The British Airways Benevolent Fund is a charitable trust set up to alleviate hardship and improve the quality of life of current and former employees and their dependants. Help is only available on a ‘once-off’ basis, ongoing support such as an income top-up is not possible. Help may be in the form of money, goods or services

The application process is strictly confidential, all applicants will be visited by a SSAFA appointed case-worker who will complete the means-test application form with them, and it will be necessary to provide at least two quotes for the cost of each of the items or services for which help is sought.
Once the formalities are complete the application will be reviewed, on its individual merits, by a group of six Trustees. Normally Trustees meet to review applications every second month, however in an emergency there is an interim review process which can be used to arrange more urgent consideration where necessary

For further information visit the Fund’s website www.babenevolentfund.org or email ba.benevolentfund@ba.com. 

If you are in receipt of an APS or NAPS pension you should advise all changes in writing to BA Pensions and they will update their records and then pass the new details through for British Airways to update their records wherever necessary I think you can do this online as well

If you have active staff travel concessions but are not in receipt of an APS/NAPS pension you can update your details through Employee Self Service on my.baplc.com, on the home page select Concessionsonline then select ‘Update Personal Details’. Any information in a white box can be updated and once you have made your changes click on Submit Have no idea if this is still current

There is a delay of 24 hours until the updated details will show in your staff travel booking list.
NB. If you subscribe to BA Clubs or any BA affiliated social group such as the RSA you will need to advise all changes to them directly, as due to data protection security BA will not pass details of any changes on to them

To qualify for a Retired or Former Staff ID Card you must have active staff travel concessions, as the purpose of the card is solely for identification when using staff travel. To qualify for a Retired ID you must in addition be in receipt of a BA Pension or aged 55 +

You can apply for a new ID card or renew / replace an existing card that has expired, is lost or has been stolen, or where the photo on the card is no longer a true likeness

You will need to download and print an ID Application Form from Employee Self 

Service on my.baplc.com, on the home page select ‘How can I get an ID card’ which will display all the information you need to make an application together with a downloadable application form for completion.  Completed forms should be sent to:  British Airways Plc People Services Waterside
PO Box 365 Harmondsworth UB7 0GB

If you meet the qualifying criteria, i.e., have active staff travel concessions and are in receipt of a BA Pension or aged 55 plus, you can apply for a Retired ID card using the process detailed in Q3 above. You will need to return your ‘former staff’ id card with the application.  NB If your former staff ID card is more than 3 years old you will also need to enclose an up to date ‘passport-style’ photo

To use ESS you will need to log on to ‘my.baplc.com’.

Only former staff with active staff travel concessions are able to log on to this website, as the primary purpose of the site is to facilitate online Staff Travel administration and booking.
To log on to ESS google ‘my.baplc.com’ and enter a valid User ID and Password into the login screen.
A valid User ID is one that is registered to a staff / former staff member with active Staff Travel eligibility

If you are able to logon successfully you will see a menu of Self-Service options which include booking Staff Travel on BA and other airlines, booking Hotline flights and holidays, updating your personal details and nominations for staff travel, online check-in, and viewing embargo information and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).  If you do not enter a valid User ID and password you will be denied access

Your User ID is your staff / pension number prefixed with ‘u’ (lower case) and any leading zeros should be excluded eg staff number 012345 would be user id u12345

You can obtain a Password by calling IT Support on +44 208 562 4000, the line operates 24 x 7.
When you access the website for the first time you will be prompted to choose another password and enter it twice, then set up some security information. The newly entered password will then become your ‘Bsafe Password’ and will last for the next 90 days (all passwords expire after 90 days) when you will be prompted to choose another new password, and so on.  If you subsequently forget the password you can reset it online without the need to call ITS provided you have already set up your security questions

Setting up the security questions means that if you forget your BSAFE password you will be able to renew it yourself online by following the ‘don’t know your password’ link on the BSAFE login screen. If you haven’t set the security questions up you need to call IT Support to reset the password.
When you set up the security information you have to choose 7 questions from a list of 20 – these questions have been selected as easy to remember the answers, as they are historical therefore will not change e.g. name of first school, mothers birth place, etc.  NB. The answers to each of the 7 questions must be different, so avoid two questions that would have the same answer.  Answers don’t have to be true, so if you don’t know the answers you can make them up, however it’s important that you remember the answers that you gave as if you forget your password in the future, you will not be able to reset it, either online or by phone, unless you can answer all 7 questions correctly, i.e., with exactly the same answers as you gave initially

Tips
• Write down the answers exactly as entered and keep in a safe place
• Answers are not case sensitive and spaces are ignored so if you set the answer for your first school as “Greyfriars” you can later answer as “greyfriars” “grey friars” “grey Friars” etc, as they will all be accepted. However, if the answer was St John’s, if you subsequently answer as St Johns or Saint John’s both would be rejected as incorrect
• You only have to set your questions up once, but you can elect to change them at any time e.g., if you want to make them easier to remember

If, having set up your password you subsequently forget it, as long as you have set up your security questions you can reset it yourself online, just follow the ‘don’t know your password’ link ….
… otherwise call ITS on 0208 562 4000 and they will reset the password for you provided you can answer the security questions correctly

You can find information on all ESS topics, including how to use the online booking system for staff travel, by selecting the ‘Former Staff FAQs’ option, listed under ‘Helpdesks’ on the home page of my.baplc.com – just enter the question topic into the search box and the information will be displayed

Staff Travel can only be booked online and to get access to the self-service booking system and the supporting databases and procedural information you will need to have access to my.baplc.com as per Q5 /6/7 above.  If IT Support are unable to give you a password because your staff number is not in the system you should report this by email to the Staff Travel team at former.staff@ba.com quoting your staff number and service details and they will check your eligibility

Yes, you can, in fact this is the only way to make a booking. To access the booking system, you will need to get a BSAFE password as per Q6 above

No, currently British Airways does not issue a photo id card to widows and widowers of former staff

Booking Hotline through my.baplc.com is restricted to staff and former staff and their widows/widowers with active staff travel concessions. However former staff who are no longer eligible for staff travel concessions can subscribe to the BA Clubs Former Staff Hotline programme by registering on the www.hotline-baclubs.co.uk website

If you are eligible to book Hotline via ESS on my.baplc.com you can view information regarding eligibility and restrictions by selecting the Former Staff FAQs link on the home page then entering ‘I’m retired staff, can I make a Hotline booking’, otherwise you will find details of eligibility and restrictions relating to the BA Clubs Former Staff Hotline programme by visiting www.baclubs.com

Staff and former staff with active staff travel concessions may be eligible for a concessional cargo rate on certain routes. Please refer to the FAQs on my.baplc.com for further information

No need, the date of joining that is shown for former staff in the staff travel system is not the actual joining date but a calculated date that represents length of service. This date is called the notional date of joining (NDOJ)

When staff leave, they no longer accrue service therefore their total number of days of service are calculated from their actual start date with the Company up to their leaving date, and this is then deducted from the date the booking is made to give a notional date of joining that can be prioritised against that of other former staff standing by for the same flight.  The NDOJ changes each time you make a booking (moving forward in time), however it will always accurately reflect your total length of service / priority