What does BA do with the 'reason for flying' data?
 

Within the Manage My Booking pages on the website, there's always a question on the right hand side asking for the reason for travel (Leisure, Work or Other). What does BA do with this information once completed? I've always completed it - as a 95% leisure economy traveller I secretly hoped that it may result in more upgrades; the thinking being that I'm in control of my spend and cabin I travel in, so BA might want to entice me premium with a few 'samples'! But out of my 81 BA flights (piddly compared to the rest of you, I know) the 3 free upgrades to WT+ suggest that may not be the case! (But maybe something will happen at the gate tonight for my BA57 to JNB........!) I also never notice a difference in the pre-flight emails etc when I do select 'work'.

So does BA do anything with this data? Is there any point in filling it in?!

I don't know what use BA makes of it but I never share personal profiling data. On sites that don't let you continue without selecting a reason, you can give false information.

I used to think that the question was none of BA's business and never ticked either box

But we transitioned to Concur for expenses management where I work recently and it uploads the trip into my expense report if I tick business.

If you're a travel service provider and you want to provide customised experiences based on the reason for travel then you need the information on the reason of travel first, and it can take a long time to build up this information and to get customers used to telling you.

So some companies ask and do nothing - yet. I'm sure BA was asking before they integrated with Concur to send business travel information to Concur, which allows them to offer it.

Internally, I'm sure they're using it in combination with other information to work out leisure or business intensive routes for business planning purposes.

It allows the fraudsters to know that your AmEx might have a higher credit limit.

Some employers require it because it can be used to upload the data to Egencia, Concur or one of the other compliance software programs which also integrate with major accounting packages. If required, then check the box when you are flying for your employer and do not check anything when for a non-business purpose.

Beyond that, it is simply marketing information for BA. Leave it blank unless you care to answer.

What most corporations do with the data: streamline marketing primarily. I would suspect also that they include it in the pax info visible to gate and crew. If they have to move or downgrade somebody, they are less likely to suffer longer term business loss from doing it to a leisure pax than a biz pax who paid with company money..those pax are the ones they want to please because there is a chance of garnering a preffered carrier deal and biz pax fly more in general than leisure pax.

I'd be surprised if that information made it to the data visible to crew or gate. And surely the decision to downgrade/offload is based on BAEC status or CIV score, and not on an optional tickbox on MMB. The obvious mistake with that would be to offload the CEO plus family on his holiday trip.....

I can't speak for BA but from other airlines, this info is definitely used in various reports on an aggregated basis. Obviously it isn't fully accurate but it is very useful nonetheless.

If you have answered the question online, ask BA how that data is used. By law they have to tell you, fully and frankly.

Email [email protected] - the suggest text below is probably as far as you could reasonably go. I would do it myself but I can't recall answering the question and have already made a nuisance of myself with their DPO.. They have a month to answer. And if someone does this please think to update the thread with what they say...

On your website or spp you ask whether a flight I am about to take is for leisure or for business, it is an optional question. Can you please tell me how this data is used by BA, for what business purposes and what kinds of decisions could be made or influence the fullfulment of my contract to travel based upon the data which might or might not be supplied. Please highlight if there is any potential disadvantage to me as a customer by supplying this dats, and whether it influences a CIV score. How long it is the data retained for? Please disclose which roles of staff with BA have access to this data based upon business need. Please also highlight if this data is transferred to any third party, and includei the name and address of the data controller(s).

BA do retain a significant amount of data about you. On the back of the data breach asked for a copy of all my personal info from BA which they partially fulfilled. I am hardly a frequent flyer but the resulting A4 printout that arrived in the post was about 2cm thick and printed on both sides of the paper.

I'd presume it's simply to assist with establishing if X route and Y flight is primarily used for leisure or business travel. Whilst many routes in-of-themselves can be defined as one or the other I imagiei knowing either way will help BA track current trends and refine if on route X flights 1,3,7 and 9 are business heavy, the rest vice versa and any seasonal/ annual changes to that trend.

Obviously marketing will be targeted quite differently and it could affect charges if the route is highly competitive.

Totally agree with whomever posted just before me( on phone can't see) in that a GDPR request, whilst possibly overkill, would get you the full answer .

It sort of does that for me, save for the fact the amount on the expense is zero and the receipt document was blank. Other than that, perfect :-)