RATING (OUT OF 5 STARS)
Seating area and comfort: 5
Natural light: 5
Staff friendliness: 4
Washroom cleanliness: 5
Shower facilities: 5
Food variety: 4
Bar selection: 4
Decompress Zone: 3
Dedicated WiFi: 5
OVERALL RATING: 4.4 STARS
On a recent flight out of Vancouver International Airport, I visited Air Canada's Maple Leaf Lounge located in the International Terminal. This particular lounge is one of my favourite Maple Leaf Lounges.
The lounge is open to Star Alliance Gold members, those with Air Canada Elite 50k status or above and those travelling in business class on Air Canada or a Star Alliance partner. In addition, there are some credit cards that also provide access to Maple Leaf Lounges (such as certain TD, CIBC and AMEX Aeroplan affiliated cards).
One of the great aspects of this lounge is that there is lots of natural light and it provides great views of airport activity.
The seating area is well laid out providing a nice mix of quiet seating areas and conversational areas. As any self respecting business lounge should have, the seating areas have lots of power outlets and USB connections for charging and using your electronic devices.
The lounge has a great full service bar.
The lounge also boasts an in-house chef. Each month a new dish is featured. This month the chef created Tuna Sashimi Poke Bowl, which was surprisingly delicious and not too spicy.
In case the chef's creation isn't to your liking, there are lots of other food choices offered up at this lounge.
I also appreciated that the friendly staff did a great job of regularly picking up the dirty dishes to ensure that the lounge was kept clean and tidy.
In terms of WiFi, the lounge had dedicated WiFi with acceptable speed. When I was at the lounge, it was about 50% full and I was able to stream Netflix on an iPad and check and compose emails on my laptop with no issues.
The lounge also has a shower facility which I believe is a must for any international lounge. It is very spacious and has everything you need to freshen up. A very nice touch to the shower room was a cushioned bench. In terms of the shower itself, it was large and had both a rain shower head and a handheld shower head.
Below is a picture of the bathroom amenities that are provided in the shower facilities. The one complaint I do have is that I found the disposable razor to be of very poor quality. For the first time in years I actually cut myself shaving!
Overall the Maple Leaf Lounge is a very solid international lounge having all the amenities that an international traveler needs. It has a variety of freshly made food and comfortable seating areas that have great views of the airport. The shower facilities are a big plus and, like the rest of the lounge, are kept clean and well maintained. The wi-fi speed is decent and dependable. I have only have good things to say about the friendly staff. As a result, the Maple Leaf Lounge remains one of my favourite lounges at YVR. I will be back!
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