IRISHFLYER1

Crazy

AviosTreasureHunter

Any update?
I have several flights I need to back claim now for points. Plus need to book upcoming SH flight to Europe.

Tafflyer

They have now even removed the link to OnBusiness from the Executive Club logon page. If you ask me, they can't fix it so are hiding the scheme away prior to killing it altogether. I still have lots of OB points and have been fighting for 18 months without success to get some missing points credited. Current flights might still be crediting but I cannot access the system to check. I will want some recompense if they now scrap the scheme, as OB points book into published cash inventory which makes it easy to calculate an approximate cash value.

User1066

yes, the links have been removed a few weeks ago but when you call customer services they are adamant that the system is available. I have about 10 tickets to add so I am planning to call them and do it over the phone, otherwise I might miss the 3 months deadline! However, whenever I book, the OB number is accepted, but I have no idea if they've gone through... I don't think BA's world is so much better, to quote their slogan!

Tafflyer

Before the system completely gave up, I discovered that no tickets with either Avios or GUF upgrades applied automatically credited to OB. I claimed them all quite quickly but some of these flights are now nearly 2 years ago and I have given up trying to get the credit until the system is back online. Every time I claimed, I was told the flights have been credited but they never were. In most cases by agents in the Bremen office. Now they are also being closed, outsourced and written off, so I will wait until I can check it myself.

And as for the total lack of communication, well .... just appalling.

Flumps

I cannot imagine a system which cannot be gotten up and running again within a few days, a week at best, assuming there are proper backups. Even a catastrophic failure shouldn't cause a problem of this magnitude - over 2 months later and nothing. I can tell you for free, in my own IT world I would be fired over this, and quite rightly too. The worst I've ever had is 2-3 days of downtime of a single system because the sheer quantity of data simply took time to restore. Everyone was informed, there was a method to retrieve anything that was needed urgently on demand from the backups, and the systems involved were not business critical, sort of 'business nice to have'. Within the guaranteed 3 days everything was back up and running and I made a change to the way the backups were handled to prevent such a lengthy restore being needed in the future.

I think BA don't have a method to restore OnBusiness and don't know how to 'fess up or what to do to recompense people.

jonnywishbone

I ended up calling last week as I wanted to book some internal AA flights which never seem to come up on Avios... Pressed all the correct buttons only to be told by possibly the most ignorant person I have EVER had the 'privilege' of calling, that I need to call the correct number, even though it was!

Rang the same number again and got a charming man in Delhi, and whilst it took nearly an hour to sort 3 flights, he sorted it perfectly, apologised profusely for the general state of affairs and wished me well! Flights all on MMB and seats selected...

I think you should all 'get in quick' whilst you can

strowger

They might have lost the data, but they probably do have backups. I think more likely is they've lost their corporate memory - the documentation of how it worked, and all the people who understood it.

In some decades of BigCorp IT experience, I've very seldom seen "data all gone, no backups", but I've seen "we fired all the expensive people who knew how it worked, and thrown away all the documentation in a sharepoint migration" plenty of times.

Flumps

This is true, but I have seen situations where backups exist but in a basically useless form. Encrypted with nobody knowing the encryption key. Corrupt and no other backups (no, 1 is not sufficient). Incremental and the base backup is missing or - worse - I've seen someone write over it with the incremental backup. Untested backup regimens where there's something fundamentally wrong with it all - as an example I've seen people back up data structures but not the data itself - seriously had someone say to me "oh we do it that way because it's much faster to just back up the structures"...

The list goes on. And on. I still think my original points stands - no competent organisation with even a mediocre team should be in a position over two MONTHS after a catastrophic failure of this type and the client left with zero knowledge and a blank wall of communication.

Tiger_lily

Yep, been there, seen it, done it, got the mental scars. And I’ve seen the former as well as the latter 🤦‍♀️

AviosTreasureHunter

Be mighily concerned if On Business is essentially over due to an IT mess up.
I am not an IT expert however.
Surely BA will compensate those then with points? I had about 3,000 (enough for 3 domestic flights at £27 each way with fees), and have several to back claim.
What a mess. I suppose how do you compensate if you have no record of what points balances businesses have?

stevie

This is all very typical of BA in general. OB was a great scheme with open seats and great value when I first starting using it. To today's absolute debacle. BA is an utter mess from top to bottom.
I *think* I have a significant amount of OB points still - like 80000 - but not sure if they are still valid, or indeed of any value.

User1066

Here is the gist of my conversation with the OB team just now:
-can i add tickets that have been flown but did not have the ob number on the original booking?
- no, I can only book flights.
- what happens to those tickets? Previously it was only possible to add the ticket details for up to 3 months after departure, so are we now losing the tickets/points from February?
- can't do anything apart from booking flights.
- any plans on when is the portal going to be up? I was previously informed end of April
- no info, the portal is still undergoing maintenance
- what about the balance, is it recording the flights flown?
- your balance is XYZ but it is possible that it is not updating [i can confirm it is not updating] I would imagine the company will make sure that customers are compensated adequately and as soon as the portal works you will be notified.

In all honesty, there can't be SO many accounts that BA is incapable of getting them typed up in three months. I'd put my chip on 'data disappeared', just like what I did on my first digital camera, when on the returning flight from a two week holiday, i pressed the 'format memory card' button. I thought 'what could go wrong?'

Strongly suspect someone at BA pressed the wrong button repeatedly!!

User1066

They have the balance before the site went down. I guess after that we might be asked to resubmit every single ticket!

User1066

Could it be that someone was fired and on their way out they pulled the plug on the portal?