Privacy Policy

When we say "we", "us" or "BA", we mean British Airways Plc. British Airways Plc is responsible for looking after the personal information described in this Privacy Policy - in legal terms, it is the "data controller". We are part of International Airlines Group (IAG). For more about our group, visit IAG's website. 

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect and use personal information when you visit our website or app, book or take a flight, join The British Airways Club (our loyalty programme, also operated by Avios Group (AGL) Limited (also known as IAG Loyalty) (hereafter referred to as “AGL”)), contact us, or interact with us in any other way. It applies alongside our Cookie Policy and any additional privacy information we give you at the time we collect your information. 

British Airways is part of a wider travel and Avios loyalty ecosystem that includes British Airways Club, Avios and British Airways Holidays Limited (referred to as “BA Holidays”). The dedicated “The British Airways Club, Avios and British Airways Holidays” section below explains who is responsible for your information across that ecosystem, and how personalisation, advertising and marketing work — including the joint marketing arrangements referenced in “Marketing and staying in touch”. 

This Privacy Policy is the main statement of how we handle your personal information. Our Privacy Centre brings together the practical privacy resources you may need — including FAQs, data rights and complaints information, how to contact our Data Protection Officer, and links to the related notices, policies and pages mentioned in this document. Other pages on ba.com may give practical, topic-specific guidance, but they do not set out separate privacy terms. If anything on those pages appears to conflict with this Privacy Policy, this Privacy Policy takes priority. 

The law says we need a valid reason — a “lawful basis” — every time we use your personal information. Throughout this Privacy Policy, we've explained the specific basis that applies at each stage of your journey. Here's a summary of the grounds we rely on, and what they mean: 

• Performance of a contract with you: we need your information to do what we've agreed to do for you, like fulfilling your booking, issuing your ticket, administering your account, or handling a refund. 
• Legal obligation: sometimes the law requires us to use or share your information, for example providing passenger details to border authorities. 
• Legitimate interests: we may use your information where we have a genuine business reason to do so — such as keeping our operations safe and secure, improving our services, running British Airways Club, personalising your experience, or marketing our own and our group's travel and loyalty products — but only where your rights don't outweigh those interests. You can object to processing based on our legitimate interests at any time. 
• Consent: for certain things we'll ask for your agreement first, such as using advertising cookies, processing special category data, or sending certain types of marketing. Special category data is personal information that needs extra protection under data protection law — such as information about your race, ethnicity, religion, health, sexuality, or biometric information used to identify you. We collect this only in limited circumstances, for example where you tell us about a dietary need, medical condition, disability or other assistance requirement, or where biometric checks (used to identify you) are used at the airport. Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. 
• Protecting vital interests: in rare cases, such as a medical emergency, we may need to use your information to protect your life or someone else's, including where you are not able to give your consent. 

If you'd like to know which basis applies to a specific use of your information, the relevant section of this Privacy Policy explains it — or visit our Privacy Centre. 

We collect most of your information directly from you — when you book, browse, check in, or get in touch. But we also receive information about you from other sources, including: 

• Travel agents and tour operators: who make bookings on your behalf. 
• Other airlines: involved in your journey — for example, a partner airline operating a connecting flight. 
• Companies providing services on our behalf: such as ground handlers, customer service providers, or technology partners. 
• Data partners and publicly available sources: we may receive demographic, geographic or lifestyle information, or inferred attributes such as likely travel interests, from analytics providers, data partners or publicly available sources, to help us keep our records accurate, understand our customers and provide more relevant services and offers. We rely on our legitimate interests for this processing, and you can object at any time — see "Your rights and choices" below.
• Loyalty scheme partners: where you've joined a linked programme (such as British Airways Club, a oneworld partner airline or hotel loyalty scheme), we may receive information to administer your benefits and credit your Avios. 
• Social media platforms: if you interact with us through social media, we may receive limited information from those platforms. Their own privacy policies govern how they handle your data. 
• Companies who share your details with us: under their own privacy policies, where you've given them permission to do so. 

Every time you visit our website or open our app, we collect information to make our digital services work, keep them secure and improve them over time. 

• What we collect: information about the device and browser you use, your IP address, how you interact with our website and app, the pages and screens you view, and the searches you run, such as routes, destinations and travel dates. If you are signed in to your British Airways Club account, we may link this activity to your account so we can provide a more connected and personalised experience. 
• Why we use it: to keep our website and app working securely, remember your preferences, fix problems, understand how people use our digital services, and show you flights, content and offers that are more relevant to what you are looking for. 
• Cookies and similar technologies: we use cookies, pixels, tags, SDKs and similar technologies to support many of these activities. You can manage your choices for non-essential cookies at any time through our cookie settings, and you can read more in the "Cookies and similar technologies" section below. 
• Our legal basis: for essential website and app functions, security, troubleshooting and service improvement, we rely on our legitimate interests in running safe and effective digital services. For advertising cookies and other non-essential technologies that require consent, we ask for your consent before using them. 
• Who we may share it with: technology and analytics providers that help us run, secure and improve our website and app, and — where you have consented to advertising cookies or similar technologies — approved advertising and media partners. 

Our AI assistant is available around the clock to answer your questions and help you manage your journey. Depending on the service you are using, it can provide information, help you complete requests, and may carry out actions on your behalf, such as updating a booking or progressing a baggage claim. This section explains how we use your personal information when you interact with the AI assistant. Separate AI Assistant Terms of Use explain the rules that apply when you use the service. 

• You’ll know when you are chatting with AI: we will make it clear when you are interacting with our AI assistant rather than a person. 
• What we collect: the content of your conversations, the information you choose to provide, details about your account or booking where needed, instructions you give the AI assistant, and information generated while carrying out your request. 
• Why we use it: to understand your request, answer your questions, carry out or help complete the tasks you ask us to perform, authenticate you where appropriate, maintain a record of the interactions, protect against fraud and misuse, monitor quality and security, and improve how the AI assistant performs over time. 
• When the AI takes action: where the AI assistant carries out an action on your behalf (for example changing a booking or updating passenger details), it will only do so using the permissions available to your account and after any verification steps we consider appropriate. 
• A person is available where needed: if your query is complex, the AI assistant cannot help, or you would prefer to speak to someone, the assistant can hand you over to a member of our team. 
• Our legal basis: our legitimate interests in providing and improving digital customer services and efficient customer support, keeping our services secure, preventing fraud and maintaining accurate records. Where we process your information to provide or manage the services you request (such as managing a booking, progressing a claim or other service), we also rely on the performance of our contract with you. 
• Who we may share it with: technology providers that help us operate, secure and improve the AI assistant, under appropriate data-processing agreements, and — where needed to deal with your request — relevant customer service, baggage, claims or travel partners. 

Please avoid sharing sensitive information in the chat unless we ask for it. For most queries, your booking reference and a few basic details are enough. The AI assistant may not be suitable for urgent safety, security, medical or legal issues; if your situation is urgent, please use the appropriate customer service, airport, crew or emergency route. 

When you make a booking, we collect the information we need to create and manage your trip, including details about you and, where relevant, the people travelling with you. 

• What we collect: your name, contact details, payment information, travel plans, passenger details, and passport or other travel document details where needed for your journey. If you book for someone else, we collect their details too. Please make sure anyone you book for knows that you are sharing their information with us, is aware of this Privacy Policy, and is comfortable with you providing their details for the booking. 
• Why we use it: to take payment, create and issue your ticket, manage your booking, provide any travel extras or services you add, and send you confirmations, receipts and important updates about your trip. 
• Digital boarding passes and travel documents: you can choose to add your boarding pass and, where available, your passport or other travel documents — to the British Airways app, a device wallet, or a supported digital travel document scheme. See "At the airport, through security, and boarding" for more detail on how we handle this information. 
• Special requirements: if you tell us about a dietary need, medical condition, disability, accessibility requirement or other assistance you need, we use that information only to support your journey and look after you properly. We treat this information with extra care.  
• Our legal basis: we mainly use this information because it is needed to perform our contract with you — for example, to create your booking, issue your ticket and provide the travel services you request. For special requirements involving health, dietary, accessibility or assistance information, we rely on your explicit consent or, where necessary, to protect your vital interests. 
• Who we may share it with: payment processors and fraud-screening providers, airlines, airports and ground-handling agents involved in your journey, and service providers that help us manage bookings, tickets and customer communications. 

Before you travel, we use information from your booking and check-in to help you get ready, meet travel document and border requirements, and keep you updated about your journey. 

• What we collect: advance passenger information, check-in details, travel document information, and details of any extras you add before travel, such as seats, bags or lounge access. 
• Why we use it: to check if you are ready to travel, meet legal and border-control requirements, prepare for your journey, provide the extras you have added, and send timely updates such as check-in reminders, schedule changes and airport information. 
• Advance Passenger Information (API): some countries require airlines to collect and send passenger information, such as your name, date of birth and passport or travel document details, to border, customs or security authorities before you fly. We send API through standardised, secure processes and do not use it for commercial purposes. How authorities use, retain or share API is governed by their own laws. For journey-specific document and API requirements, see our Passports, visas and API page. For information about government access to booking records, or other privacy questions, please visit our Privacy Centre. We explain Passenger Name Record (PNR) data in the next section. 
• Our legal basis: where UK or EU law requires us to collect or share information before you travel, we rely on legal obligation. Where the laws of a country you are travelling to, travelling from, transiting through, or whose airspace your flight passes through requires us to provide information for your journey but that requirement is not treated as a legal obligation under UK data protection law, we rely on performance of our contract with you because the information is needed for your journey. Where this involves sending your information to border, customs or security authorities outside the UK or Europe, we rely on a specific legal exception under UK data protection law. This allows transfers where they are necessary for important public interests, such as aviation security, border control, immigration control, or the prevention of serious crime. 
• Who we may share it with: border, customs, immigration, security and other competent authorities; airlines, airports and ground-handling agents in the countries you are flying to, from, over or through; and, for onward or connecting flights, the other airline involved so it can meet its own travel, border, immigration and security or law enforcement obligations. 
• Checking visa and travel authorisation requirements: when you manage your booking, we may show information about visa and other travel authorisation requirements (such as electronic travel authorisations) for your journey using an independent travel information provider. To do this, we share limited journey information, such as your itinerary and travel dates. We do not share your name or other personal information for this check. If you choose to visit the provider's website or apply for a visa or travel authorisation, you will deal directly with that provider. The provider is responsible for any personal information you provide from that point, and its own privacy notice explains how it uses your information. Each traveller remains responsible for ensuring they have the visas and travel authorisations required for their journey. If the required visas or travel authorisations are not in place before you travel, you may be refused entry by the destination country, or we may be unable to allow you to board your flight where required by law. 
• Travel insurance: when you book with us, you may be offered travel insurance from an independent insurance provider. If you choose to buy a policy, we share the booking and personal information needed to generate your quote and set up your policy, such as your name, contact details, and payment information. The insurance provider is responsible for processing your information to provide, administer and service your policy, including handling any claims. Its own privacy notice, available at the point of purchase, explains how it uses your information. 

When you book a flight, a Passenger Name Record (known as a PNR) is created. It is the booking record that helps airlines, airports and other travel partners manage your journey, and it may also need to be shared with government authorities for border, customs, immigration, security or law-enforcement purposes. 

• What a PNR may include: your name, contact details, passport information, travel dates and routes, ticket and fare information, seat and meal preferences, payment details where held in the booking, frequent-flyer number, baggage information, and any special service requests, such as assistance needs. It may also include details of who made the booking and any other passengers on the same reservation. 
• Why government authorities use it: some countries require airlines to provide PNR data so their border, customs, immigration, security or law-enforcement authorities can carry out checks. These checks may support aviation security, border control, immigration control, threat analysis, and the prevention, detection or investigation of terrorism or serious crime. 
• Our legal basis: where UK or EU law requires us to provide PNR data, we rely on legal obligation. Where a destination, departure, overflight or transit country requires PNR data under its own laws, but that requirement is not treated as a legal obligation under UK data protection law, we rely on performance of our contract with you because providing the information is needed for your journey. Where this involves sending your information to authorities outside the UK or Europe, we rely on a specific legal exception under UK data protection law. This allows transfers where they are necessary for important public interests, such as aviation security, border control, immigration control, or the prevention of serious crime. 
• Who we may share it with: border, customs, immigration, security and law-enforcement authorities in the countries you are flying to, from, over or through, where this is required or permitted by applicable law. 
• How long authorities keep it: each country sets its own retention periods under its own laws. For example, UK and EU authorities may retain PNR data for up to five years, with identifying details masked after an initial period. Once we have transmitted PNR data to an authority, that authority is responsible for how it uses, retains and shares the data under its own laws. 
• How long we keep it: British Airways retains your PNR for 7 years from the date of travel, after which we delete or anonymise it, unless we need to keep it for longer for legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, safety, security, fraud-prevention, claims or dispute-resolution reasons. 
• Payment details in a PNR: where payment details form part of your PNR, an authority with a legal right to receive or review your PNR may be able to see those details as part of its checks. 
• How we send it: we transmit PNR data to authorities through standardised, secure processes. 
• Your rights: for PNR data held by British Airways, you can exercise your rights through our Privacy Centre. For PNR data held by a government authority, you may need to contact that authority directly because it is responsible for its own use of the data. Our Privacy Centre includes more information on government access to booking records. 
• Travelling on other airlines, connecting flights and interline baggage: your journey may involve another airline. For example, a codeshare, an onward connection, or checking bags through to a final destination. In these cases, we share the PNR, API and baggage information needed for that airline, airport, ground handler or global distribution system to issue or manage your ticket, provide the relevant travel service, and get you and your bags to your destination. We limit what we share to the information needed for the arrangement and do not share your full PNR by default. Once another airline or global distribution system receives your information, it handles that information under its own privacy notice or policy. Your ticket or booking information will point you to the relevant airline or global distribution system privacy notice or policy where applicable. 
• Country-specific requirements: some countries have specific passenger data laws. For example, French law requires air carriers to transmit certain reservation, check-in and boarding data to French national authorities for specified security purposes. Canadian border authorities may collect advance arrival and departure information and may share entry and exit records with other government departments for purposes such as immigration, benefits administration or law enforcement. Similar requirements apply in other jurisdictions, and we comply with applicable passenger data laws wherever you fly. 

At the airport, we use information from your booking, check-in and baggage records to help you move through bag drop, security and boarding, keep the operation safe and efficient, and support you if something goes wrong. 

• What we collect: check-in, bag-drop, security and boarding details; baggage tag and tracking information; travel document checks; and, where available, information used by or generated through automated gates, document scanners or biometric checks used to verify your identity, where British Airways is involved in those checks. We may also record assistance provided to you at the airport. 
• Security and regulatory screening: airport operators and government agencies usually run the security screening process, not British Airways. Their own notices explain how they handle information collected during screening. Our role is to check your boarding pass and travel documents, and (where e-gates, automated document checks or biometric checks are used) to help confirm that you are authorised to travel. At some airports, this includes facial recognition technology used to verify your identity. Except where required by law, using facial recognition or other biometric checks is voluntary, and an alternative manual process is available if you prefer not to use it. 
• Your baggage tag: when you check in a bag, a barcode tag links that bag to your booking. The tag is scanned as the bag moves through the airport, during transfers and on arrival. If your bag is delayed, damaged, or lost, we use the tag number and related tracking information to help locate it, update you, and process any related claim. Baggage-tag data may be shared with airlines, airports, ground handlers and baggage-tracing systems where needed for your journey or to resolve a baggage issue. 
• In-app baggage tracking: where available, you can see baggage status for your booking in the British Airways app. If more than one person is on the same booking, baggage status for bags linked to that booking may be visible to people with access to the booking in the app. 
• Baggage disruption notifications: if your baggage is delayed, damaged or lost, we may contact the lead passenger or the person who made the booking, using the contact details held on the booking, to provide updates and help resolve the issue. This may happen even if that person is not the traveller whose bag is affected, because they may be the contact we hold for the booking. 
• AI assistant support for baggage disruption: baggage disruption messages may link to our AI assistant, which can help you report or track a delayed or lost bag. See “Chatting with our AI assistant” above for how we use your information in that context. 
• Customs declarations for delayed baggage: where a customs declaration is needed for delayed baggage, we may use details you provide to pre-fill the relevant digital form and submit it, or help you submit it, to the relevant customs or border authority, such as UK Border Force, where required. 
• Digital and mobile boarding passes and travel documents: you can choose to use a paper boarding pass, a boarding pass in the British Airways app, a downloaded electronic copy, a device wallet such as Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, or — where supported — another digital travel document scheme. Where you use a third-party wallet or digital document scheme, we share the details needed to store and display the pass or document, such as your name, flight information, boarding details, or document details. That provider is responsible for how it handles the information from then on under its own privacy policy. Where you use the British Airways app or download an electronic copy directly from us, we handle that information under this Privacy Policy. 
• Why we use it: to check you in, accept and track your bags, verify your travel documents, support security and boarding checks, provide airport assistance, keep customers and colleagues safe, manage disruption, and deliver the travel services and extras you have booked. 
• Our legal basis: performance of our contract with you where the information is needed to provide your flight, baggage handling, boarding, assistance or other travel services; legal obligation where we must carry out or support required security, customs, border or safety checks; and our legitimate interests in safe, secure and efficient airport operations, service improvement, disruption management and fraud prevention. Where biometric data is used to verify your identity and consent is required by law, we ask for your consent. 
• CCTV: CCTV may operate in areas we manage or control, such as check-in areas, boarding gates and our lounges. We use CCTV for safety and security, to help manage airport operations, and to investigate incidents where needed. Access is restricted, and footage is normally kept for 30 days before deletion, unless we need to keep it for longer for a specific incident, investigation or legal reason. 
• Who we may share it with: airports, airport operators, ground-handling agents, airlines involved in your journey, baggage-tracing services, customs and border authorities, aviation and government security agencies, CCTV system providers or operators, and technology providers that support airport, baggage, document-checking or biometric services. 

During your flight, our crew use limited information from your booking, check-in and passenger records to keep you safe, provide the service you have booked, and support you if you need help onboard. 

• Passenger Information List (PIL): before each flight, we create a flight-specific list for the operating crew. It may include your name, seat number, booking reference, British Airways Club status, disruption-handling notes and any special service request codes relevant to your journey, such as assistance needs, meal or allergy codes, or codes identifying young flyers or passengers travelling under escort. The PIL does not show your payment details, passport images or full contact details. 
• Who can see it: the PIL is available only to rostered crew who need it for the flight, using secure BA-managed devices or approved operational processes. It is deleted shortly after the flight unless information is needed for a specific incident, safety, security, claim or legal reason. 
• Special meals, allergies and assistance needs: where you have told us about a special meal, allergy, accessibility requirement, medical condition or other assistance need, this may appear as a code or note so catering and cabin crew can support you properly. We treat this information with extra care because it may reveal or suggest information about your health, religion, beliefs or disability. 
• Onboard medical assistance: if you become unwell during a flight, our crew may record relevant details and seek guidance from a third-party specialist medical assistance provider by telephone or through online guidance and support. We share only the information needed to obtain advice and support you, such as your symptoms, relevant medical information you or a travelling companion provide, and any relevant assistance or medical codes already held for the flight. 
• Fitness-to-fly checks: before boarding at the gate or during the journey, crew may sometimes need to confirm that a passenger is fit to travel safely. This may happen after a medical assistance request, visible illness or a safety concern. It may involve a brief conversation, review of a medical certificate, or advice from the same third-party specialist medical assistance provider used for onboard medical support, accessed by telephone or through online guidance and support. 
• Incidents onboard: if there is a safety, security, medical or disruptive passenger incident, crew may create an incident report. This may include details of what happened, the people involved, actions taken, and information needed for follow-up, claims, investigations or legal requirements. 
• Why we use it: to operate the flight safely, provide the service and assistance you have requested, manage disruption, support customers and crew during the journey, respond to medical or safety issues, and keep appropriate records where needed. 
• Our legal basis: performance of our contract with you where information is needed to provide your flight, onboard service, assistance or disruption support; legal obligation where we must comply with aviation safety, security, passenger assistance or incident-reporting requirements; and our legitimate interests in safe and efficient flight operations, customer care, record-keeping and protecting customers and crew. Where health, disability, allergy or other sensitive information is involved, we rely on your explicit consent where you provided the information to us, or on substantial public interest, vital interests or medical-care grounds where needed for safety, emergency assistance or care. 
• Who we may share it with: crew and operational teams who need the information for the flight, catering and assistance providers, specialist medical assistance providers, airports, ground handlers, emergency services, insurers, legal advisers, regulators or authorities where needed for safety, security, medical assistance, claims, investigations or legal requirements. 

When you connect to onboard Wi-Fi, we and our Wi-Fi partners use limited information to provide the connection, keep the service secure, manage your session and support any choices you make while using it. The dedicated Onboard Wi-Fi Privacy Notice and Wi-Fi Terms of Use, shown when you log in, provide the full details. 

• Signing in: access to complimentary onboard Wi-Fi may require you to sign in with your British Airways Club account, or to redeem a voucher code where offered instead. If you sign in, we may link the Wi-Fi session to your British Airways Club membership, booking and onboard experience. 
• British Airways Club accounts and young flyers: British Airways Club accounts can only be opened by individuals who meet the minimum age set out in the British Airways Club Terms and Conditions. If a young flyer below that age accesses British Airways Club benefits or onboard Wi-Fi through a household account or another approved route, the responsible adult must manage that access and decide whether the young flyer should use the service. 
• What we collect: device and connection details, such as device identifiers, device type, operating system, MAC address, IP address allocated onboard, session time, session duration and data usage, and, where you access the service by redeeming a voucher instead of signing in, your voucher code. If you sign in, we may also use your British Airways Club membership information, booking reference and flight details to manage the session and support your onboard experience. 
• Why we use it: to provide and manage the Wi-Fi service, authenticate eligible users, keep the network secure, manage capacity and performance, investigate misuse or security incidents, support troubleshooting, and, where permitted, personalise your onboard experience. 
• We do not routinely monitor your communications: we do not routinely monitor or record the content of websites you visit, emails you send, or messages you transmit through onboard Wi-Fi. Automated security tools may, however, detect harmful, unlawful or prohibited activity to protect the network, our aircraft operations and other users. 
• Our legal basis: performance of our contract with you where the information is needed to provide the connectivity service you request; our legitimate interests in operating, securing and improving the service, managing network capacity and preventing misuse; and consent where required for advertising cookies or similar technologies used during your session. Where we personalise your onboard experience based on your relationship with us, we rely on our legitimate interests, and you can object at any time. 
• Who operates the service: onboard Wi-Fi is provided by British Airways. On aircraft equipped with Starlink connectivity, the service is operated by IAG Connect Limited, an International Airlines Group company, using satellite internet technology supplied by Starlink. Other onboard connectivity providers may operate the service on aircraft not equipped with Starlink connectivity. British Airways and IAG Connect each act as independent controllers for the personal information they process for their own purposes. Where you sign in with your British Airways Club account, AGL authenticates your sign-in and shares your British Airways Club membership and authentication data with us to link your Wi-Fi session to your account, acting as an independent controller for the British Airways Club data it holds. Starlink acts as an independent controller for its own network security, telecommunications compliance obligations. See “Legal requests for communications data” below for how Starlink’s obligations as a telecommunications operator may affect your information. 
• Legal requests for communications data: telecommunications providers may be required by law to respond to requests from national security, intelligence, law-enforcement or other competent authorities under UK, EU, US or other applicable law. Where Starlink is legally required to respond to such requests for information it controls, it is responsible for doing so under its own privacy terms and legal obligations. IAG Connect may also be required to respond to regulatory or law-enforcement requests directed to it as the service operator. We cannot control or limit those obligations where they apply. 
• Who we may share it with: IAG Connect, Starlink, or another onboard connectivity provider where Starlink connectivity is not used on your aircraft, AGL where you sign in with your British Airways Club account, IT and cybersecurity providers, customer support teams, and regulators or competent authorities where legally required. 
• Your rights and the Wi-Fi service: you can exercise your rights in relation to British Airways' and IAG Connect's use of your information by contacting our Data Protection Officer or using the routes in our Privacy Centre. Where a different connectivity provider operates the service on your aircraft, that provider's own privacy notice will explain how to exercise your rights with them. For British Airways Club authentication data held by AGL, see “Contact Us” section below for how to contact AGL directly. For information Starlink uses as an independent controller, you should contact Starlink directly. Some rights may be restricted or delayed where the law requires a telecommunications provider to preserve confidentiality or comply with legal requests. 
• Read the full details before connecting: when you log in to onboard Wi-Fi, you will be shown the dedicated Onboard Wi-Fi Privacy Notice and Wi-Fi Terms of Use. These explain the service in more detail, including who is responsible for which information, what is collected, how it is used, international transfers, retention periods and your rights. 

After your trip, we may use information from your booking, trip and any follow-up contact to help with support after travel, improve our services, manage British Airways Club or Avios activity, and deal with any refunds, complaints or claims. 

• What we collect: your travel history, booking and contact details, British Airways Club or Avios activity where relevant, feedback you share, survey responses, and details of any after-travel queries, refunds, complaints, claims or disruption issues. 
• Why we use it: to respond to after-travel queries, handle refunds, complaints and claims, credit or adjust Avios and loyalty benefits, ask for feedback, understand and improve the customer experience, and — where permitted and in line with your choices — send relevant travel, loyalty or holiday offers. 
• Our legal basis: performance of our contract with you where we need the information to complete your trip, handle refunds, manage British Airways Club or Avios benefits, or deal with claims connected to your booking; legal obligation where we must keep records or comply with passenger rights, tax, accounting or regulatory requirements; and our legitimate interests in improving our services, handling feedback and complaints, protecting our legal position, and staying in touch in line with your choices. 
• Who we may share it with: AGL where needed for British Airways Club and Avios points activity, British Airways Holidays where your trip involved a holiday booking, customer service and survey providers, payment processors and refund providers, and — where a query, complaint or claim involves another airline, travel partner, airport, ground handler, insurer, legal adviser or authority — the relevant organisation. 

When you contact us, or when we need to contact you about your booking, we use your information to respond, keep you updated, manage disruption, and handle any complaint, refund, claim or dispute. 

• Keeping you informed of changes and disruption: we use your booking and contact details to tell you about changes affecting your trip — such as delays, gate changes, cancellations, missed connections, baggage disruption or other operational issues — using the channels you have given us, such as email, SMS, app notification or phone. 
• Handling your query: we use the details of your query, your booking and contact information, and the content of your call, chat, email, social media message or letter to answer your question, resolve issues, provide updates and keep a record in case you get back in touch. 
• Managing complaints: where you raise a complaint, we use your booking and contact details, the details of the complaint, and relevant records from your journey or customer service interactions to investigate, respond and learn from the issue. 
• Baggage issues: where your baggage is delayed, damaged or lost, we use your booking, contact, baggage-tag and tracking details to trace your bag, keep you updated, arrange next steps and process any related claim. See "Your baggage tag" in "At the airport, through security, and boarding" for more on baggage tracking, disruption notifications, AI assistant support and customs declarations. 
• Claims, refunds and disputes: we use your booking, contact, payment and relevant travel details to assess, handle and resolve refunds, compensation claims, insurance-related queries and disputes — for example, claims relating to delay, cancellation, denied boarding, baggage disruption or service issues. 
• Calls may be recorded and transcribed: we may record customer service calls and, in some cases, automatically transcribe them for training, quality monitoring, improving responses, security, dispute resolution and to keep an accurate record of what was discussed or agreed. Not all calls are recorded. We will let you know at the start of the call. 
• We use tools to assist our teams: our customer service teams may use technology, including AI-powered tools, to transcribe conversations, summarise interactions, suggest relevant information, route queries, and retrieve booking details. These tools support our teams; a person remains responsible for handling your case. 
• Our legal basis: performance of our contract with you where we need the information to support your booking, provide updates, manage disruption, handle refunds or deal with claims connected to your trip; legal obligation where we must comply with passenger rights, safety, aviation, tax, accounting or regulatory requirements; and our legitimate interests in providing efficient customer support, training and quality assurance, keeping accurate records, improving our services, protecting customers and colleagues, preventing misuse and protecting our legal position. 
• Who we may share it with: customer service, claims, payment, refund, transcription, analytics, technology and AI-support providers; baggage-tracing services; airlines, airports, ground handlers, travel partners, insurers, legal advisers, regulators or authorities where needed to manage your query, complaint, refund, claim, dispute or disruption issue. 

If you would rather a call was not recorded, let the agent know and they will explain the options available for that call. 

Unless you opt out, we, AGL and British Airways Holidays may send you marketing about flights, holidays, loyalty benefits, Avios, rewards, partner offers and benefits, upgrades and similar travel products and services.  

Our legal basis: we rely on our legitimate interests in promoting our own and our group's related travel and loyalty products. Where you're a British Airways Club member, we also rely on the basis of an existing customer relationship. You can object to this at any time using the options below. We work closely with British Airways Holidays and British Airways Club to bring you these offers. More on how we work together across the group is set out in The British Airways Club and Avios and British Airways Holidays Bookings section. Partner offers that let you earn and spend ("earn and burn") Avios and access loyalty benefits are covered by the same basis. Offers from our retail and travel partners referred to in that section are also covered.  

At sign-up or enrolment, we'll give you more detail about how we personalise the content, offers, recommendations and advertising you see, and about how your British Airways Club information may be used for personalised offers and advertising — including how to manage your preferences. You can change your preferences at any time. 

How we send marketing: where permitted by law and in line with your marketing preferences, we may send you marketing communications by email, electronic message or post. Whether you also receive marketing by app or push notification depends on your device and app settings, which you can manage at any time — push notifications don't rely on cookies. Our push notifications may include service and operational messages (such as check-in reminders, gate changes, disruption updates and account updates) as well as, where you've enabled notifications, marketing or promotional messages (such as offers or reminders about flights you've searched for or opportunities to earn or spend Avios points). 

Tracking in marketing emails: our marketing emails may use small tracking technologies, such as pixels, to tell us whether an email has been opened and which links have been clicked. We use this information to measure how well our marketing performs, to understand your interests, and to help decide what to send you next. For example, whether to follow up with related content or leave you out of further messages in that journey. Our legal basis: our legitimate interests in measuring and improving our marketing, as this tracking only occurs in emails sent with your marketing consent. You can object to it, or stop receiving these emails altogether, at any time using the options below. 

You can change your marketing preferences or opt out at any time. See “Your rights and choices” below for the ways to do this. If you opt out, we'll keep a record of that choice so we don't accidentally contact you again, but we won't use your information for any other marketing purpose. Even if you opt out of marketing, we'll still send you essential service communications about bookings you've made, such as your travel itinerary. These aren't affected by your marketing preferences. 

British Airways, AGL and British Airways Holidays work together to provide a seamless and connected travel and loyalty experience. Each organisation is responsible for the personal information it uses in connection with its own products and services. This section explains how your information is used across those services, who is responsible for different activities and how we work together to support you. 

Who is responsible for your British Airways, British Airways Club and Avios information? 

• British Airways: operates your flights, provides airline services, manages your travel relationship and customer support, and administers the personal information needed to deliver those services. 
• AGL: operates and administers British Airways Club and the Avios currency. This includes membership accounts, earning, collecting, buying, gifting, transferring and redeeming Avios, loyalty benefits, loyalty partner services and related digital platform services. 

For certain activities, British Airways and AGL jointly determine the purposes and means of processing your personal information. These include operating and developing British Airways Club, administering loyalty benefits, programme communications and certain personalisation, marketing and advertising activities. 

Although British Airways and AGL have different legal responsibilities, we work together to provide a single customer experience. British Airways Club Customer Support is delivered by specialist teams working across the British Airways and AGL organisations. Where your enquiry or request needs input from both organisations, we will share the relevant information between us so that you do not normally need to contact each organisation separately. 

You may exercise your privacy rights with either British Airways or AGL. Where your request relates to information held by another organisation within the ecosystem, or to activities that we manage together, we will work together to ensure your request is handled appropriately. 

Who is responsible for British Airways Holidays information?  

British Airways Holidays: provides package holidays and manages holiday bookings and related travel services, including accommodation, transfers, car hire, activities and other holiday services.  

British Airways Holidays is responsible for the personal information it uses to provide and administer its package holidays and related travel services. Where your British Airways Holidays booking includes a British Airways flight, British Airways Holidays shares the booking information needed for British Airways to provide the flight and related airline services described in this Privacy Policy. Although information is shared between British Airways and British Airways Holidays where necessary to provide your booking, each organisation remains responsible for the personal information it uses for its own services. 

You can find further information in the British Airways Holidays Privacy Notice, linked in our Privacy Centre. 

How information is used across our travel and loyalty services 

Beyond the purposes already described earlier in this policy for your bookings, travel and British Airways Club activity, information across the ecosystem is also used to: 

• Operating British Airways Club and Avios: operate and develop British Airways Club and the Avios loyalty programme, including creating and managing membership accounts, awarding and redeeming Avios and providing loyalty benefits. 
• British Airways Club status and benefits: we calculate your tier status, points and eligibility for certain benefits automatically by applying the published programme rules to qualifying activity recorded on your account. You can ask us to correct the calculation if you believe relevant activity is missing or inaccurate. 
• Managing British Airways Holidays bookings: provide and administer holiday packages and related services, including accommodation, car hire, transfers and other travel components. 
• Improving our communications and offers: measure and improve the effectiveness of communications, loyalty benefits and offers so that we can provide more relevant content and experiences. 
• Personalisation and relevant advertising: personalise your experience across our travel and loyalty services and provide relevant recommendations, offers and advertising, as described below. 
• Developing British Airways Club and loyalty services: develop and improve British Airways Club, the Avios loyalty programme, loyalty benefits and related services. 

Depending on the activity, we rely on performance of our contract with you and our legitimate interests. For personalisation, advertising and audience-building we rely on our legitimate interests (with a right to object) and, where non-essential cookies or similar technologies are involved, your consent. 

As part of the British Airways travel and loyalty ecosystem, we may use information about your flights, British Airways Club membership, Avios activity, holiday bookings, travel preferences and interactions with our digital services to provide more relevant content, recommendations, loyalty benefits, offers and advertising. 

This may include personalising experiences across: 

• British Airways websites and mobile applications 
• British Airways Club and Avios services 
• British Airways Holidays services 
• Inflight connectivity (Wi‑Fi) 
• Inflight entertainment and onboard digital experiences 
• Marketing communications 
• Selected advertising platforms and media partners 

First‑party personalisation: when we tailor the content, recommendations and offers you see on  our websites and apps, British Airways Club and Avios services, British Airways Holidays, and onboard experiences, using information about your relationship with us, we do this to make your experience more relevant. For example, where you choose to connect to onboard Wi‑Fi using your British Airways Club account, we may use information about your relationship with British Airways, British Airways Club and British Airways Holidays to tailor content, offers and advertising presented during your journey; and where inflight entertainment services support advertising or promotional content, we may use information about your travel preferences, loyalty status, previous travel activity and interests to make content and offers more relevant to you. Our legal basis: we rely on our legitimate interests for this first‑party personalisation — you can object to it at any time through your account settings. 

Advertising cookies and similar technologies: where required by law, our legal basis is your consent, which we ask for before accessing information stored on your device, or using cookies or similar technologies, for advertising, analytics or personalisation purposes. You can manage or withdraw this consent at any time through your cookie settings. If you do not allow advertising cookies, you will still see advertising, but it may be less relevant to you, and we will not use your interactions with our services to build advertising audiences using those technologies.

Advertising and audience targeting

We may share limited online identifiers — such as a hashed version of your email address, postcode, telephone number, booking reference or device identifier — with approved advertising and media partners so that: 

• Showing offers: we can show you British Airways, British Airways Club, Avios and British Airways Holidays offers on those partners' platforms and services (for example, social media platforms and streaming or media services). 
• Measuring performance: we can measure how well our advertising performs and avoid showing you ads you have already seen. 

Hashing does not make your information anonymous. Hashed identifiers are still personal information under data protection law, because they can potentially be linked back to you. We treat them with the same care as any other personal information, and the safeguards described in this policy apply to them in full. 

Our legal basis depends on how the matching happens, so we've set out both routes below using the same two bases described elsewhere in this policy: 

• Hashed identifier sharing: sometimes we share a hashed version of your own first-party information with a partner. This could include your email address, postcode, or mobile number. This lets our own and our group's offers be shown to you on their platforms. It also lets us build similar-audience models. We rely on our legitimate interests for this, and you can object to this at any time. Your IP address is not hashed for this purpose. Where we share your IP address as part of this first-party sharing, we share it as collected. We may share some or all of these identifiers together, depending on what a given partner needs to match you to an audience. We do not use them for any purpose beyond recognising you and your group's related offers across these channels.  
• Advertising cookies and device identifiers: sometimes advertising cookies or device identifiers are used instead. This includes your IP address collected directly from your device or browser, rather than a hashed version of it. These are used to collect or share information from your device, for example with platforms like Google and Meta. We rely on your consent for this. You can manage or withdraw this consent at any time through your cookie settings. 

The categories of partners we work with for this purpose include social media and search platforms, connected‑TV and streaming/media partners, advertising‑technology and measurement providers, and our loyalty partners within the Avios ecosystem. We share only pseudonymised or hashed identifiers for this purpose, except that IP addresses are shared as collected rather than hashed and apply appropriate contractual controls in both cases. Some of these partners are located outside the UK and the European Economic Area; where that is the case, we put in place contractual safeguards. 

We and each advertising or media partner act as independent controllers, each responsible for the personal information it uses for its own purposes. Matching is carried out using privacy‑protective techniques — such as a secure data clean room, the hashing of email addresses by us or the receiving platform, or the use of IP addresses — so that each party processes only the information it is responsible for. Where we use a clean room or similar matching environment, we require contractual and technical controls designed to restrict how the matched information can be reused, disclosed onward, or used to re-identify you. 

Where we use a secure data clean room, we may make hashed identifiers available within that environment so that British Airways or our group's offers can be matched to, and shown to, relevant audiences on participating advertising platforms and services. We remain responsible for selecting the audience and the offers or advertising displayed. We do not make your information available for unrelated third‑party advertising or for advertisers to market their own products. 

Your information may also be used to personalise offers for British Airways, AGL and participating loyalty programme offers based on your interests. Our legal basis: we rely on our legitimate interests. This is the same basis described in “Marketing and staying in touch” above. You can object to the use of your personal information for these purposes at any time using the options in that section. 

What we don't use for advertising: we don't use special category data (such as information revealing health conditions, disability, religion, or sexual orientation) or information suggesting such characteristics — including inferences from dietary requirements, medical assistance requests, or accessibility needs — to build advertising audiences or target advertising. We don't knowingly use children's information to build or match advertising audiences. 

If you object or withdraw consent: telling us to stop, unsubscribing, or withdrawing cookie consent stops that specific processing going forward across our own channels and instructs our advertising and media partners accordingly. We keep a limited record of your choice (a suppression record) so we don't inadvertently include you in future audience building or matching for the same purpose. 

We do not use your personal information for non‑travel, non‑loyalty advertising by unrelated third parties. Any use involving loyalty partners is through the British Airways Club ecosystem and relates to opportunities to earn and spend ("earn and burn") Avios and access loyalty benefits. We do not sell your personal information. We do share limited, hashed identifiers with advertising and media partners to show you our own and our group's offers and to measure our advertising, as described above — we do not make your information available to unrelated third‑party advertisers for their own marketing. 

Some advertising you see is contextual — it is based on the content, page or surroundings in which it appears (for example, an advert shown to everyone viewing a particular page or onboard channel), not on your personal information, booking history or behaviour. Contextual advertising does not use your personal data to select or target the advert and is not affected by your advertising preferences or the choices described above. 

Your marketing preferences: for details on how to manage your marketing preferences, cookies and similar technologies, app permissions and data protection rights, see “Your rights and choices” below. 

For how we share information specifically with advertising and media partners, see “Advertising and audience targeting” above. We never sell your personal information. We do share it, carefully and only when needed, with: 

• Travel partners: airports, other airlines, and ground-handling agents involved in your journey. 
• Service providers: trusted companies that help us run things like payments, IT, and customer service, under strict instructions to protect your data. 
• Payment processing firms: such as credit and charge card companies, credit reference agencies and anti-fraud screening service providers, to process payments and (where necessary) to carry out fraud-screening. 
• Authorities: competent government and public bodies where the law requires it, such as border, customs and immigration authorities, law-enforcement and national security agencies, aviation and transport security regulators, tax and public health authorities, courts and tribunals, and data protection regulators. 
• Our group: companies within the International Airlines Group (IAG), including British Airways, Iberia, Iberia Express, Vueling, Aer Lingus, British Airways Holidays, AGL, British Airways CityFlyer, British Airways Euroflyer, IAG Connect and IAG GBS, and our other airline partners. We share information within the group to help deliver your services and to understand you better — for example, if you've flown with another IAG Group airline, we may use that to understand the travel services you're likely to be interested in. For more about our group, visit IAG's website. 
• Loyalty scheme partners: where you're a member of a linked loyalty programme (such as a oneworld partner airline or hotel scheme), we may share information to administer your benefits and credit Avios. 
• Legal advisers and courts: where necessary to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights, or to enforce or apply a contract with you. 
• Marketing agencies and media partners: to help us deliver and measure advertising and personalised marketing across digital channels, build and match audiences, understand the effectiveness if our advertising, and improve future campaigns. See "Advertising & Audience Targeting" above for the full details on how we share information with media partners. We may also share non-personal usage information with other websites, so they know you've visited ours; see "Cookies and similar technologies" below. 
• British Airways Holidays: if your booking is a package (flight plus other services such as hotels) with British Airways Holidays, or British Airways Holidays is providing part of your package, your information is shared between both British Airways Plc and British Airways Holidays, as set out in the British Airways Holidays Terms and Conditions. 
• Travel-related service providers and partners: independent third parties who provide services you can access through your booking, such as visa requirement information and travel insurance. We share only the information needed for that specific service (for example, limited itinerary details for visa information, or booking and personal details for an insurance quote and policy). If you go on to use these services directly, the provider becomes responsible for any personal information you give them from that point, as an independent controller in their own right. See "Checking visa requirements" and "Travel insurance" in the Passenger Name Record section above for more detail. 

We use a range of technical, organisational and operational security measures to protect your information. We only keep it for as long as we genuinely need it — to deliver your travel, meet our legal obligations, and run our business responsibly. Sometimes your information may be processed in countries outside the UK; when that happens, we make sure it is properly protected. 

Keeping your booking and account secure 

You also play an important part in keeping your booking, account, and personal information secure. In particular: 

• Keep your booking reference confidential: when you make a booking, you're given a booking reference (also known as a PNR, or Passenger Name Record). This appears on your email confirmation or ticket. Keep it confidential — sharing your booking reference with others may let them access your booking details through our systems, including baggage status for all bags on that booking through the app. If you're travelling with others and don't want your individual booking details — including your baggage status — to be accessible to them, you may prefer to make separate bookings. 
• Keep your British Airways Club membership number and ba.com login details confidential: don't share your login details with anyone else. When you finish using our website, app or other online services, log out if others may be able to access your computer or device — this is especially important on a publicly accessible computer. 
• Watch out for scams and phishing: we will never ask for your password, PIN, or full payment details by email or text. Be cautious of unsolicited messages asking you to enter or reconfirm bank, password or booking details on a website, including fake copies of ba.com. If you receive a suspicious message claiming to be from British Airways, do not click any links. Check our phishing FAQ on ba.com for guidance and report suspicious messages to phishing@email.ba.com. 

You're in control of your personal information. You have the right to: 

• See it: ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you. 
• Fix it: ask us to correct anything that's inaccurate or incomplete. This right cannot be used to change the name on a booking — if you need to correct a name on your booking, please contact Customer Services rather than our privacy team. 
• Delete it: ask us to erase your personal information, where the law allows. 
• Limit or object: ask us to restrict or stop certain uses of your personal information. 
• Move it: ask us to provide your information in a portable format where applicable. 
• Manage marketing: change your marketing preferences or opt out at any time, without affecting essential updates about your travel. You can do this by updating your preferences in your account, by telephoning The British Airways Club on 0344 493 0747 (calls charged at local rate) or writing to us at The British Airways Club, PO Box 1125, Uxbridge, UB8 9XR, using the unsubscribe link in any marketing email, or replying “STOP” to a marketing text. If you're based in another country, see the Club contacts for your local service centre. We aim to take action on opt-out requests within 10 working days of receiving them, though you may receive some marketing in the period before the change takes effect. 
• Manage cookies: choose which non-essential cookies and similar technologies you allow. See "Cookies and similar technologies" below for more detail. 
• Manage app permissions: control notifications and similar app permissions through your device settings. 

The quickest way to get help 

Many requests can be resolved more quickly by the team already looking after your booking or account. For example, if you need to: 

• change your marketing preferences; 
• correct information relating to a booking; or 
• ask a question about your journey. 

Please contact Customer Services first. They can usually resolve these requests straight away. If you contact our Data Protection Team about a request or complaint that is mainly operational or customer-service related — for example, about your booking, travel arrangements, disruption, baggage, refunds, account administration, or where a customer complaint case has already been opened — we may refer it back to Customer Services so the right team can deal with it more quickly. 

If you want to exercise your data protection rights 

If you would like to exercise your rights under data protection law — for example, to request a copy of your personal information, request erasure, object to certain processing or request data portability — please start by using our Privacy Centre. It explains the different routes available, helps you provide the information we need to identify and handle your request, and is the quickest way for your request to reach the right privacy team where Customer Services cannot resolve it. 

Making a data protection complaint 

If you believe we haven’t handled your personal information properly, you can raise a data protection complaint with us. We take every complaint seriously and have a formal process for reviewing, investigating and responding. 

• The quickest way to complain: please use our Privacy Centre to submit your complaint. This ensures it reaches the right team quickly, allows you to provide all the information we need, and helps us investigate and respond more efficiently. 
• If you can't use the Privacy Centre: you can also contact us by email, post or telephone and we'll make sure your complaint reaches our privacy team. 
• What happens next: we'll acknowledge your complaint, investigate it, keep you updated where appropriate and let you know the outcome. 
• If you're not satisfied: you also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk.

We keep your personal information only for as long as we need it for the purpose we collected it — for example, to provide your travel, run British Airways Club, deal with customer service queries, meet legal, tax and accounting obligations, resolve claims or disputes, and protect our business and customers. 

As a general guide, where you stop interacting with us as a customer, we will usually delete or anonymise your core customer information after 7 years. Your Passenger Name Record (PNR) and other booking information are retained on a different basis: 7 years from the date of travel for each trip, regardless of whether you continue to interact with us, as described in 'Your Passenger Name Record (PNR)' above. Some information may be kept for a shorter period, and some may be kept for longer where we need it for legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, safety, security, fraud-prevention, claims or dispute-resolution reasons. If you opt out of marketing, we keep a limited record of that choice so we can continue to honour it. 

British Airways Club membership and Avios account information is kept while your British Airways Club membership or Avios account remains active. If your account has been inactive for 4 years (for example, you have not logged in or collected or redeemed Avios during that period), your registration information and loyalty account details are deleted or anonymised unless needed for legal, regulatory or other legitimate business purposes. 

We're a global airline, so sometimes your information is processed in countries outside the UK and the European Economic Area. This includes processing by our partners and service providers, and wherever your itinerary takes you. For example, your information may be transferred to border control and immigration authorities outside these territories. This may mean your information goes to countries where, under local law, you have fewer legal rights than at home. 

How we protect it. Wherever your information goes, we put safeguards in place, so it keeps a level of protection similar to what it would have at home. Depending on the destination and recipient, we rely on one of the following: 

• Adequacy decisions: where the UK government has decided that a country's laws provide an adequate level of data protection, we can transfer your information there without additional safeguards. 
• Standard contractual clauses or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA): where a destination hasn't been assessed as adequate, we put UK-government-approved contract terms in place with the recipient, requiring them to protect your information to UK standards. 
• Other legal mechanisms: in specific circumstances described elsewhere in this policy, we may instead rely on a legal exception (a "derogation"). For example, a foreign border authority may require certain information for aviation security or border control. The derogation permits the transfer where it's necessary for an important public interest recognised in UK law. See "Advance Passenger Information (API)" and "Your Passenger Name Record (PNR)" sections for more on this. 

If you'd like more information on these safeguards, including how to obtain a copy of the relevant contract terms, contact our Data Protection Officer. 

When you travel with us online — through our websites, apps or other digital services — we and our partners use cookies and similar technologies (such as pixels, tags, SDKs and server-side tools) to keep our services secure and working properly, remember your preferences, understand how our services are used, show you more relevant content and offers, and enable optional features such as social media sharing (where available — this feature is not offered on every British Airways website, app or digital service, or in every market). 

Some of these technologies are essential and always active; others are optional and used only where you've given your consent or, where the law allows, on an opt-out basis that you control. You decide which optional categories to allow, and you can change your choices at any time through our cookie settings. 

Where you allow advertising cookies, we and our approved advertising partners may build audiences or interest profiles and show you more relevant advertising on our own channels, on British Airways and IAG group channels, on social media platforms and on other websites, and measure how well that advertising performs. If you don't allow these, you'll still see advertising, but it may be less relevant, and we won't use your interactions with our services to build advertising audiences. 

Not every website, app or digital service we operate uses every category of cookie described in our Cookie Policy — including social media cookies, which are only available on some of our sites and apps, and may also depend on the market you're in. You'll only be asked to make choices about the categories actually in use on the service you're using. Each British Airways Group company operating a website, app or other digital service that uses cookies is responsible for the cookies placed on that particular service. 

For full detail on the categories of cookies and similar technologies we use, what each one does, how long each lasts, and how to manage or withdraw your choices, see our full Cookie Policy, which forms part of this Privacy Policy. 

Our services are aimed at adults. Children can travel with us, of course, and we'll collect their information as part of a booking — but we expect that to be done by a parent or guardian. We don't knowingly market to children. Where this section refers to "children", "young flyers" or similar terms without giving a specific age, the applicable age range is defined in our Young Flyer policy and the British Airways Club Terms and Conditions (as relevant), not in this Privacy Policy — please refer to those documents for the current age thresholds. 

Young flyers travelling unaccompanied. Young people below the age of majority (the age at which someone is legally recognised as an adult, typically 18) may travel unaccompanied on British Airways flights within the age range set out in our Young Flyer policy, subject to a parent or legal guardian completing our Young Flyer authorisation form. The applicable age range may change from time to time — check full, current details. 

• What we collect: the young flyer's name and booking reference, emergency contact details for adults at each point of the journey (names, phone numbers, relationship to the young flyer), the parent or legal guardian's name, signature, date, and a copy of their current passport or official photographic identification. 
• Why we use it: to verify parental authority, manage the young flyer's journey, contact a responsible adult in the event of disruption, and comply with our young flyer policy. 
• Who we may share it with in a disruption: if a flight is significantly delayed, diverted, or requires an overnight stay, we may share the young flyer's details with taxi and hotel providers, airport authorities, local authorities, or emergency services — where necessary to assist the young flyer and in line with the authorisations given in the consent form. 
• Our legal basis: performance of our contract with you (managing the young flyer's journey) and our legitimate interests in safeguarding young travellers. For the parental ID, we rely on the parent's explicit consent given by submitting the form. 

British Airways Club accounts, onboard Wi-Fi and digital services. British Airways Club accounts can only be opened by individuals who meet the minimum age set out in the British Airways Club Terms and Conditions. If you'd like a young person below that age to access onboard Wi-Fi or other British Airways Club benefits, they must be set up within a household account managed by you as the responsible adult. By doing so, you acknowledge that: 

• you are responsible for setting up and managing any account (including household or family account settings where available); 
• you are responsible for deciding whether the young flyer should use these services; 
• British Airways does not provide a supervision or chaperone service and cannot supervise or monitor their use of digital or online services during the journey; and 
• British Airways cannot supervise or control the content viewed by young flyers through onboard entertainment, onboard Wi-Fi, or their personal electronic devices. 

We do not knowingly use children's information for personalisation or advertising.

We use automated systems across our business.  Some help our people perform tasks, identify risks, or make recommendations. Others personalise the services, information or offers you see. In limited circumstances, a decision may be made solely by automated means. We explain the main uses below and the rights that apply where an automated decision has a legal or similarly significant effect on you. 

Where we use automated tools: 

• Fraud and payment screening: when you make a payment or transaction, automated systems may check it in real time for signs of fraud or unusual activity. A transaction may be declined, require additional verification, or be referred to our fraud team. Where a decision is not made solely by automated means, a person remains responsible for the final assessment. 
• Security and regulatory screening: we may use automated systems to compare passenger, booking or account information against applicable sanctions, security, immigration and other regulatory screening requirements. Potential matches may be referred for further review. 
• Forecasting demand and managing availability: we use predictive models to forecast demand, cancellations and customers who may not travel, and to help us manage seat availability. These forecasts support operational decisions. Decisions affecting an individual customer, including decisions about rebooking or denied boarding, are subject to applicable passenger rights regulations and appropriate human oversight. 
• Personalisation and recommendations: we may use automated tools to decide which destinations, flights, products, benefits, promotions and other content are likely to be most relevant to you. We may take account of information such as your searches, bookings, stated preferences, travel history, and British Airways Club membership or loyalty tier status. This may affect what we show you and the order in which it appears, but it does not mean that we determine the underlying price based on what we think you personally may be willing to pay. You can object to personalisation at any time through your account settings. 
• Customer service routing: when you contact us, automated tools may help route your query to the right team or suggest responses to our agents. A person remains responsible for handling your case. 

Your rights in relation to significant automated decisions. In limited circumstances, we may make a decision based solely on automated processing that has a legal or similarly significant effect on you. Where the law applies, you may ask us to: 

• arrange for a person to review the decision; 
• allow you to explain your circumstances or express your point of view; and 
• challenge the decision. We will tell you when a particular decision is made solely by automated means and these rights apply. 

Follow the review instructions provided with the decision or contact us through the relevant Customer Services route. You may also raise a data protection concern through our Privacy Centre.

If you travel for business under an On Business account, we process additional personal information to administer the programme and support the organisation responsible for your business travel. 

Depending on your role, you may interact with us as a business traveller, an On Business programme administrator, a person responsible for arranging travel for others, or an authorised representative of an organisation participating in the On Business programme. You may be an employee, contractor, consultant or another individual travelling or managing travel on behalf of that organisation.  The way we use your information may vary depending on your role. 

• Who is responsible for your information? British Airways participates in the On Business programme together with other partner airlines. Where your personal information is processed for the administration and operation of the On Business programme, these airlines may act as joint controllers for that processing. Each airline remains independently responsible for the personal information it processes for its own operational, customer service, legal and regulatory purposes. 
• What information do we process? In addition to the information described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, we may process your On Business membership number and account details; your organisation's name and company account details; your role within the programme; business booking and travel information; flights taken under the programme; On Business points earned and redeemed; travel preferences relevant to business travel; communications relating to programme administration; and information necessary to prevent fraud or misuse of the programme. 
• How do we use your information? We use your information to administer your and your organisation's participation in the On Business programme; allocate and redeem On Business points; manage company membership and authorised users; provide customer support; administer rewards and programme benefits; detect and prevent fraud, abuse and misuse of the programme; comply with legal and regulatory obligations; and improve and develop the programme. Where you are also a member of The British Airways Club, your personal loyalty account continues to be managed separately, although certain information may be used to enable both programmes to operate correctly. 
• Our legal basis: we rely on performance of our contract with you (or with your organisation) where the information is needed to administer your participation in the On Business programme, allocate and redeem On Business points, and provide the related booking and customer support services; legal obligation where we must comply with tax, accounting or regulatory requirements; and our legitimate interests in detecting and preventing fraud, abuse or misuse of the programme, and improving and developing the programme. Where we share information with your organisation's designated administrators, we do so on the basis of our legitimate interests in supporting your organisation's management of its business travel, or performance of our contract with your organisation, depending on how the programme has been set up. 
• Information shared with your organisation: where you travel using your organisation's On Business account, we may make certain information available to authorised individuals within your organisation, including designated programme administrators. Depending on your organisation's configuration, this may include bookings made under the programme; travel dates and destinations; ticket status; spend associated with business travel; On Business points earned or redeemed; and reports relating to your organisation's participation in the programme. Your organisation is responsible for how it uses any personal information it receives for its own business travel management purposes. 
• Travel management companies: if your organisation uses a travel management company or corporate booking provider, we may exchange personal information with that organisation to make and manage bookings, administer the On Business programme, support traveller servicing, and provide business travel reporting. Those organisations may process your information as independent controllers or on behalf of your organisation depending on the services they provide. 
• Communications: we may send service communications necessary to administer your On Business membership; operational notifications relating to your business travel; programme administration communications to authorised administrators; and marketing communications where permitted by applicable law and in accordance with your marketing preferences. 
• Your rights: travelling for work does not affect your privacy rights. You may exercise your rights under applicable data protection laws directly with British Airways in relation to the personal information for which we are responsible. Where your request relates to information controlled by another airline participating in the programme, or by your participating organisation, we may direct you to the appropriate organisation. 

British Airways is a founding member of the oneworld Alliance, a network of member airlines that helps customers travel across the combined network and receive reciprocal benefits. This may include booking journeys involving more than one oneworld airline, earning and redeeming loyalty rewards, recognising frequent-flyer status, and accessing lounges or other eligible benefits when travelling with participating airlines. 

• What we collect and share: your name, British Airways Club membership number, tier status, and relevant booking, ticket, flight and benefit information. This may apply when you fly with, connect to, or redeem rewards through another oneworld member airline, or when another oneworld airline needs to recognise benefits linked to your British Airways Club membership. 
• Why we use it: to arrange and manage travel across the alliance, recognise your frequent-flyer status and entitlements, provide reciprocal benefits such as priority services, additional baggage allowance and lounge access, and allow you to earn or redeem loyalty rewards when travelling with other oneworld member airlines. 
• Our legal basis: performance of our contract with you where the information is needed to provide the travel arrangements, loyalty recognition or benefits you have requested, and our legitimate interests in operating the alliance, administering reciprocal benefits, protecting against misuse, and improving the travel and loyalty experience across the network. 
• Who we may share it with: other oneworld member airlines, and where needed their service providers, so they can recognise your status, provide eligible benefits, manage your journey, credit or redeem rewards, and support alliance operations. Each oneworld member airline is responsible for the information it holds and uses for its own purposes. Its own privacy policy explains how it handles your information once it receives it. Appropriate contractual safeguards are put in place with alliance partners for information shared for alliance purposes. 

Our Privacy Centre is the best place to find information about how we use your personal information and how to exercise your privacy rights. It brings together all of our privacy notice, guidance, FAQs and contact routes in one place.  

Our Cookie Policy, also available through the Privacy Centre, explains how we use cookies and similar technologies and how you can manage your cookie preferences. 

We'll update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our services, technology or legal obligations. When we make material changes, we'll let you know where appropriate. The date below shows you when this version was last updated. 

Language of this policy 

Where this Privacy Policy is translated into other languages, the English-language version is the master version. If there's any difference or conflict between the English version and a translation, the English version applies. 

The quickest way to get help depends on what you need. Before contacting the Data Protection Officer directly, please check the Help Centre. It explains the quickest route for common questions, such as if you need to: 

• update your personal details; 
• change your booking; 
• manage your marketing preferences; 
• ask about your journey; or 
• resolve another customer service issue, 

Please contact Customer Services if you need further help. They can resolve most requests immediately. 

Data protection, privacy rights and questions 

If you want to exercise your rights under data protection law, ask a question about how we use your personal information, or raise a privacy concern, please start with our Privacy Centre. It brings together guidance on rights, complaints and privacy questions, helps you choose the right route, and is the quickest way for your request to reach our privacy team where Customer Services cannot resolve it. 

If you cannot use the Privacy Centre, you can contact us using the details below. 

Data Protection Officer 

If you wish to write to our Data Protection Officer: 

Data Protection Officer 
British Airways Plc 
Waterside (HCB3) 
PO Box 365 
Harmondsworth 
UB7 0GB 
England 

Email: dpo@ba.com

If you would like to contact AGL directly about its use of your personal information, you can write to Avios Group (AGL) Limited, Waterside, Harmondsworth, UB7 0GB, or email AGL's Data Protection Officer at data.protection@iagloyalty.com. 

Data protection and privacy complaints 

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your personal information, please raise your complaint through our Privacy Centre in the first instance. This helps you provide the information we need, routes your complaint to the right privacy team, and allows us to investigate and respond as efficiently as possible. We may refer you to Customer Services if your complaint relates to a booking, flight, baggage, British Airways Club account, refund or other customer service or operational matter rather than our handling of your personal information.

If you're not satisfied with our response, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.