BA offers two years’ free Executive Club card renewal following IT outage

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After British Airways’ worst week in nearly ten years, the airline has begun to take steps to repair the damage to its brand and restore relationships with its frequent flyers.

The airline has e-mailed members of its Executive Club frequent flyer programme who were caught up in last week’s disruption to advise that their current Executive Club card status (e.g. Bronze, Silver or Gold) will be renewed automatically for the next two years.

This means that these members of the Executuve Club do not need to earn the requisite number of tier points to renew their current status level.  

This is not the first time BA has done this.  It has previously either offered or entertained requests for automatic renewal when there has been severe disruption at London Heathrow or when there has been a downturn in the economy.

However, it is the first time BA has renewed some members’ cards automatically for two years.

This clearly a beneficial and generous gesture.  However, a cynic might point to the fact that this a move that has no up front cost to the airline and doesn’t address the underlying causes of last week’s disruption.

Furthermore, it does illustrate the power of the Executive Club in securing passenger loyalty, over and above other aspects of flying BA such as the in flight product.

It is a reasonable assumption that this will be the first of many measures to repair the damage caused by last week’s events.  Further announcements will no doubt be forthcoming in the next few weeks.