I arrived at Vancouver Airport on Alaska at roughly 3PM for the 6:45PM departure, and headed straight to the departure gate for the Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt to retrieve my boarding pass, since I didn’t want to clear customs and immigration.
Continue reading: Review: Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Vancouver
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Hi Lucky !
Next time you are at YVR or other Canadian airports try the Plaza lounge, ANY Amex Platinum or Priority pass will get you in and there's real hot food (with a cook).
You can also redeem a single use pass with 7,500 American Express points (With the Canadian Cards)
With fares and rental cars so much cheaper in Seattle, Vancouver loses a lot of air traffic.
Correction:
It's 3,500 Amex Points for 1 single use pass for Plaza Lounges.
Please see:
https://catalogue.membershiprewards.ca/viewAwardByBrand.mtw?filterBrandName=Plaza%20Premium
Also please note that even though there are Plaza lounges in other Canadian Airports, the pass is only valid at YVR and YYZ.
And they don't mention this on the Amex website but the passes expire 31 dec 2014 and you are limited to a 3 hour stay.
I like the Transborder lounge at YVR - on the 2nd floor, so high up and an "open" lounge as well
Looks a lot like the "Transborder" (vice "International") lounge that we were in on July 4th (the one located around Gate 82) ... except no finger sandwiches or ravioli for us border crossers! 🙁
It maybe the best Lounge for Star Alliance but OneWorld has better Lounges at YVR: BA Lounge has both F and J sections and has very nice services. CX has both F and J section as well but minimal service like most CX Lounge out of HKG (except LHR).
@Jonathan: To clarify my Post #6, we only visited the Transborder Lounge, but felt that their food selection/quality had gone way downhill since our last visit 5 years ago.
Ben's visit to what I assume was the International Lounge (around Gate 52). That lounge appears to have very similar decor and all the same food as the Transborder lounge, but also had small sandwiches and pasta ... or maybe we just hit the Transborder lounge on an off day.
Did not know one could connect in YVR without clearing immigration. Good to know for those of us with "youthful indiscretions" that prohibit entrance into the Great White North.
I believe you can only access the transborder lounge if you're flying to the US as it's beyond US customs and immigration pre-clearance.
I am trying to find out where to get the same coffee machine that is in the Air Canada lounge. Our office is located in Toronto Ontario, so we are looking for a distributor out here. Anyone have any info or contact info for the lounge so that I can talk to the food and beverage manager out there.
Worst lounge experience: Alaska Airlines in LA ( and I've been in it numerous times)..Only one time, however....no one seemed to care that bratty kids were running around throwing candy and missing each other (parents were asleep !)...and a group of (drinking) German tourists were So Loud talking to each other and laughing ...even when I moved as far away as I could to get some work done.
I see these lounges as quiet refuges during travel ....not playrooms and loud bars.
Staff didn't seem to care when I asked if it was acceptable for the lounge to be So noisy.
Thankfully, it hasn't happenened the last 7times I was there..or AA would have ben notified.
Maple leaf lounge in Vancover intl airport sucks. Its hot, crowded & washrooms small & cramped. We travel a lot i would rather sit in common area & do. Am super elite. This a poor excuse for business travel b
I must say this is one of my least favourite lounges in major cdn airports. The domestic lounge is much nicer and doesn't feel as crowded. However, so far most of the cdn airline lounges have far surpassed the American ones (unless you include international groups like Cathay...)