Air Canada Opens Maple Leaf Lounge At SFO

By: Ben Schlappig

Updated: June 29, 2023
Published: June 28, 2023

35 comments

This is exciting — Air Canada has just opened a gorgeous lounge at San Francisco Airport (SFO), which is something that United frequent flyers may also want to take note of.

In this post:

Air Canada’s beautiful new SFO lounge, with a terrace!

An Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge is now open in Terminal 2 at SFO. This marks the carrier’s first lounge at SFO, and also the first lounge of the carrier with an outdoor terrace. The lounge can seat 165 guests (135 indoors and 30 outdoors), and is spread across 8,168 square feet (761 square meters).

The lounge was designed with San Francisco-based architectural firm Gensler, and features the following amenities:

Self-serve (hot and cold) buffet, showcasing local flavors
A bar with a bartender serving a selection of wines (from Canada and California), local craft beer, a cocktail menu, and espresso
An outdoor terrace, featuring two vapor fireplaces
Showers with heated towel racks
A VIP room for up to 10 people
E-gates and biometric identification for hands-free lounge entry
Art that pays homage to California and Canada, including art from Canadian painter Shawn Evans, and a custom mural from California artist Amos Goldbaum

There aren’t many pictures of the lounge yet, but what I’ve seen so far looks great!

This represents Air Canada’s 28th lounge worldwide, and third lounge in the United States (after LAX and LGA). For what it’s worth, this lounge is in the space of what was supposed to become the Alaska Lounge (but Alaska ended up using the space of the former American Admirals Club instead).

Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge SFO terrace

Who can access the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge SFO?

The new Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge SFO follows standard Star Alliance lounge access policies:

Specific to Air Canada passengers, the lounge can be accessed by those in Air Canada business class, as well as Aeroplan Super Elite, Aeroplan 75K, and Aeroplan 50K members
Beyond that, all Star Alliance business class passengers, as well as Star Alliance Gold members, can access the lounge

So a United MileagePlus Premier Gold member or above gets access to the lounge on account of having Star Alliance Gold status. While they couldn’t access a United Club on a domestic itinerary, they can access an Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge.

Air Canada’s Terminal 2 and United’s Terminal 3 are connected airside at SFO, so this will no doubt be a popular lounge option with United flyers.

Bottom line

A new Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge has just opened at SFO, which is an exciting development. The lounge even features a terrace, making it the first lounge at the airport with such a space. While this is great for Air Canada passengers, it’s also an awesome new feature for United passengers, since the lounge can be accessed by premium United travelers even in situations where they don’t have United Club access.

What do you make of the new Air Canada Lounge SFO?

More discussion »

Support OMAAT

Conversations (35)

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Comment as a member

Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.

Loading comments…

Recent Comments

The latest from the OMAAT community.

Peter Guest

July 17, 2023, 4:56 pm

Just visited on a United domestic itinerary at 5PM on Sunday and the place was absolutely quiet while both T3 United Clubs were packed. It's a long walk from T3 and very hidden. I'm guessing only internet nerd-type United elites will ever even know it exists much less that they have access.

‼ 0

Elizabeth Dalton Guest

July 9, 2023, 5:07 pm

I'm trying to get information on the Air Canada airport lounge in Toronto. I have an 8 hour layover from midnight to 8 am. Apparently the lounge opens 4:30 pm to midnight...not helpful. I get the impression everyone is working from home at Air Canada. Hope the pilots are in attendance. Does anyone have any information outside of San Francisco?

‼ 0

Brenna Fleck Guest

July 9, 2023, 11:40 am

My husband and I are both Star Alliance Gld, we were just denied access. The supervisor said no entry allowed for domestic flights. They wouldn’t even let us look at the lounge.

‼ 0

Karen Guest

July 6, 2023, 4:25 pm

I visited a couple of days after it opened. Unfortunately it was very early, so no bartenders and not many amenities available. Seeing the top shelf liquors (only) on display, I'm guessing that they will be following other lounge models of free well drinks and paid premium drinks. End of an era, but nice to be able to have access to other options, I guess. There was soft chill music playing, both inside and outside. The terrace was wonderful, but wet from morning dew, so not really usable at that time. I did do some star watching. I'm not sure how their food buffet will work when there are more than 25 visitors. The serving sets and bowls are messy and not really going to scale. Perhaps they have other options when it's more crowded. There were no warm food options for breakfast, except for oatmeal. Having said all this, the lounge itself a beautiful and has modern seating to get actual work done, which I love. The biometric entry system was neat. I'm looking foward to visiting when more options are available.

‼ 0

Brianair [SFO] Guest

June 29, 2023, 5:10 am

It’s great that the new prime lounge space on the second level of SFO Terminal 2 is finally being put to use. Renderings look beautiful. It’s cool how they have an outdoor terrace in addition to the public one on the other side of T2. At the same time, I don’t really understand why Air Canada is in T2 now. I’d think it would be more efficient for them to share T3 with United especially since their hubs have US pre clearance. I think it would’ve been better for them to build the Maple Leaf Lounge in T3. The United Polaris Lounge is pretty much the only good lounge in that part of the airport and I bet it gets very overcrowded. Because of T2’s location further away from the other terminals, where having convenient connections are more important (Alaska/Oneworld in A and T1 and United/Star Alliance in G and T3), I’d think T2 would be better for independent LCCs like Southwest, JetBlue, and Frontier, airlines that don’t need to have those easy connections at SFO.

‼ 0