Airport lounges are amazing and easy to access, but Air Canada lounges are more exclusive than the rest. The airline is opening a brand new one tomorrow, the Air Canada Café Lounge Montreal (YUL) and I was at the official inauguration for you yesterday. It’s a very different concept from “normal” lounges.
But like all Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges in Canada and the United States, you can enter for free thanks to the Air Canada airport lounge access benefit. That guide explains all the details while you await our complete guide to airport lounge access very soon.
The main difference with Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges is that Air Canada Café Lounges are really designed for takeaway food and drinks! And since the lounge is brand new, it’s really beautiful in terms of design and decor!
Here are the details of the brand-new Air Canada Café Lounge in Montreal (YUL).
Basics — Air Canada Café Lounge Montreal (YUL)
Montreal, Québec, is the 2nd most populous city in Canada. If it’s your own city, it doesn’t really need an introduction. But for travelers from elsewhere, it’s also a very interesting destination.
The Montreal airport (YUL) is by far the busiest in Québec. It’s the 3rd-busiest in Canada, after Toronto (YYZ) and Vancouver (YVR). It’s a major hub for Air Canada, our national flag carrier, including for transatlantic flights.
So Air Canada is opening its very first Café Lounge at YUL. The airport already has 3 Maple Leaf Lounges (domestic, transborder, and international), but the different concept of the Air Canada Café Lounges is designed to complement the real lounges (you can read my review of the new Maple Leaf Lounge in San Francisco to compare).
The only other Air Canada Café Lounge that exists is at Toronto airport (YYZ). I always love that one, so I was looking forward to this opening in Montreal, my home airport. Another one should eventually open in Vancouver, too.
The lounge is fairly small (2,700 square feet) and has 58 seats, since it’s designed for grab-and-go. It’s smaller even than the Café at YYZ.
Opening hours are from 5 AM to 8 PM.
As an important resource for travel and for airport lounges, Flytrippers was invited to the official launch event of the lounge yesterday morning.
I will obviously try out the lounge for a more natural, normal experience during an upcoming trip (I just got back from a month in Asia on Wednesday night, so it won’t be right away though). But I’ll still show you the lounge itself, along with the behind-the-scenes experience of the media event at the end!
Access — Air Canada Café Lounge Montreal (YUL)
There are 20+ airport lounges in Canada (and 1200+ around the world) that almost all Canadian travelers can easily gain free access to (or rather be paid to access) year after year. These are the lounges that are part of global lounge networks, which is not the case for Air Canada lounges.
Air Canada airport lounges are a little more exclusive and you can access them for free **be paid to access them** for just a few years, not infinitely like the other lounges.
There are 6 main ways to get free access to the Air Canada Café Lounge in Montreal (and the 20+ other Maple Leaf Lounges):
- Having a premium-level Aeroplan credit card*
- Having a ticket in business class or first class
- On Air Canada
- On a Star Alliance partner
- On Emirates or a codeshare partner
- Having elite status
- Aeroplan 50K, 75K, or Super Elite
- Star Alliance Gold
- Emirates Skywards Gold or higher (certain conditions)
- Having a pass for a free visit
- Benefit of certain corporate Aeroplan credit cards
- Benefit of Aeroplan 25K or 35K elite status
- Shareable benefit by 50K and higher elite members
- Paying for a pass
- Option to add when booking certain flights
- By choosing the very expensive Economy Latitude fare class
- Having an amazing U.S.-issued credit card we can’t name
- American SSN or ITIN required
- Don’t miss our step-by-step guide coming soon
- Montreal (YUL) lounges are excluded, though
*Unlike all other cards that offer free access to airport lounges regardless of the airline, having a flight on Air Canada (or a Star Alliance partner) is always required to access Air Canada lounges, including if you have free access with Air Canada Aeroplan cards
Most people who don’t want to spend a lot of money (or a lot of points) get access to Air Canada lounges through Aeroplan premium credit cards and are therefore entitled to 1 free guest. A supplementary card (“joint” card) added to the account for $199 gives you 2 extra unlimited passes.
You can access the lounge 3 hours before your flight if you’re departing from Montreal (no time limit during a connecting flight or a delayed flight situation). Our detailed guide on this benefit has all the information.
For those with the other 17 Canadian credit cards that offer free access to airport lounges, Montreal airport is not particularly well covered apart from these 4 Air Canada lounges.
There are just 3 other lounges accessible for free, and none in the domestic flights terminal:
- Air France Lounge (Priority Pass and DragonPass)
- National Bank Lounge (Priority Pass and DragonPass)
- Plaza Premium Desjardins Lounge (Priority Pass and DragonPass)
That said, an independent lounge is supposedly under development on the domestic side. Flytrippers will keep you informed about that and the many upcoming renovations to Air Canada lounges!
Location and check-in — Air Canada Café Lounge Montreal (YUL)
The lounge is located in the domestic terminal, just to the right of the regular Maple Leaf Lounge. Due to the configuration at YUL, the lounge is therefore accessible if you have an international flight as well (excluding flights to the United States).
(I need to confirm that it’s allowed to enter with an international flight or if it’s reserved to domestic flights, because I can’t remember correctly for Toronto and the Air Canada website is not explicit about the special rules for the Café-type lounges; I’ll update this post!)
The Air Canada Café Lounge is next to boarding gate #A2.
The lounge is well-indicated with a screen next to the entrance and the other sign above from the previous picture.
The wooden facade of the lounge has a very chic look, but the round Air Canada logo they tried to include in the middle of the wood panels is barely perceptible (regardless of the angle).
As a reminder, if you have a premium-level Aeroplan card, like the Amex Aeroplan Reserve Card (which is the best one), you need to link your Aeroplan account to your flight reservation to use your Air Canada lounge access benefit.
This ensures that access is completely automated, thanks to a boarding pass scanner (and even a biometric camera like the one sometimes used to board flights without a boarding pass).
There will still be staff at the counter at the entrance to help if there’s any issue.
Layout and design — Air Canada Café Lounge Montreal (YUL)
As the space is fairly small, the layout is very simple. The lounge is rectangular and the entrance is in one of the corners.
Here’s a video that shows you almost the entire lounge (taken from the corner completely opposite from the entrance).
It’s really very pretty.
Thankfully, with large rounded windows, the lounge is very bright too (plus it allows you to see planes, which is always very cool).
The midcentury modern style is very beautiful and elegant.
The fairly low ceilings do make the lounge look even smaller, though.
This aesthetic is partly inspired by the look of the Montreal Metro and by the classic design of the aviation world, with many curves.
The lounge was designed with local architects, and even the light fixtures were designed by a local firm and complemented the decor very well.
A huge artwork has been commissioned from Québec artist Melanie Authier and incorporated into the design of the lounge.
It adds color to the already pretty space!
Finally, there’s a screen for flight information if you don’t have a mobile device to access the lounge’s free and fast Wi-Fi network.
At the time of the event, there were only Air Canada flights on the board as you can see. But if international flights are eligible for entry, don’t forget that if you want quality food or beverages before walking to the international Maple Leaf Lounge (or are in a rush), you have access even if you have a flight on partners like TAP Air Portugal, avianca, Copa Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, and even certain codeshare flights on other airlines.
Seating — Air Canada Café Lounge Montreal (YUL)
There are essentially just 3 long aisles along the length of the lounge.
The 1st aisle facing the lounge entrance has the beverage wall on one side and slightly more comfortable individual armchairs on the other.
The 2nd aisle has booths and individual tables on one side (along with a shorter high table on one end, which is not pictured but looks like the one below along the window).
On the other side of the 2nd aisle, there’s a very long table between the 2nd and 3rd aisles.
The other side of the 3rd aisle, along the windows, has pretty booths with small individual tables in the middle.
On each side of the booths, there are higher tables with a view of the apron.
Finally, in the corner behind the lounge entrance, there’s a round table with a nice Air Canada plane tail fin that I find very cool (hopefully this decoration is permanent and not just for the media event).
All seats have electrical outlets and USB-C ports to keep your devices charged.
Food — Air Canada Café Lounge Montreal (YUL)
Food is an aspect where Air Canada’s new lounges want to stand out even more.
And in the Air Canada Café Lounge, there really was a wide variety of different food options (including options that are vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, etc.)!
First, as mentioned, it’s the complete opposite of regular airport lounges: they really want you to take the food out of the lounge. There’s an entire wall of bags and utensils to do so!
Hot meals were on a counter in the corner of the lounge, in takeout pouches.
You still have plates if you want to eat in the lounge; that’s obviously allowed despite the grab-and-go focus.
There were 5 choices available for trial (they won’t all be available at all times of day):
- Smoked meat sandwich (very Montreal)
- Croque-monsieur
- Pistachio cream croissant
- Spinach frittata
- Smoked salmon bagel
I tried the smoked meat and it was very good (like the one in the Maple Leaf Lounge next door).
But my favorite was the delicious croque-monsieur.
Once I got home (it’s a grab-and-go concept!), I also tried the pistachio croissant.
It was a favorite of many people there, and it was indeed very good!
To the left of this counter, there were 7 choices of cold food in small takeout containers, plus a few desserts/snacks I’ll cover right after the real food.
Here are the fairly fancy 7 options:
- Egg and black bean breakfast cup
- Black bean breakfast cup
- Maple almond quinoa oats
- Vegetarian Japchae
- WowButter-dipped apples
- Chickpea and feta salad
- Fresh seasonal fruit
On the other side of the hot food counter, there were 4 other choices:
- Kale chicken Caesar wrap
- Vegan black bean wrap
- Bánh mì mushroom sandwich
- Cheese platter
Finally, for dessert and snacks, there are delicious maple potato donuts that are typically Québécois.
They are delicious, although the maple taste could’ve been stronger.
As you can see there, all food packaging has QR codes to identify allergens and ingredients, which is pretty neat.
There are also 2 flavors of cookies (chocolate chip; maple pecan), regular croissants, and chocolate croissants (no, they’re not called “pains au chocolat“). The chocolate croissants are my recommendation.
Beverages — Air Canada Café Lounge Montreal (YUL)
Coffee is at the center of the lounge’s beverage offering, as you probably guessed from the name “Air Canada Café Lounge.”
The airline’s team told us they were inspired by the 3rd-wave coffee trend, to offer quality to premium travelers.
While there are human baristas on site in the Air Canada Café lounge in Toronto (which is larger), this is not the case in Montreal.
However, there are 2 state-of-the-art machines for Lavazza specialty coffee. They’re supposed to be as good as human baristas, with consistently perfect foam, for example.
I’m not a coffee expert, but it’s apparently impossible to tell that it was made by a machine when you don’t know. It uses real milk for example, not powder as many machines use.
To the right of these machines, there is a more traditional coffee machine, but it’s 100% on-demand, so the coffee is always absolutely fresh.
And to complete the coffee wall, there are 2 cold brew coffee dispensers.
There’s regular and nitro; I honestly don’t know what that means, but I’m told it’s very good!
There are also a large soft drink dispenser, a small tea display, and a VIVREAU faucet dispenser for flat and sparkling water.
To the left of the coffee wall, there’s a display of several types of drinks next to the food.
There are 4 juice varieties and 4 types of flavored sparkling water, my favorites.
Many travelers love airport lounges for the free alcoholic beverages.
Unlike the Air Canada Café lounge in Toronto, there is no bar in Montreal either. You’ll have to continue going upstairs to the Maple Leaf lounge for that.
However, there are at least 2 local beers on tap (Belle Gueule Blond and St-Ambroise New England IPA). But also a Québec cider (McAdam) and a Québec kombucha (Gutsy), which is somewhat unique!
Glassware is just behind, but there’s more to the left on the food wall. The taps themselves are directly on the long table, at the opposite corner from the lounge entrance.
Restrooms and showers — Air Canada Café Lounge Montreal (YUL)
There are no restrooms in the lounge itself, which is certainly very unusual. So no showers either obviously.
But with space being very limited, the choice was made not to include them, especially since the concept is to encourage short visits.
Workspaces — Air Canada Café Lounge Montreal (YUL)
There are no sections with dedicated workspaces like you can usually find in most lounges, but that’s once again quite logical considering the different concept of Air Canada Café lounges.
Again, the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge is right above the Café if you want workspaces.
Launch event — Air Canada Café Lounge Montreal (YUL)
For those interested in a behind-the-scenes look, it was once again a fun experience to go to the airside (post-security) of an airport without having a flight to catch (I arrived from my trip the night before, since the Air Canada event was early).
Air Canada had a temporary counter for guests at the terminal entrance.
I had covered the special security process in more detail at the opening of the Aspire | Air Canada Café at Toronto-Bishop (YTZ), another unique concept different from Maple Leaf Lounges (more easily accessible).
In short, I received a special badge that allows access to the other side of the airport, but all guests needed to be accompanied by airport security staff at all times (except in the lounge itself obviously).
I got to see the hidden side of the Montreal airport where I normally can’t go because we weren’t going through the regular security checkpoint. It’s a checkpoint where employees pass through to avoid lines.
So it was even faster than the Trusted Traveller priority line I always have access to as a NEXUS member. But unlike what I’m now very used to doing in Canada and the United States thanks to that great membership, I had to remove my belt and take my computer out of my bag. Oh wow it must suck to travel without NEXUS!
There was a sign in front of the lounge indicating that this was a private event: it officially opens to all travelers tomorrow, Saturday, March 22.
The Air Canada team that designed the lounge was there and gave a detailed tour, but there was no ribbon-cutting or speeches, unlike at the opening of the Maple Leaf Lounge at SFO. It was more informal so that we could explore the new space.
There were 2 artists present and they made us a personalized engraving on a coffee mug to commemorate the event, which is very cool.
It gives me a nice souvenir of the event.
After plenty of interesting discussions with other travel content creators and many Air Canada team members, it was already over much too quickly and I headed home after a superb month of travel.
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Summary
The Air Canada Café Lounge in Montreal (YUL) is a magnificent new airport lounge with a concept very different from Maple Leaf Lounges. Like other Air Canada lounges, it’s more exclusive than other lounges in terms of access, but if you have the Air Canada lounge access benefit (especially through the Amex Aeroplan Reserve Card), it’s a very nice space to quickly grab food and drinks before your flight.
What would you like to know about the Air Canada Café lounge in Montreal (YUL)? Tell us in the comments below.
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Featured image: Air Canada Café lounge in Montreal (photo credit: Andrew D’Amours/Flytrippers)
