There are no surprises at the top and bottom of a chart compiled by mobile internet specialists Volantis, which shows British Airways in joint first place with Lufthansa in customer services for flyers in need of information on their mobile phones. The ba2go.com website and various mobile apps have been keeping passengers informed about delays and cancellations for the past few days.
Good old BA. Sure, their flight attendants redefine the word arch, but when you do get through to them, or log on to one of their mobile apps, it's efficient and classy service all the way. If only the lazy beggars would stop striking.
Languishing in shame at the bottom of the table is Ryanair, which will come as no surprise to its passengers. With no mobile apps and no updates to web presences, Ryanair has done little to inform its customers about flight problems. I suppose it's a bit much to expect Ryanair to have a flashy iPhone app, but what is the point of even having a website if you can't put a few simple bits of information on it?
Over on Twitter, Heathrow Airport has come under fire for being, in the words of one passenger stranded at Terminal 5, "spectacularly unresponsive". British Airways' Twitter account, on the other hand, has been helping people almost non-stop, DMing vital flight information to beleaguered customers.
Astonishingly, a year after a high-profile social media failure, Eurostar still hasn't got its act together. That isn't surprising: reports from travellers suggest that Eurostar staff have been running around like headless chickens, totally incapable of dealing with the queues of people trying to get home for Christmas. Better luck next year, I suppose?
