Dec 29

Dec 29 Air Canada Cafe - An Airline Lounge Reinvented

On our trip to Punta Cana, we had to fly through Ottawa via Air Canada. While less than ideal, award space during Christmas is difficult to find, therefore the stopover was necessary. The good news is that I was able to review the new Air Canada Café.

What is the Air Canada Café

Air Canada, not usually one to test out innovative concepts (at least in my opinion they’re less innovative and funny then international competitors), recently debuted the Air Canada Café in the domestic departures area. The café is a self-serve takeout café for business class passengers and AC elites that are in a hurry. It offers a variety of pre-packaged food and drink options for quick service, including a full-service coffee bar, self-service coffee machines, drip coffee, Greenhouse packaged juices and fresh orange juice, sandwiches, salads, and a few other snack options.

Who can access the Air Canada Café?

The Air Canada Café has the same access requirements as the regular Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge. It’s only accessible to those departing from the Domestic departures hall in Terminal 1 flying Air Canada Business class or Air Canada Rouge Premium Rouge. It’s also accessible to those who are Altitude Super Elite 100K, Elite 75K, Elite 50K, Elite 35K and Star Alliance Gold flying on Air Canada or Air Canada Rouge. In addition, Air Canada Maple Leaf Club Members, and Amex Aeroplan Plus holders can go in. Finally, TD and CIBC Aeroplan cardholders can relax in the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge when travelling on an Aeroplan flight reward redeemed from your Aeroplan account on flights operated by Air Canada, Air Canada Rouge or under the Air Canada Express banner (up to four times annually, depending on the card).

Although I heard mixed data points, we were actually taking an economy leg to Ottawa before our Air Canada Premium Rouge flight to Punta Cana, but we were still able to access the café after showing both of our boarding passes. My understanding is that the attendant may not always grant access in this case.

The Lounge

The lounge is located at Toronto Pearson International Airport Terminal 1, just down the stairs, to the right, after domestic security. Its located right outside the Starbucks near gate D22 and beside the candy shop. After walking through a hallway, the attendant checked our boarding passes, we went into the lounge.

According to the press release, there are 109 seats in the lounge, most of which were empty for our Boxing Day flight. This provides an additional 30% capacity over the 330 seats in the main Maple Leaf Lounge. According to Andrew Yiu, Vice President, Product, frequent fliers domestically tend to spend as little time as possible in the airport. I tend to agree, if I’m travelling for business I want to spend as little time in the airport as possible, but it’s nice to be able to grab a healthy meal/snack beforehand. I would even prioritize this over a beer in the lounge, which is something I think the younger business travellers agree with.

The lounge has a variety of seating options, including tables in the middle, high chairs and window seats.

The Air Canada Cafe is open and provides seating options for those looking for a quick bite

We sat at one of the high-top tables, which was nice because there are numerous plugs for all the data sucking devices that I own. This has to be one of the first lounges that I have been to in a while that had a 1 to 1 ratio of seats to plugs.

All seats have power plugs and USB outlets, too bad the view isn’t great

There are restroom facilities, but there are no showers in this lounge. The washrooms were clean.

The premier feature of this lounge is the coffee bar, with made to order coffees (including dairy-free options and cold brew) along with fresh orange juice.

Although quiet on Boxing Day, I can imagine it gets busy.

Negatively, even early in the morning, the menus were dirty. (I still didn’t manage to take a great picture). The bartender was beyond friendly, asking us where we were going for our trip and making small talk.

We had some orange juice and some almond milk lattes that were fantastic. Along the back wall were several different food and drink stations.

First, there was a Lavazza coffee maker along with a drip coffee machine. There was also hot water and tea provided by teapigs. As you can see there are to-go cups for the drinks.

Further along the wall, there were a few pastries set out. I tried one of them and they were just alright.

The pastry options were pretty “meh” in my opinion

Next along the line were snacks with takeaway containers. I thought this was a fabulous idea, something as simple as this sets them apart from the domestic competition and I would personally prefer this option to a regular lounge before a quick work flight to Ottawa.

Along the sidewall was a cooler with food and drinks. In the drink cooler, there were the usual Coke products along with some more niche products including the yummy, and healthy, Greenhouse juices and brewed Jalapeno Lemonade which was great. There is no alcohol provided in this lounge, therefore those looking for a drink would have to proceed to the main Maple Leaf Lounge.

Also in the cooler were a variety of sandwiches, including siracha chicken and ham and cheese. There were also several different snack options, including a chicken salad, hummus and veggies, and a boiled egg. Because we were there during breakfast, they had chia pudding, yoghurt, and fruit available. For those with allergies and dietary restrictions, there were signs noting common allergies, making it easy to accommodate different food preferences and needs.

What really stood out to us was that all the options were relatively healthy. The Greenhouse juice, chia pudding and vegetables really stand out as options in a maze of unhealthy options that usually dot North American airport food options.

Points for improvement:

When we were there, almost all options were packaged in plastic, which unfortunately isn’t as sustainable as I would like it to be. I understand that the point the café is convenience, but a partnership with a sustainable packaging brand would be a great improvement.

Second of all, the Wi-Fi was atrocious. Although the concept is meant for quick transactions, it would be frustrating to sit down for a quick bite and coffee before my flight and not be able to send an email.

The point.

Overall, this concept is great for frequent business travellers and leisure alike. You’re able to grab what you need just before your flight, without having to arrive at the airport earlier than necessary. Over the next few years, as airports get busier, airlines (like Lufthansa recently announced) will reconsider their legacy airline lounges and innovate in that space instead.