A holidaymaker was left £300 out of pocket after booking airport parking via Ryanair only to discover it 'didn't exist.'
David Wright, 72, thought he was ready to fly to Limoges in France until he arrived at Leeds Bradford Airport last month.
The retired Newcastle University researcher, from Durham, discovered the meet and greet parking service was not available while airport staff said they were unable to deal with Ryanair bookings.
David and his wife Angie, 73, said they were forced to pay £229 to park their Hyundai in the airport's long stay parking despite having already paid £85.57 to Ryanair when booking their flight.
"When we arrived at the airport, we went to the meet and greet desk in the terminal and was told that they do not deal with Ryanair bookings," David told Chronicle Live.
"We searched for the service at Leeds Bradford Airport on my phone, and found a webpage saying that it service was not available."
He added: "We were not the only passengers in the situation, but by that time we had no choice but to use the on-site parking or risk missing our flight.
"I'd already paid Ryanair for parking at the same time as my flight and ended up having to pay more on the day to park at the airport."
David and Angie are frequent flyers to Limoges, where they visit their holiday home around six times per year either via Manchester or Leeds Bradford airport.
They usually book the long stay car par at Leeds Bradford Airport, but this time decided to try Ryanair's meet and greet service after a successful experience in Manchester.
David said: "We thought we would try the meet and greet offered by Ryanair not realising that it was not the service offered by the airport itself, but another provider called Looking4Parking."
When David and returned to their home near Durham, they set about looking into the issue and tried to get their money back.
"As we booked the flight and parking together with Ryanair, we assumed it would be a relatively simple matter to get a refund from Ryanair," David said.
"But we were wrong and it proved to be quite difficult. I contacted both Ryanair and Looking4Parking but it took a while to get a response from either company."
David then came across another customer who had a similar problem with Ryanair and wanted to raise awareness in case the issue was more widespread.
A spokesperson for Leeds Bradford Airport said it was aware of the issue with Ryanair booked parking, but was not affiliated with it.
"Leeds Bradford Airport does not offer a parking service that entails dropping off a vehicle at the one-hour free parking zone and any company that is is not affiliated with the airport," he said.
"We do offer a meet and greet service located in front of the terminal as well as other direct parking options, but these are not associated with this company in question.
"We encourage people to book directly with the airport to guarantee the purchase of official meet and greet parking."
A Ryanair spokesperson said: “This customer made a booking with Looking4parking for meet and greet car parking at Leeds Bradford Airport. However due to a minor temporary IT issue, his reservation was not processed.
"We apologise to this customer for this processing issue with Looking4Parking which has since been rectified, and a member of our customer services team has contacted him directly to arrange a refund.”
Ryanair later confirmed that when it receives the Leeds Bradford Airport receipt, the airline would also reimburse David for the £229 fee for long-stay parking at the airport.
Fellow travellers John and Sheila Paton, from Monkseaton, suffered a similar experience earlier this year after buying parking at Newcastle Airport through Ryanair, provided by Looking4Parking.
Like David, they ended up paying for parking at Newcastle Airport as they were running out of time to catch their flight to Malaga.
Ryanair did eventually refund the money for both the Looking4Parking booking and the Newcastle Airport long stay fee, but John claims it took nearly a month and around 20 emails before his initial £49.67 was refunded.
It then took a further two weeks to get the additional £66.67 back.
The Mirror Online has contacted Looking4Parking for comment.
