Hello from Vancouver! I’m on the outbound portion of my review trip to South Korea and Japan, and had a quick musing about a lounge I just visited. There were signs all over the lounge asking guests to scan a QR code to provide feedback, but I’ll do so a bit more publicly.
In this post:
The SkyTeam Lounge Vancouver is a mess
Vancouver International Airport (YVR) has fairly few lounge options in its international (non-transborder) terminal. For Star Alliance flyers, there’s the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge and (excellent) Air Canada Signature Suite, and for many others, there’s the SkyTeam Lounge Vancouver. The lounge is not only the primary lounge for SkyTeam airlines departing from the airport, but it’s also open to Priority Pass members.
I’d like to think that I have reasonable expectations of lounges in North America, and even more reasonable expectations of lounges that accept Priority Pass. But I’ve never in my life seen a lounge that’s in as bad shape as this one.
The “bones” of the lounge are fine, and the entrance even looks modern and sleek. The lounge only opened in 2017, so it’s not even that old.
But goodness, the seating in this lounge is in shambles. The leather in a majority of the seats is coming apart. I’m not just cherry picking, as it wasn’t just one or two seats in the lounge that are this way, but rather below is a small sampling of how the seating in the lounge looks.
Do we get the point, or should I keep going? 😉 A larger percentage of the seating in the lounge are these plastic chairs that don’t have any sort of padding, so I guess the silver lining there is at least that they can’t deteriorate in the same way.
Funny enough, I briefly visited this lounge back in May, prior to flying Lufthansa Allegris from Vancouver to Munich. I noticed the same thing at the time, and figured that there must be an imminent fix, and I just caught the lounge at the worst possible time. But nope, five months later, nothing has changed, and the condition has just gotten worse.
To the lounge’s credit, the staff here are super friendly, and the food and drinks aren’t terrible, and there’s a noodle bar. So if you can get over the condition of the seats, it’s not a bad place to spend some time.
How can the lounge’s condition get so bad?
I understand there’s a lot of bureaucracy and budgeting at big companies, but I can’t help but wonder how the various parties involved let the condition of the lounge get so bad.
I suspect that the lounge has a manager, and I have to imagine the manager noticed the condition of the lounge (if they haven’t noticed it, then maybe that person is in the wrong line of work). So hopefully the manager let the person that they report to know about what’s going on.
But what happened from there? I understand that companies have budgets, and that lead time is often required for big projects. I’m not sure what the exact financial arrangement is for how SkyTeam operates its lounges.
But the thing is, this isn’t a new issue. The condition was just as bad five months ago, and I imagine it was probably similar months before that. This kind of wear and tear doesn’t happen overnight. You’d think that this could’ve been addressed with preventive maintenance, rather than needing to do a full replacement of furniture. There’s a reason lounge furniture doesn’t usually look like this…
I also can’t imagine that SkyTeam’s member airlines would be thrilled to see the condition of the lounge. Like, Air France puts quite a bit of effort into its passenger experience, and I doubt this is what the airline would want its passengers to experience.
A lounge in this condition simply reflects poorly on the alliance, and that’s not good for any of the member airlines. Like, I don’t expect much from the Swissport Lounge Chicago, but you’d hope for a bit more from a global airline alliance.
I have to say, I’m not surprised that if an alliance lounge were to be in this condition, it would be one belonging to SkyTeam. While SkyTeam has great individual member airlines, the alliance just isn’t nearly as consistent or quality focused as Star Alliance or oneworld. 
Bottom line
While I’ll have a full review soon, the SkyTeam Lounge Vancouver wins my award for the world’s most poorly maintained lounge. I’ve never seen a lounge with so much seating that’s just destroyed. I don’t know how it got to this point, but it’s time for some investments ASAP…
Have any OMAAT readers been to the SkyTeam Lounge Vancouver? If so, did you notice the furniture situation?
Lounges should be using vinyl seating - not real leather - which doesn't hold up.
Those seats aren't leather, they're naugahyde. That flakes off and shows the white cloth backing, unlike leather.
Ben, did you not notice the Plaza Premium lounge? It closed for renovations over a year ago so they roped off an alcove in between two departure gates, put up stanchions, wheeled in a portable bar, and call it a lounge. Makes the Skyteam loc look ultra luxe. You probably walked by and didn't even recognize it was a "lounge" at all.
I noticed the same thing recently at the United Club near gate B6 at ORD
It's funny, the loung probably spends hundreds of thousands a year on rent and staffing, but cannot afford to purchase a dozen or so new chairs.
On the plus side I have quite enjoyed the lounge and feel it is one of the best priority pass lounges - especially in North America. Food is hot and tasty, and drinks are great.
It's on the manager of the lounge. If they don't care, it'll look like that. ♂️
lol, was trying to include a shrugging emoji, but Ben's weird Wordpress template didn't like that apparently. Don't know how it came up with a Mars symbol. Oh well.
Ooh this reminds me of the SkyTeam lounge in Havana, Cuba. Even lacked a toilet seat. Should make for a fabulous review Ben. Would recommend 1/10. Happy to share the pics.
British Airways on a hugely expensive business class return gave me the Plaza Premium “Lounge”. I had difficulty finding it because it isn’t a lounge it’s a roped off area on the ground floor. Definitely the worst wine (undrinkable) and horrible food. The service food and wine in the restaurant nearby- Elevate - was the best I have had at an airport so I went there.
Delta F lounge in MSP isn’t much better. Chairs ripped there as well
SkyTeam is more consistent than the others in offering frequent flyers priority security (Skypriority is a thing even in small outstations whereas *A Gold Track is restricted to a handful of airports), priority baggage handling, and additional luggage allowance (only SAS exclude it from light fares, and that's probably only because they just joined).
While I appreciate that, unlike first class lounges etc, people rarely get very excited about this sort of stuff, it...
SkyTeam is more consistent than the others in offering frequent flyers priority security (Skypriority is a thing even in small outstations whereas *A Gold Track is restricted to a handful of airports), priority baggage handling, and additional luggage allowance (only SAS exclude it from light fares, and that's probably only because they just joined).
While I appreciate that, unlike first class lounges etc, people rarely get very excited about this sort of stuff, it does come in handy, particularly for those who travel frequently in short haul Y.
Those chairs are Halloween props I'm thinking! IF not that ridiculous!
Yep, hit the nail on the head - the saddest airline alliance, along several dimensions...
Delta, Air France, KLM, SAS, Korean Air, China and Virgin are all I consider to be the decent members.
However the rest - Kenya, Aerolineas Argentinas, Tarom, Czech with its one plane and leaving shortly, ITA which has always been on the periphery even when it was Alitalia, Saudia. Aeroflot - goodbye
Garuda are significantly better than "decent', VN are trying ever harder, and I've not seen furniture in such a poor condition in lounges operated by either.
Aeroflot aren't a member anymore, Czech Airlines are closing down because their government didn't want to spend taxpayer money to bail them out during COVID. Tarom and AZ are also caught in between business and politics, the latter won't be around for long anyway.
Kenya Airways clearly is the second best airline in the whole of Africa (just behind ET and far ahead of anyone else), if you don't like it you can fly around...
Aeroflot aren't a member anymore, Czech Airlines are closing down because their government didn't want to spend taxpayer money to bail them out during COVID. Tarom and AZ are also caught in between business and politics, the latter won't be around for long anyway.
Kenya Airways clearly is the second best airline in the whole of Africa (just behind ET and far ahead of anyone else), if you don't like it you can fly around the continent on all the local oneworld members (hint: there aren't any apart from AT which might as well be in Spain). Garuda probably have the best Y product of any airline in the world, China Airlines are up there with the best in both cabins, Saudia offer by far the best value business class deals between Europe and Asia etc.
The likes of AM, UX, and VN may be rather unexciting, but still quite solid and reliable in my experience. The soft product on Aeroméxico's transatlantic business class blows the likes of UA out of the water.
The public face of DieTeam when its mask slips. Just like its leading member, the crop dusters, with its worthless frequent flyer program, its prison guard FAs, its useless gate agents, its homophobic CEO, and its tax deduction Tim Dunn.
Homophobic CEO ? Ben Smith is definitely not homophobic lol. Nor are Marjan Rintel or Anne Rigail. Who the f.. are you referring to in your nonsensical rant.
The butt-licker of Guillaume Faury, Ed Rat-bastian. And it's perfectly sensible if you haven't been blue-pilled by Delta.
I think the question to ask = and you should be able to explain - is how alliance owned and operated lounges - which I presume this is - are operated and maintained.
You do have a knack for excessive fixation (and I mean the space devoted to an issue relative to others) on appearance issues.
That was an unnecessarily rude comment. If you dislike Ben, why are you on his site?
@Super
The reason to that is, some troll loves to live rent free on other people's blog.
It's because my Daddy knows when ANYONE dares to demean the universe's #1 PREMIUM airline (and alliance), the SkyPeso redemption rates between ATL and MCO jump another 100K miles!
why do you nameless trolls always manage to come out of the woodwork when you have something negative to say?
You didn't bother to notice my recent responses which praised Ben's family.
YOU are the one that is rude.
If Ben wants to respond, he certainly can. He has mentioned me in the body of his articles - can't say so that about nameless you
I think the question to ask = and you should be able to explain - is how self owned and operated blog - which I presume this is - are operated and written.
You do have a knack for excessive fixation (and I mean the space devoted to an issue relative to others) on Delta issues.
An issue relative to others ? Absolutely no one should believe the condition of those seats is acceptable. Apart from it appears, yourself.
In they hyper-branded airline universe, appearance is vitally important. Staff are expected to be well-groomed, polite, helpful, and in uniform. Aircraft are expected to be spotlessly clean and the cabins well-maintained. Lounges are expected to be the same. I have to wonder what execs from KAL, Air France, or Virgin Atlantic would make of those tatty old chairs? I'm guessing they'd be very unimpressed, because it's not the image they want for their brands.
as usual, the minute I comment, Ben's site lights up with responses.
For those that are worried, I clearly want Ben to succeed or I wouldn't bother to post.
And, yes, Ben does make a big deal about appearance relative to other things.
Appearance is the "first impression" but the fact that the staff are friendly - as he noted - and the buffet was decent - got disproportionately less coverage than multiple pictures...
as usual, the minute I comment, Ben's site lights up with responses.
For those that are worried, I clearly want Ben to succeed or I wouldn't bother to post.
And, yes, Ben does make a big deal about appearance relative to other things.
Appearance is the "first impression" but the fact that the staff are friendly - as he noted - and the buffet was decent - got disproportionately less coverage than multiple pictures of tattered furniture.
No one believes that furniture is acceptable - which is why I asked who actually maintains that lounge and other SkyTeam branded lounges.
You all can go back into your caves until I post again.
I've seen nicer Egypt Air lounges in Cairo and they are pretty bad.
They could have gone to IKEA and bought good budget furniture!
And secondly: has anyone ever looked at the sugar content on yogurt? Easily 10 grams or over for
that flavored stuff they say is yogurt. I wish someone would pay attention and buy the low sugar kind - the way yogurt USED to be before it came commercialized.
I always wonder why smaller lounges and less fancier lounges don't just do a corporate deal with IKEA or something to just get highly usable furniture that can be replaced on a modular basis as it wears out.
I remember back when WeWork was still spending like there's no tomorrow, and a friend of mine told me that every few months, they just replace the super expensive furniture there and the staff can just...
I always wonder why smaller lounges and less fancier lounges don't just do a corporate deal with IKEA or something to just get highly usable furniture that can be replaced on a modular basis as it wears out.
I remember back when WeWork was still spending like there's no tomorrow, and a friend of mine told me that every few months, they just replace the super expensive furniture there and the staff can just take them home. I ended up renting a massive truck and took everything and sold it back online, most were in perfect condition (I am sitting and using some of the furniture now).
Corporates utilities are a pack of bs in my experience, had to replace a door hinge in my office once and the corproate maintenance person told me it was going to be 1200 to replace the hinge, I questioned why, and he got flustered and said that the contractor does provide a receipt that corporate pays without asking.
Ben, I hope you have a chance to visit the Cathay Pacific Lounge at YVR instead of this (not sure the hours though). It's much nicer!
Who cares about that, Delta is profitable.
Money before everything! Rawrr!
I'd bet the devil is in the details of who pays for it - because if there's a pre-negotiated budget line for upkeep, it's almost certainly inadequate, and the influence of SkyTeam airlines that don't benefit from that lounge will inhibit any sort of resolution.
The transition from Star Alliance to Skyteam for us SAS people just keeps getting better by the day.
Not