Review: Air France-KLM Lounge Toronto Airport

We used it a few years back flying on Cathay Pacific. It was a dump then and it still seems like a dump-few outlets bad “food”, workers when available with really bad attitudes. I would consider it an average priority pass lounge and a terrible lounge for business class passengers.

Contrast this with the Signature Suite offered to Air Canada’s paid business class customers...

If you live in Miami, how was your first segment from Toronto?

We demand answers!

No Improvement Expected.
Because Canada.

@ James S -- Hah! It was exactly the same as this flight:
https://onemileatatime.com/american-airlines-a319-first-class-review/

Except I was on an A321 without power ports, so that sucked. Otherwise perfectly fine, in particular the oatmeal, with only the finest seasonal ingredients!

I feel you need a reality check. For a PP lounge which you used during PP times this is a perfectly alright lounge. Been there many times and in comparison to other PP lounges and especially other KLM/AF lounges this is a decent one.

No, it´s not an AC signature suite or anything fancy, but it has the basics right and I like it whenever I am in YYZ and fly SkyTeam.

@ John -- I noted pretty clearly in the post that I thought it was totally alright for Priority Pass, but was disappointed there wasn't a better product prior to the Air France and KLM flights.

@ BrewerSEA -- Great point, updated the post to add that.

"the design is clearly based around monetization"

Ah, so it is similar to visiting a points, miles and travel blog.

@ Grumpy Texan Tension detected :))

I've been to this lounge a few times now, flying J on AF, KE, and KL, and as a Y passenger on other airlines (using my PP membership). Other than them bringing out spicy instant noodles when KE passengers showed up (and they were delicious...), the quality of the food and beverage did not change, as far as I could see. As a PP user, I really saw no appreciable difference in anything than when visiting as a SkyTeam flyer. I am flying AF next month to CDG and KLM in February, so I will be curious to see if anything has changed...the last few times (last visit was two months ago), I was seriously unimpressed with this lounge: dirty furniture, terrible connectivity (plugs, USB ports, spotty wifi), used glasses and plates collecting everywhere, glasses that didn't seem clean. A very disappointing lounge experience.

The roped off area is for Flying Blue Ultimate passengers to guarantee they have a seat if it gets crowded. They have that in almost all of their lounges now (I wonder if it's also where their new super exclusive status HIPP passengers will be put in the absence of a first class area) . If you've been to the new dining upstairs area at JFK, they have reserved tables as well.

Last week I was in the AF/KLM lounge when flying CX F from ORD T5. That was hands down the worst lounge I have experienced quite a while.

Aer Lingus also uses this lounge for its flights to DUB. My experience was satisfactory overall.

I'd be interested in your transit experience as well. It sounds like you were on two separate tickets (?). Did you actually have to enter Canada? Were you required to use one of those transit kiosks that seem to be only in Toronto and not in Vancouver? And if so did it recognize you were on a transit itinerary with 2 separate tickets? And why doesn't Canada have a standardized transit procedure? Lots of questions 🙂

Looking forward to the rest of your reports!

It looks like an average lounge overall.

So when can we expect the MEA flight and lounge trip reports?

The AF lounge in Houston is nothing to write home about either. Used it on my way home from Seattle on Monday with PP. It's a really tiny room with limited seating. I guess with only one flight a day to Paris, it would be sufficient. The KLM lounge was a tad better. They had a sign saying they were at capacity and no PP, but she let me in anyway. I didn't eat anything in either lounge, just had a drink or two as I'd eaten an early dinner and the PP restaurant in A terminal. Houston IAH isn't a bad airport for PP if you're willing to do a bit of walking from terminal to terminal.

Houston and Toronto are NOT legacy Air France lounges. They are LEGACY KLM lounges. This partly explains why the wine and food are so bad. KLM is MUCH, MUCH cheaper than Air France when it comes to food and wine. In fact, KLM spends less on wine than even United. Even the flagship KLM lounge in Amsterdam doesn't have champagne. I complained about the lounge KLM uses when flying international business-class out of Jakarta (no champagne and no wine) and ended up getting 20,000 miles from Delta since Delta handles KLM complaints from US customers.

I’m not sure that the perceived inadequacies of this lounge can be explained away by the fact that it’s origin is KLM rather than Air France; the reality is that NONE of the Air France lounges at CDG is any better ( and certainly in respect of crowding, far worse)...with the obvious exception of La Premiere ( which I haven’t experienced other than second hand via reviews).
In fact I have a strong preference for Crown at AMS ( even sans champagne) over anything offered by AF at CDG.

@HappyPrime23 - I believe it all depends on the terminal you are connecting through/airlines you are flying and your ultimate destination. If you are arriving from the USA and connecting to, say, Europe, it is pretty easy to connect through Terminal 1 - you just scan your passport at a kiosk on arrival and go to your next gate (even if it's leaving out of a different terminal). Now, if you are arriving to Terminal 1 on a Star Alliance member airline (say, Egyptair from Cairo) and connecting to the USA (say, on Air Canada or United), it gets a little more complicated because you will have to clear security and USA customs. However, you still aren't entering Canada/passing through Canadian immigration - you are just clearing (US) security in a different part of the terminal. In this case, you will clear immigration - US immigration - but not Canadian immigration.

Anything involving Terminal 3 is different: even if you are on one ticket (say, Delta-China Eastern codeshare ATL-YYZ-PVG) , you always need to clear customs and immigration in Canada if you are connecting through Terminal 3.

Better you compare AC’s Maple Leaf Lounge at CDG with this KL/AF outport lounge than AC’s Signature at YYZ. YYZ is AC’s home hub, just as CDG is AF’s. I recently flew QR Q-suites ex-SIN and the lounge used is an atrocious contract non-airline lounge, one of the worst I’ve encountered at a major airport. (Fortunately as a OneWorld Emerald I could and did use both the BA and QF lounges over my 3-hour wait for the flight to board.) I’d never think of comparing it to QR’s two premium cabin lounges at DOH.

BTW the booze selection looks pretty much similar to that on offer when Plaza Premium was managing BA’s temporary F lounge (JWRed....really in a premium lounge!).

BTW YYZ T3 is undergoing renovations in the areas used by arriving passengers so the non-entry into Canada option is not yet available as in T1. Part of the problem at the moment is the pier used for international flight gates is integrated with domestic gate areas. When clearing security you’re still in the domestic area and keep walking into the international area. There is a check of boarding passes to get through, or stop international passengers from getting back into the domestic area.

AF lounge in ORD also sucks.

That warm food is embarrassingly bad. Pretty sure the "lettuce" is coleslaw, which is worse than lettuce IMO.

This is actually a fairly recently renovated lounge, believe it or not. You should have been there before! The catering seems like it's the same legacy KLM lousyness as always however. Which explains the Prosecco and coleslaw. But the views and location are good. Also worth noting that AF/KL uses Terminal 3 at Pearson which, even with the renovations currently continuing, is affectionately referred to by many locals as the worst part of the Pearson complex...

Never been there, probably will never be there, but from your images, looks like a window treatments showroom

I was recently in the Air France KLM Lounge in FRA and it was pretty much the same, very basic and not a large selection of spirits or wines

This is so sad to here. I fly KLM economy (YYZ to Hannover) once a year to once every 18 months. I was debating treating myself to business class this December to make up for my March 2019 flight being cancelled because of covid. But, now I'm not so sure. Not just because of the YYZ lounge, but I've seen different posts about the service in business class is cut back because of covid. I would really like to have the lie flat seats though for an overnight flight.

Ooooops............*hear, not here. Gotta love autopredict 😉

The review is spot on other than not being more negative. It is a below par, badly managed lounge, with low maintenance, awful food, overcrowded at times given Virgin now uses it. It’s an embarrassment for both Air France and KLM.