Guide to BA ONBusiness
 

Hi,

I've recently signed up for OnBusiness and wanted to know if there was an FT Guide? A search of FT revealed many threads, but no real overview.

I've read through the BA pages but wanted to know if there were any 'real life' experiences to be aware of as we start using the program.

Any advice gratefully received.

Not much on FT on OB.

The key benefit is that OB redemptions come partly from revenue buckets. This means that you can often see an OB redemption when there is no BAEC redemption available. I have never got miles and TP's for an OB redemption, though, even if it was from a revenue bucket. 4 of us went to Salzburg last year and we took the 3 CE BAEC seats that were available and then used OB to get the last seat, for example.

If redeeming for a Marriott voucher, make sure you check all of the price levels. If you click on the list of hotels for the most expensive voucher, it also includes the hotels that actually cost less - so a hotel listed under 4,000 points may also actually be showing under 2,000 or 3,000 points. Note that the Marriott rewards also include breakfast, so can be decent value as a redemption.

It hasn't yet been said if OB redemptions will have Reward Saver - I guess not. This means that EU redemptions will be very poor value after November 16th, since you will be paying £100 of taxes vs £27 if using BAEC miles. However, sometimes OB may have a seat that BAEC does not, so you'll have no choice.

If you compare the OB points needed for certain classes / destinations versus the number of BA Miles needed, you will see various anomalies. Some redemptions are clearly better value (comparatively) with OB vs BA, and vice versa.

Watch out for discounted fares - not all qualify for OB points. For example Marine fares do not qualify.

If you MFU don't bother with the online claim - it doesn't work in this case. Just email OB with your flight details including the ticket number (starting with 125-).

The rewards are less flexible in some ways. For example it is not possible to have a mixed class for the inbound/outbound legs.

Just on this, adding the OB number online has always worked for me with MFU's...

Me too.

I will try again - I suspect that I have not bothered to put it in as it never used to work. But I have noticed the EC Miles have credited just fine on my most recent MFUs so perhaps they have made progress on that problem with both EC miles and OB Points. Thx

I've found OB is a really good scheme although a lot isn't written about it on FT.

As others have noted you can get seats on any flight which is hugely useful when there is no EC availability.

If you run your own business, and you/your staff do company travel on BA you should get this:
http://corp.americanexpress.com/gcs/...acardplus.aspx

It's a great deal as you get the BA miles when you buy the flights (3 per £) plus the travelling person gets their own BA miles. You as the business get the OB points and with the card above also get a 50% bonus of those OB points.

Is this confirmed anywhere? I just booked my parents on a GLA-LON trip using OB points. It's booked both legs into B, and showing that they're each due 1000 Avios/40TP for the trip.

You won't get them. I did a one-way from Berlin to London before Christmas on OB, it showed as 20TP's and the miles, but posted as 0/0.

This was an excellent OB redemption, by the way. No BAEC award tickets available for any of the evening flights from Berlin, cash fare was £200+, but OB still offered me every flight of the day.

As others have mentioned, great for availability when BAEC has none.

Do have a question though that maybe the OB experts here can help me with. I want to use the hotel vouchers for a booking in the US later in the year. Problem is I want to upgrade to a bigger room (there will be 4 of us) - paying whatever difference of course.
How can I do this in advance? Anyone have any ideas on this?

Thanks,

Irubi

I signed up for an OB account but I've never used it.

I have several bookings coming up, some are MFU's

If I add the OB number will anything untoward happen with those bookings?

It it just a case that I will earn OB points as well as the normal Avios & TP's

I'm sure your meant you company had signed up ;)

You will get the OB points too.

Well, what [ahem] would stop a theoretical person with a theoretical business theoretically signing up to On Business, when the business itself was [AHEM!] purely theoretical?

Theoretically membership is not open to individuals

(BAOB T&C)

As such, in your scenario, it would still be the business that signs up rather than the person with the business. My non-theoretical business has signed up, but the account is wholly in my control. I would imagine, but don't know, BA do scans for individuals pretending to be businesses. For example looking for business addresses that match a home address on EC (cross referencing the EC and OB membership numbers on bookings), accounts with travel activity by one member only who also happens to be the account administrator, etc. Their options are limited should they find one - there are valid reasons why a business may use a home address and have one person. Walker Management Consulting could operate with me as the sole proprietor from my home address. I would assume they would make enquiries, and it would be reasonable to ask for something to show the business existed - letter head, cheque book...

Whether signing up as a fake business is moral is one for peoples to decide themselves - I'm not about to get moralistic over it having exploited the Euro rules to the max by using my temporary and holiday home address in France.

i have a question regarding OB upgrades.

If I upgrade one leg with OB points can I upgrade the other with Avios points at a later date if and when availability pops up?