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The Liaison Council Report |
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Staff Travel I BAFSTA I Healthcare Schemes I Guest speakers I BA Corporate Communications I Pensioner Contact Scheme I Hotline I BA Clubs |
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Janine Sparks from P&OE ( formerly HR ) came to our last meeting in March; she is responsible for Staff Travel policy and communication. We had a thorough discussion about staff travel issues with her, both operational and policy, followed by a Q&A session. Whilst we may not like some of the answers she gave, she and BA are in no doubt about the concerns that ‘ST2009’ continues to generate for some retirees. We welcome this continuing opportunity to have a dialogue about staff travel policy and to make BA aware of our agenda. One piece of information that may help those retirees considering the ‘Premium Standby’ product is that out of 20,000 sold, 90% travelled in a higher class than World Traveller. As this statistic is based on ‘one-way’ travel it is likely that an even higher percentage of staff travellers got an upgrade on their ‘round trip’. Finally, we’ve just heard that the UK staff travel telephone enquiry lines will have revised hours of operation. From 12 July, they will be open between 14.00 and 16.00 until further notice. The BAFSTA web address in the last Touchdown was not the right one to use if you want to join this staff travel discussion site Google group. I apologise for any confusion that may have been caused. The British Airways Former Staff Travel Advice group has a database of documents giving detailed guidance for using your staff travel concessions. Pensioners and former staff who are eligible for staff travel can apply to join at http://groups.google.com/group/BAFSTA When applying for membership you will be required to answer some simple questions for security purposes. Kim Strugnell, Director Xafinity, came to our last meeting as well. She took us through their healthcare market research in some detail and briefed us on the negotiations with BUPA and PruHealth for the renewal of our group schemes. Kim will return soon to give us a detailed update. Our guest speaker in March was Julia Simpson, Director of Corporate Communications and Robert Boyle, Director Strategy and Business Units, will attend our July meeting. Martin Broughton, Chairman, has accepted an invitation to attend our September meeting. Sigrid Mapp, Mike Potter and I met with the new Head of Internal Communications, Penny Lawson and Publications Editor, Keith Porter in late June. We discussed the new ‘Up to Speed’ monthly publication which has replaced the BA News and then went on to discuss Touchdown. ‘Up to Speed’ will be available to us through the FAQs on the retiree Intranet in ‘pdf’ format and by subscription ( see below ). We reviewed Touchdown in detail and exchanged a number of ideas for its improvement. We discussed the usefulness the Intranet has in reaching out to many ( but not all ) retirees and how some information could be transferred to the intranet to help make Touchdown a better newspaper. There will be an Autumn Touchdown coming out in late October. If you would like to get the ‘Up to Speed’ magazine then subscription is:- £35 a year for retired staff ( UK ), £55 for Europe and £80 for the rest of the World. Call Leslie Smith on 020 8738 5207 ( +44 20 8738 5207 from overseas ) for a subscription form or send a cheque, payable to British Airways plc, with your address to Lesley Smith, British Airways, Waterside ( HCB3 ), PO Box 365, Harmondsworth, UB7 0GB. We have Pensioner Co-ordinator ( PCC ) vacancies for:- Berkshire, Hertfordshire, East & West Sussex, Hillingdon, London – North & South, Middlesex, North east England and Wales. We have Pensioner Contact ( PC ) vacancies for:- Berkshire: Reading and Slough area. Buckinghamshire: Iver/Langley. East & West Sussex: Brighton, Bexhill/Hastings, Burgess Hill, Crawley ( RH10 ), Crowborough/Uckfield, Eastbourne, Hailsham/Heathfield, Haywards Heath, Horsham, Lewes/Seaford, Midhurst/Petworth and Pulborough/Storrington. Dorset: Bournemouth, Fordingbridge, Wimborne and Verwood. Hampshire: Milford and Basingstoke. Herefordshire: all. Hertfordshire: various. Kent: various. London & Middlesex: various including Croydon and Hillingdon. Norfolk: various. Northern Ireland: Enniskillen and Londonderry. North West England: Liverpool, Wirral/Chester, North Manchester and Southport. Surrey: Guildford and Sandhurst. Scotland: Paisley area. West Cornwall: various including Newquay and Truro areas. Wiltshire: Salisbury and Swindon. Yorkshire: East, West and North Ridings. Cyprus: Central and East Duties of PCCs and PCs can be found under Handbook ( Short ) at www.bappc.com. If you’re interested, please contact the BA Retired Staff Liaison Council at Liaison.1.council@ba.com The latest offers from Hotline are:- · Kimpton Hotels offer special rates for current and retired staff at their 50 properties across North America from now until 31 December. From $99 a night with second night free ( $125 a night and second night free in NYC ) subject to availability. Contact www.kimptonhotels.com and enter rate code SPREE into the booking. · Fairmont Hotels offer special rates for current and retired staff as well; visit www.fairmont.com and enter code NFFR.
· Also the Dusit Thani 5* Hotel in Bangkok offers a special rate at THB 2,700/room/night. Information from dtbksales@dusit.com and bookings at dtbkrsvn@dusit.com and booking@dusit.com At check-in you must have and be prepared to show your valid BA ID card and act, as usual, with discretion.
In the absence of a summer Touchdown we will send out a full Hotline article as a separate communication to follow this newsletter. Don’t forget the Altitude reward gateway on http://www.baclubs.com for all the special deals and offers available to you.
Robert James |