A Tyneside holidaymaker was left in a tight spot when he turned up at Newcastle Airport ready to fly to Spain.
Despite buying his airport parking days earlier with Ryanair, John Paton and his wife, Sheila, were met with puzzled faces instead of the meet and greet service by Looking4Parking he had paid for. And although Ryanair and Newcastle Airport have confirmed there was a problem with parking at the airport, they can't agree who is to blame for the mix-up.
John and Sheila, both 69, arrived in good time and in good spirits, looking forward to their break in Malaga. However, they were soon brought back down to earth when John, from Monkseaton, claims he called the number on the parking voucher he had been sent by Ryanair - only to find there was no-one to answer his call, never mind to collect his car.
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He rang again and was relieved to hear the phone being answered. However, John's hope was short-lived when he claims a recorded message told him the service was 'not in operation at the moment'.
"Luckily we arrived in good time before our flight, as otherwise we would have missed it," said John, a retired teacher. "The message put us in a panic, as our flight time was getting nearer, so we went to the on-site airport parking office, to be told that our voucher was not valid at the airport. We had no choice but pay for more parking through the airport's official site and had to pay another £66.99 to park. It was awful - we were conscious that we were running out of time to get through security to catch our flight. The whole thing was very stressful."
Despite the shaky start, John and Sheila enjoyed their holiday but as soon as they were back on home turf, they set about finding out exactly what had gone wrong with their original parking and getting their money refunded.
"We contacted Ryanair as the booking was made thought their website and the payment went to them, and were told to contact Looking4Parking, as the service was provided by them," said John. "Neither company has been very helpful at all."
And Newcastle Airport told ChronicleLive John's not the first traveller to have a problem with the parking booked via Ryanair, and said there had been concerns about that it described as 'an illegitimate parking provider' claiming to offer a service at the airport.
"Several passengers have had a negative experience with the operator and we have been assisting them with replacement, on the day, car parking products where possible," said a spokesperson.
But Ryanair, which operates 19 routes from Newcastle Airport, has defended Looking4Parking, saying the problem was with the car park, which was experiencing 'operational challenges'.
A Ryanair spokesman said: "The car park operation is legitimate. ‘Looking4’ work with the operator at multiple UK airports. Looking4 stringently checks all operators and as soon as they became aware that the car park at Newcastle was experiencing operational challenges, they were immediately removed from sale and refunded any customers who were inconvenienced.
"Furthermore, as soon as Ryanair becomes aware of any customer issues, we then immediately raise these with Looking4, who take the necessary action. Mr Paton was refunded £49.67 on 15 th of March for the amount paid, and a second payment of £66.99 was made on the 31 st of March which covered the additional payment the customer needed to pay at the airport."
But John claims it took nearly a month - and around 20 emails - before his initial £49.67 was refunded, and a further two weeks - and only when ChronicleLive became involved - to get the additional £66.67 back.
A Newcastle Airport spokeswoman said: "We recently became aware of an illegitimate parking provider claiming to offer a parking service at Newcastle International Airport. Since then, we have worked closely with the car park consolidators to remove this unofficial product from the market to protect our passengers.
"If passengers are looking to book car parking at the airport, we recommend they book direct through the airport's website or via the Airport call centre to ensure they receive an official on-site product."
ChronicleLive has contacted Looking4Parking for a comment, but the company has not responded.
Mr Paton said: "The service was supposed to ensure a relaxing start to our holiday, but instead we ended up with just enough time to get through security before our flight was called. I've got my money back - eventually - but I want to warn others who might have already booked to be aware there may be a problem."
