Review: Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport

By: Ben Schlappig

Published: June 16, 2019

30 comments

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NAME: Aspire Lounge

Airport: YYC

DATE: April 2019

REVIEW RATING:

BEN SAYS: This is one of the nicer contract lounges out there, thanks to the open layout and good food selection

My layover in Calgary was about 3.5 hours, as I arrived from Denver shortly before 4PM, and my flight to London departed at 7:20PM. Calgary is a fairly small airport, so I was expecting the transit experience to be quite easy.

First I followed the signage towards immigration and connections, and while walking I saw the beautiful WestJet 787-9 parked, which would be flying me to London.

WestJet 787 Calgary Airport

If you’re connecting from the US to another country there’s a special process for transiting without entering Canada. Now, before I criticize this process, let me note that both the US and Mexico don’t allow any sort of “sterile” transit, so Canada still has the edge in this regard.

Calgary has a makeshift setup for international connections. You go into the immigration hall, and then one of the airport employees hands you a special slip. They tell you to wait in line for immigration and have an officer stamp the slip, and then tell you to come back to them.

Calgary Airport international connection slip

The problem is that quite a few people were making connections, so there were at least a dozen people in the line. On top of that there was a line right next to it for those who had issues using the immigration kiosks while trying to enter the country. There was a single immigration officer to handle both lines. So in all I had to wait for about 30 minutes before I was through.

The immigration officer just stamped my slip, and then I walked back towards the airport employee who handed me the slip to begin with. She then escorted me to an elevator, I went through security, and then I was back in the international departures hall.

So the process wasn’t that bad, but it should be much easier, in my opinion.

On the plus side, the Calgary Airport terminal is gorgeous. It has really high ceilings and striking architecture, and best of all it’s not too big, so it’s an easy terminal to get around.

Calgary Airport international terminal

I was curious about WestJet’s lounge setup in Calgary. Calgary will be the primary base for WestJet’s 787s, so you’d think they’d eventually open their own lounge here.

However, instead WestJet uses the Aspire Lounge for their business class passengers. Using a contract lounge at a hub airport is a bit unusual, so wondered what it would be like. The lounge does belong to Priority Pass, so if you aren’t traveling in business class, you can still access this lounge thanks to airport lounge benefits that come with certain some credit cards.

The lounge is located just past the regular security checkpoint, near the Chili’s.

There are two elevators leading up to the lounge.

Elevator to Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport

Upon exiting the elevator the entrance to the lounge was immediately ahead.

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport entrance

I was promptly scanned into the lounge, and was informed that no boarding calls would be made.

Wow, this lounge is beautiful — it was nicely furnished and wasn’t full at all, which was a pleasant surprise.

Inside the entrance to the lounge is a communal tables, as well as some high-top seating.

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport seating

Then along the windows are sets of four seats set up around coffee tables.

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport seating

Further into the lounge are more seats along the windows, set up in rows of two.

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport seating

Unfortunately the lounge doesn’t have direct tarmac views, but rather looks out over the terminal.

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport view

Then there’s the buffet, along with four booths.

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport booths

In the very back of the lounge is more seating, which includes chairs, benches, and more.

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport seating

There’s even a nap area in the very back right of the lounge. This consists of some daybeds, each with their own TVs. The daybeds also have curtains for added privacy.

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport nap area

The lounge also has a selection of magazines and newspapers.

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport magazines & newspapers

The bathrooms and showers are back near the entrance to the lounge on the right, and were well maintained.

The lounge also had a surprisingly good food selection.

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport buffet

There were bagels, toast, croissants, cold cuts, cheese, veggies, fresh fruit, snack mix, and several hot dishes.

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport snacks

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport hot food

There was also a selection of desserts.

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport dessert

The lounge had a self serve coffee machine, as well as a selection of tea.

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport coffee machine

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport tea selection

Then there was a self serve bar, including soft drinks, water, juice, liquor, beer, and wine.

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport self serve drinks

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport juice

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport drinks

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport liquor

Aspire Lounge Calgary Airport wine

All things considered I thought the lounge was excellent. I spent a bit of time in the lounge working, which was easy thanks to the fast Wi-Fi.

My flight to London was departing from gate D83, and boarding was scheduled for 6:25PM, which was 55 minutes before departure.

I headed to the gate shortly after 6PM, and it was only a few minutes away. In the gate area they were announcing upgrade offers — they were offering upgrades to premium economy for 649CAD, and to business class for 1,199CAD.

Those prices seem really steep for last minute upgrades. Usually if you’re going to promote upgrades it’s going to be with a special offer, though those are high prices. I would have expected upgrade costs to maybe be half of that.

Boarding started at 6:30PM. Wheelchair passengers were invited to board first, followed by Zone 1, followed by families, followed by Zone 2.

WestJet departure gate Calgary Airport

Aspire Lounge Calgary bottom line

While WestJet doesn’t operate their own lounge, that’s not a problem at all, as the Aspire Lounge Calgary is quite nice. It’s spacious, nicely furnished, and has a good selection of food & drinks. As long as WestJet doesn’t grow their premium presence out of Calgary too much, this should meet the demand for the airline for quite a while.

Calgary Airport as such was beautiful as well. My only criticism of the experience is that I wish they’d make the international transit process a bit easier. Ideally I shouldn’t have to wait 30 minutes just to get a simple stamp on my transit card.

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Recent Comments

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Jan Newton Guest

October 27, 2024, 10:03 pm

I am in the Aspire Lounge at 7:30 on a sunday night waiting for a 10pm flight to London. The hot food is empty except for one item which is stone cold. The fruit is non existent. The other food looks like it's been there many hours and the staff obviously want the day to be over. What a disappointment. They are only open till 8:30 so if you are on a later flight, you are out of luck. Next time I will walk back to Area B and go to the Westjet lounge. This is a huge letdown. The lounge itself is. I let appointed but the food choices at this time are abysmal

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charles j Guest

July 23, 2024, 4:58 pm

aspire lounge (priority pass) VERY BASIC, slow to check you in , food is average at its best, ammenities basic, captain spiced rum is not premium fyi and in general not great service, the up side you can enter no matter what airline you fly so in airports you dont have airline lounges they win but no comparison to MAPLE LEAF or WESTJET LOUNGES, on a scale of 1-10 10 being the best id give them 2.5-3 points....with very little effort this could be a great lounge ie mexico, prority pass does a decent job but food comes out every 15 mins not 1 time for breakfast and 1 x for lunch etc...listen too what people are saying and make the changes

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scott franco Guest

September 9, 2023, 1:50 am

Nice lounge, didn't really fit what I needed all, so skipped. We arrived on an 8 hour layover, very tired. Was told first they had to charge us double to be there since our flight was later. We ate lunch and came back, then the story changed to "you can't come here until 3 hours before your flight", and they check your ticket. We were tired now, so this made no sense. On the plus side, the regular airport bench seats were comfortable to sleep on, so was able to get some sleep before the flight. I still don't know what the purpose of the rule is.

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Glenn Guest

January 7, 2022, 10:46 am

I tried calling Aspire Lounge (area code 902 number) just to find out if the Calgary International Airport Lounge is open. The greeting message stated "if you are flying today, please select option 1". Selecting option 1 I got the message that the wait time is two minutes. After 15 minutes and countless recordings, I was told no agents are available. I hope the lounge is better than the customer support line. If the number for the Calgary lounge was available, it would be better than the one central (and obviously overloaded) centre for all calls for all lounges.

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Nate Guest

July 12, 2019, 5:03 pm

I just flew out of Calgary a few weeks ago but back to the US so I was in the terminal for US flights. The Aspire lounge there was just as good and had the same food choices, excellent drink selection. I didn't see the nap chairs and it was a smaller lounge but a fantastic one.

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