The Air Canada airport lounge network is the largest in Canadian airports, and all 4 premium-level Aeroplan cards offer the Air Canada airport lounge access benefit! This great benefit gives you free unlimited access to Air Canada airport lounges in North America (with 1 free guest). It’s a must-have for those who fly Air Canada often!
I love my Amex Aeroplan Reserve Card specifically for its Air Canada lounge access benefit; it’s amazing! It’s the most popular of the cards that offer this benefit, thanks to the fact it has no minimum income requirement along with its huge welcome bonus.
Here are all the details on the premium-level Aeroplan cards lounge access benefit.
Overview of the Air Canada airport lounge access benefit
All 4 premium-level Aeroplan credit cards offer this benefit: the Amex Aeroplan Reserve Card, the Amex Aeroplan Business Reserve Card, the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card, and the CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card.
This infographic summarizes the highlights of the Air Canada airport lounge access benefit (it’s for the 1st of the 4 cards because it’s the most popular, to keep this overview shorter).
The Air Canada airport lounge access benefit is the exact same for all 4 cards.
Unlimited access to Air Canada lounges in North America for you and 1 guest, when flying on Air Canada or a partner airline. No matter how/where/when you booked the flight, no matter how you paid for it, and no matter what seat class you’re in.
It’s honestly pretty straightforward, but I explain all the details in this guide.
The main thing that’s important to understand about the best cards for Air Canada airport lounge access is that the TD and CIBC versions ALSO include a separate lounge access benefit: 6 annual free passes for DragonPass lounges (a network of 1000+ lounges worldwide). We’ll have a detailed post about that separately soon, but it’s the exact same as the TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card’s benefit we already covered (but with 6 passes instead of 4).
That’s great, but the TD and CIBC versions have a very high income requirement (and a lower earn rate for Air Canada spending, which **can** be important if you fly AC a lot and you don’t maximize rewards the right way).
Let’s look at the Air Canada airport lounge access benefit specifically.
Details of the Air Canada airport lounge access benefit
Here’s more information on each component.
Cards — Air Canada airport lounge access benefit
Here are the basics of the most popular card that has this amazing benefit, the Amex Aeroplan Reserve Card:
- ≈ $442 with the welcome bonus
- Rewards of ≈ $1041
- Fee of $599
- Minimum spending requirement for the bonus
- $7,500 in 3 months
- Income requirement for the card
- None
The peculiarity that you’ve surely noticed is that there’s also a “business” version (which doesn’t require you to have an incorporated business), the American Express Aeroplan Business Reserve Card. The card itself is different.
However, its lounge access benefit is identical.
Here’s the basics on the Amex Aeroplan Business Reserve Card:
- ≈ $573 with the welcome bonus
- Rewards of ≈ $1172
- Fee of $599
- Minimum spending requirement for the bonus
- $10,500 in 3 months
- Income requirement for the card
- None
- Special instructions to follow
The TD version might be the best if you have a higher income. Again, the Air Canada lounge benefit is the same.
Here’s the basics on the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card:
- ≈ $527 with the welcome bonus
- Rewards of ≈ $1126
- Fee of $599
- Minimum spending requirement for the bonus
- $24,000 in 12 months
- Income requirement for the card
- $150,ooo (personal)
- OR $200,000 (household)
Finally, the CIBC version is quite inferior with its current offer and there’s absolutely no reason to choose it over the TD version.
Here’s the basics on the CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card:
- ≈ $133 with the welcome bonus
- Rewards of ≈ $732
- Fee of $599
- Minimum spending requirement for the bonus
- $15,000 in 12 months
- Income requirement for the card
- $150,ooo (personal)
- OR $200,ooo (household)
So this guide is for the 4 cards because their lounge access benefit is exactly the same.
Lounge access — Air Canada airport lounge access benefit
Here’s what’s actually included in this lounge benefit.
Number of accesses
Premium-level Aeroplan cards give you unlimited free visits.
You can do 50 lounge visits in a year, 10 lounge visits in a year, and/or 3 lounge visits in a day: it’s unlimited. Simple.
Guesting privileges
The unlimited free visits can be used by the premium-level Aeroplan cardholder AND 1 guest.
To be very clear, the cardholder must always be present (as with all lounge access benefits).
The supplementary cards (“joint” cards) added to the account for $199 get the same benefit separately. That gives you another pair of unlimited visits (so: you + the supplementary cardholder + 2 guests).
Please note that, as with plane tickets, children under 2 years of age are almost always admitted into lounges free of charge without counting as a guest, and other children often don’t get special treatment and will count as a guest (which makes sense, since they take up a seat just like adults, whether it’s on a plane or in a lounge).
Additional guests
If you need additional lounge passes for your guests, the best thing to do is simply to get another card that has the lounge access benefit in their name, so that you can earn other huge welcome bonuses and improve their credit score on top of that.
But if you don’t want to get more rewards and don’t want to save money, additional guests can usually be added by paying directly at the lounge (based on availability).
Additional guests are billed at C$59 in Canada and US$59 in the U.S., which is a little cheaper than if you paid for access directly if you didn’t have this benefit — but is still not particularly savvy considering you could instead pay that same amount towards a card’s fee and get a huge welcome bonus rather than paying for no reason!
Access conditions
The only condition that’s different from all other airport lounge access benefits offered by Canadian credit cards is that your benefit is only valid if you are flying Air Canada, a Star Alliance partner airline, or an Air Canada codeshare partner.
As with all other airport lounge access benefits, there are no restrictions related to:
- Which seat class you are seated in
- Whether you paid with the card
- Whether you paid in cash or in points
- When you booked the flight
- Where you booked the flight
You have access to the lounges as a cardholder of a premium-level Aeroplan card and it’s quite simple.
You never need to have a business class seat, and you certainly don’t need to have paid for your flight with your premium-level Aeroplan card or with Aeroplan points. It doesn’t matter if you had the card when you booked the flight or if you booked on the Air Canada website.
However, as with all airport lounges, you must have a valid same-day boarding pass and access may be limited to a certain number of hours before your flight (except during connections or delayed flights).
For the boarding pass, that’s not an issue for most travelers.
For the time before your flight, it’s limited to 3 hours before your flight. This means that if you arrive 7 hours before your flight, the lounge will refuse to let you in. This limit doesn’t apply if you have a connection, even if it’s a self-transfer on separate eligible tickets (another good reason to always take a screenshot of your boarding pass to have it **after** the flight).
Lounges included — Air Canada airport lounge access benefit
Premium-level Aeroplan cards give you access to Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges (and 3 Air Canada “Café” lounges), the largest airport lounge network in Canadian airports.
It gives you access to 25 lounges, specifically 21 lounges in 12 Canadian airports and 4 lounges in 4 U.S. airports.
Air Canada used to sell memberships to the Maple Leaf Lounge network that were accessible to all travelers. However, that has been suspended.
Don’t miss our detailed guide to the Air Canada airport lounge network soon, and check out a teaser of the locations in the “Find the included lounges” section below.
Logistics — Air Canada airport lounge access benefit
You have 3 logistical steps:
- Activate your lounge access
- Find the included lounges
- Enter lounges at the airport
Activate your lounge access
You simply need to link your premium-level Aeroplan card to your Aeroplan account.
If you’ve added your Aeroplan number during the credit card application, it’s already linked. If you didn’t do it, call the bank (not Air Canada or Aeroplan) to link the card to the right Aeroplan account.
Your lounge access will then be activated as long as your Aeroplan number is on all your flight bookings (as it always should be, of course… if that basic tip is news to you, learn how to manage your flight reservations).
Find the included lounges
To find out which lounges are included in the Air Canada airport lounge network, unsurprisingly, you need to check the Air Canada website.
It’s not as user-friendly as it is for more extensive lounge networks, but it’s still not that complicated.
On the website, you can check the dropdown menu on the right to see all locations (remember, the European locations are not included in the credit card benefit).
I do want to give you a teaser of our ultimate guides about airport lounges and the Air Canada airport lounge network, which will be sent to the savvy travelers who get Flytrippers’ free newsletter specifically for travel rewards.
Here’s an infographic of all 48 VIP airport lounges here in Canada and which ways to access them for free (I will also update it to add the 49th, the Air Canada Café lounge that opens in Montreal today).
Enter lounges at the airport
To access the Air Canada lounges, the logistics are even simpler than with non-airline lounge networks: it’s automatic. You simply need to scan your boarding pass, and that’s it.
Assuming you linked your card and your Aeroplan number and that your Aeroplan number is on the flight booking like in the step above.
I’ve never had any issues in dozens and dozens of visits, but worst case, just have the physical credit card on you. That way, you’re sure to have no problem getting in by just showing the card, if you forgot to add your Aeroplan number to the booking or if there’s any other bug.
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Summary
For Canadian travelers, one of the best travel benefits is the Air Canada airport lounge access benefit offered by premium-level Aeroplan cards, especially the American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card (which has no minimum income requirement). It’s great to get unlimited access to the largest network of VIP airport lounges in Canadian airports, for you and 1 guest.
What would you like to know about the Air Canada airport lounge access benefit? Tell us in the comments below.
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Featured image: Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge in SFO (photo credit: Andrew D’Amours/Flytrippers)
