manchester airport official meet & greet

Okay, maybe it's me be picky, but when I pay for something, you really expect to get what you've paid for.

I recently flew out of Manchester airport and paid for their meet and greet airport parking service. Now, I have used meet and greet before at various airports including Manchester and I have received a completely different service to the one that I had on this occasion.

Previously, I have turned up to the airport and pulled up right outside the entrance to departures. I have then been met by a driver who takes the car keys from me, gives me a ticket and then takes my car away. There's nothing else to worry about apart from giving the company a quick call when you arrive back at the airport after your trip to make sure your car comes back to you.

This time, we had to pull into a meet and greet car park. Firstly we pulled up to a barrier, pressed a button and gave the man on the other end of the line our reference number. He then told us to go through the barrier and park in lane number twelve and make our way to the office.

Can you see were this is going? They don't meet you, you park up in a lane and then they will take your car at some point to a car park. Once we got all of our luggage out of the car we then had to traipse across a car park in light drizzle to the office where they confirmed the booking and gave us a ticket.

After we sorted out all of the formal proceedings, we then made our way to departures. Which was quite a hike and involved using a lift. This does not seem like a problem, but when you have paid for meet and greet, you expect it to be outside the departures entrance!

I could have paid less and parked in the long stay multi-storey car park and virtually had then same service.

So, my tip if you are travelling from Manchester airport. Don't pay for their meet and greet service, use off site meet and greet car parks instead and save yourself some money for duty free