails at that. Everything requires at least 3 clicks with lots of whirring, even the simplest tasks, and only actually achieves anything when there’s a blue moon.

I suspect that the real issue is that BA’s main systems are so poor and buggy that there’s no point in building an app which works as the main system can’t support it.

In the IAG capital markets day presentation from 26th November 2024, it was stated that for the new BA mobile app, beta testing was in progress. Can somebody more knowledgeable explain what beta testing is and how long it ought to take?

Beta testing is the process of making sure that your app works as it should. In theory, it comes after Alpha testing (which can be a more rough and ready version of something) and will generally involve a selected group of users making use of the app for day to day tasks. In some cases, it’ll be publicly available alongside the existing app.

In practice however, it means whatever a company wants it to mean. Google used to be notorious for having products available to the public but ‘in beta’ for years at a time. Sometimes a product won’t go into beta until it’s fully baked and they're simply looking for bugs, other times, there will be major features missing.

9 months does feel a bit long to have heard nothing at all about a product that is ‘in beta’ but it’s not a smoking gun.

100%. Usually betas take about 4 to 6 months for behemoth companies like BA - and that's the "long" timeframe. I don't think they are working on an app, nor working on redoing the backend as promised. They've just done a bit of "improvements" on the front-end with the /nx website but that's pretty much it. I think IAG board thought we wouldn't see through it but it's blatantly obvious.

Well as a frequent SH traveller, it's hugely important in not wasting time at check-in desks at the start of a journey and service desks in transit or IRROPS

No the app is being developed from scratch using a Minimum Viable Product mentality, but as far as I can see certain customer segments and use cases were omitted either by design or by stupidity. Hence the ongoing sequence failure around seat selection.

Wouldn't you use a dev environment before merging to prod?

I don't have that much insight into how they have set stuff up other than I use it frequently enough to spot breakages as they put new versions in. You know, works Friday, broken Monday.

There are methodologies in use where there are no rollbacks and you "fix forward" I you break production but as they never fix anything :shrug:

This is definitely a new from scratch implementation but they keep dropping perfectly working functionality for nothing

Eg removing add to my calendar from MMB something that genuinely worked well and understood time zones to the new feature on the mobile app which doesn't work

Ah yes. Flying with BA. I remember.....

Nostalgia!

:)

Just a reminder to all to check their bank accounts and Avios accounts if the app or website times out at the time of booking and returns a message to say there was a problem with making the booking.

I was booking a return European flight and using some Avios as part of the payment when the time out message appeared. No booking reference appeared under My Bookings and no email came through to confirm the reservation details but the cost had come out of my account and Avios had been deducted.
I called BA, the agent mentioned ongoing IT issues, the booking was indeed not confirmed, apologised and claimed the payment and Avios deducted would be returned within ...... 7 to 10 days.