BA Upgradation....
I was trying to use BA's Online Check-in and Mobile App at 7am Monday morning. Both channels failed to complete my simple Check-in task and was taken to an message saying 'Error: We're sorry, but ba.com is very busy at the moment, please try again later'. I called BA to see if there was another way to check-in and was told their IT systems were indeed very busy due to "on-going upgradation".
While I don't know any technical details of BA's issues today, I am sure upgradation is not a proper word but this could be a handy excuse for the Customer Service person I spoke to. The lasting impression is certainly not positive and if IT upgradation is the cause of their Online Error this is a great example of the types of problems that can occur when companies upgrade critical infrastructure without planning for a failback option should things go wrong over the planned weekend works. While I can't say if this would have helped BA, many leading organisations have reduced the impact and managed the risks of critical system upgrades by using Oracle GoldenGate for Zero Down-Time Upgrades, please see the whitepaper in the link below: