Ryanair parking Stansted airport - no parking and no refund

Smugger

Thank you for your response and for acknowledging that there was a failure during the booking process and that Ryanair, as the company I paid, is ultimately responsible. I understand your point about spotting the issue earlier, and I agree that ideally, it would have been resolved before travel.

To clarify, I did attempt to follow up when I noticed the lack of confirmation for the parking. I reached out to Ryanair but was unable to speak to anyone directly. Their response was to contact Stansted Parking, which I did, only to be told that as the booking was made through Ryanair, they couldn’t assist me and directed me back to Ryanair. This back-and-forth left me with no clear resolution before my travel date.

I want to highlight this aspect because it underscores the systemic issues in communication and accountability between Ryanair and its third-party providers. Even though I noticed the problem early on, I was left without a way to resolve it due to Ryanair's lack of support.

In sharing my experience, my goal is to help others avoid the same frustration and financial loss by:

1. Encouraging travelers to double-check and confirm third-party bookings directly with providers, especially if booked via Ryanair.
2. Highlighting the lack of support and accountability from Ryanair for resolving issues related to services they sell.

I appreciate your input and agree that vigilance is important. However, the onus should not fall entirely on customers to chase down these issues, especially when they’ve paid for a service expecting it to be managed properly.

Smugger

daveyjp said:

I've just booked some parking at a local airport, via the airport website.  When I paid via Applepay the phone made the sound for a payment being made, but when the website updated it gave me 'page unavailable', not a confirmation page.

I immediately checked my credit card and no pending payment showing, there was also no payment notification on my phone.  

Contacted the airport asking if they had a booking, there was no record so the booking had failed (I suspect an issue with Applepay on some websites as I've had it before).  New booking made by entering the card details and no further issues.

So my comment is if you have no confirmation do some basic checks around the payment and query immediately.

Payment was made as part of the package

Smugger

It’s interesting to see such strong defense of Ryanair, especially from individuals with significant activity on this forum like @daveyjp and @eskbanker. While I respect differing opinions and contributions to discussions, it’s disappointing that the focus here seems to be deflecting attention from Ryanair’s failure to deliver the service I paid for.

My goal in posting this issue is to warn others about potential pitfalls when booking third-party services through Ryanair—not to debate the specifics of my actions or to shift responsibility away from the company I paid. It’s undeniable that Ryanair failed to fulfill their obligations, leaving me to cover the cost of their error.

If this forum is intended to provide genuine advice and support for consumers, I would hope that contributors focus on the core issue: ensuring that companies like Ryanair take accountability for the services they sell and resolve failures effectively.

I will also raise this with Martin Lewis's team to ensure transparency, as it’s crucial that this forum remains a safe space for consumer advocacy and unbiased advice.

Exodi

Smugger said:

It’s interesting to see such strong defense of Ryanair, especially from individuals with significant activity on this forum like @daveyjp and @eskbanker. 

I'm really confused in how you've arrived at that conclusion.

From what I can see eskbanker agrees there it was their failure and the company is ultimately responsible, but highlights that if your intention is to help others it's probably more useful to advise them not to just turn up to parking sites without any booking confirmation, it's just asking for trouble.

Likewise daveyjp has provided a recent experience of his that suggests it might be down to the airports systems rather than Ryanairs (but again, you booked with Ryanair so you should complain to them in any case). He's entitled to share his experience. He then finished by saying that you should have queried it as you don't have confirmation.

Unfortunately I think you'll find many people will have similar views, I certainly wouldn't just roll up without confirmation - sorry if that means I love Ryanair or whatever (I have never flown with them to be honest), but if I had a penny for every time a poster suggested that anyone that disagrees with their view must be in bed with or work for the company they are complaining about... well I certainly wouldn't need to be on a money saving forum.

Smugger said:
If this forum is intended to provide genuine advice and support for consumers, I would hope that contributors focus on the core issue: ensuring that companies like Ryanair take accountability for the services they sell and resolve failures effectively.

And despite the fact that this forum receives a lot of people complaining about Ryanair, it continues to be Europe's largest carrier. Many people who complain about Ryanair will book with them again.

Smugger said:
I will also raise this with Martin Lewis's team to ensure transparency, as it’s crucial that this forum remains a safe space for consumer advocacy and unbiased advice.

Remember that unbiased also means the freedom to share views that you don't agree with.

eskbanker

Smugger said:

It’s interesting to see such strong defense of Ryanair, especially from individuals with significant activity on this forum like @daveyjp and @eskbanker. While I respect differing opinions and contributions to discussions, it’s disappointing that the focus here seems to be deflecting attention from Ryanair’s failure to deliver the service I paid for.

I don't see any strong defence of Ryanair?

My goal in posting this issue is to warn others about potential pitfalls when booking third-party services through Ryanair—not to debate the specifics of my actions or to shift responsibility away from the company I paid. It’s undeniable that Ryanair failed to fulfill their obligations, leaving me to cover the cost of their error.

As above, I specifically agreed that it's Ryanair's responsibility!

If this forum is intended to provide genuine advice and support for consumers, I would hope that contributors focus on the core issue: ensuring that companies like Ryanair take accountability for the services they sell and resolve failures effectively.

You weren't looking for advice or support, but clearly stated that you posted to warn others, as you've reiterated above.

I will also raise this with Martin Lewis's team to ensure transparency, as it’s crucial that this forum remains a safe space for consumer advocacy and unbiased advice.

Not sure what you mean by transparency, in the context of forum posters - you might disagree with others' comments but that doesn't make them biased?  Or are you going to resort to the familiar old trope of accusing people of working for the company you're unhappy with?

Comments above....

Smugger

Thank you for the responses. I’d like to clarify my position and address the points raised by @Exodi and @eskbanker.

First, I appreciate that some of you agree that Ryanair is ultimately responsible for the failure to deliver the service I paid for. That is my primary concern, and I’ve made this post to share my experience and warn others about the potential pitfalls of booking third-party services through Ryanair.

To address the suggestion that I should have resolved the issue before arriving at the car park: I agree that it’s always best to have confirmation in hand. However, in my case, I attempted to follow up with both Ryanair and Stansted Parking ahead of the trip. Neither party resolved the issue. Ryanair directed me to Stansted, and Stansted directed me back to Ryanair—a frustrating loop that left me with no option but to assume my booking would be honoured.

Regarding my comment about transparency: My concern was not about disagreeing with differing opinions but ensuring that this forum remains a constructive space where consumer issues are discussed openly and fairly. If my comment about forum users came across as accusatory, that wasn’t my intention. My goal is to keep the focus on Ryanair’s accountability and ensure others can learn from my experience.

Finally, I agree with @Exodi that unbiased discussion means allowing views that differ from mine. I welcome constructive input and suggestions for how to avoid these situations in the future. However, I stand by my concern that the responsibility for fulfilling the booking lies with the company I paid—Ryanair—and that they need to improve their processes to prevent others from facing similar issues.

Thank you again for engaging with my post.

daveyjp

Despite me living in Luton when Ryanair were starting out with their BAC 1-11s I'd struggle to defend Ryanair.

I've used them twice, last time over 20 years ago before they started all the silliness with extra charges.  It was so awful I vowed never again,

Smugger

Update:

I wanted to share a resolution to my issue with the failed parking booking at Stansted Airport. While Stansted Parking did not accept responsibility for the problem—highlighting that the failure was due to Ryanair’s system not sending them the booking details—they have agreed to refund the £201 I had to pay as a gesture of goodwill.

I appreciate Stansted Parking stepping up to resolve this, even though the root cause clearly lies with Ryanair. However, the entire experience has been frustrating and avoidable.

For anyone facing a similar issue, I recommend contacting Stansted Parking directly and providing evidence of your Ryanair booking. While they may not accept fault, they seem willing to assist customers left out of pocket by this situation.

To avoid such problems in the future, my advice is simple: don’t use Ryanair for third-party services like parking. Book directly with the provider to ensure you have full control and confirmation of your reservation.

I hope this helps others avoid the stress and financial loss I experienced.

brianposter

Interesting. Presumably Ryanair would count as an agent of Stansted Parking so the latter may well have had a potential liability; and they may also have the power to recover the money.

Kakin2019

Just posting here to help anyone else who is looking for carparking confirmation when booking via ryan air -

My parents booked carparking at Stansted via Ryanair and didn't receive a confirmation email. After many back and forths with Ryanair we got a number to call MAG airports and it was finally resent. 

Call 0808 168 6222. When you have selected carparking go to amend a booking not a new booking or other information they both refer you online and end call.

From memory - Select Option 1 Carparking and then option 2 (to amend a booking). Then select option 1 (you haven't received a confirmation email). You should then speak to a person and they will send it out.