August 11th saw the opening of the newly renovated Air France business class lounge at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport. The refreshed lounge near gate 57 in the international concourse is accessible to those flying in Business Class with Air France or KLM, to Flying Blue Gold and Platinum members, SkyTeam Elite Plus Members and drum roll please.... any one receiving or purchasing access via Plaza Premium! That's right the lounge is being operated by Plaza Premium so you can access the lounge without flying business class or having elite status!
The Lounge
According to Air France the lounge brings "customers a vast, elegant and welcoming space, promoting French-style hospitality to enhance their travel experience." The lounge has a seating capacity of 149 and includes Canadian designed furniture and lighting with decor and accents keeping in line with Air France's colours and symbolism.
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| Entrance / Lobby with automated access kiosks |
The food nonetheless will be French inspired cuisine and the bar will have a wide selection of French wines and champagnes.
Later this year in the fall they will also be introducing a Night Service area where business class passengers on the last flight of the day, well night from Montreal to Paris will be able to have the meal they would choose on-board their flight in the lounge so that they can spend more time sleeping on the flight.
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| Night Service area |
Flying Blue Ultimate members (the non-published Platinum elite add on) also have their own more private section in the lounge with additional sofas and seating.
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| The private area of the lounge reserved for Ultimate members |
Accessing the Lounge
As we already mentioned the lounge can be accessed by anyone flying with Air France, KLM in business class, Flying Blue Gold and Platinum members and SkyTeam Elite Plus members but can also be accessed by anyone else via Plaza Premium.
Since the lounge is operated by Plaza Premium that means you can access the lounge by buying passes from Plaza Premium or with any number of select credit cards that have agreements with Plaza Premium. Namely, The Platinum Card from American Express will get you and one guest into the lounge at no cost at all while select Visa cards in Canada have a limited time one year agreement with Plaza Premium providing some complimentary lounge visits. Also HSBC has negotiated a separate agreement outside of their LoungeKey membership (since LoungeKey no longer has access to Canadian Plaza Premium lounges) where holders of HSBC World Elite Mastercards can access the lounges with a discounted entrance rate of US$32 (the same rate that was paid through LoungeKey)
If you want to purchase access directly with Plaza Premium (buy that access here) you are looking at paying the following:
- 2 hour visit: C$47.27
- 3 hour visit: C$56.70
- 6 hour visit: C$75.60
You can save on this direct access costs by buying a Plaza Premium Lounge Pass. Currently they are on sale until August 31
- 2 Visit Pass (3hrs each): C$85.00
- 4 Visit Pass (3hrs each): C$165.00
- 6 Visit Pass (3hrs each): C$227.50
- Check out the passes here.
- Monday - 1400 - 2300 hrs
- Tuesday - 0600 - 2300 hrs
- Wednesday - 1400 - 2300 hrs
- Thursday - 1400 - 2300 hrs
- Friday - 0600 - 2300 hrs
- Saturday - 1000 - 2300 hrs
- Sunday - 0600 - 2300 hrs
Wrapping it up
This refreshed lounge looks pretty amazing and I'm sure our readers in Montreal or those who will transit via YUL will make great use of it especially seeing that it has third party access. If any of our readers will actually be trying it out soon we'd love to hear from you with your thoughts on the lounge and if you would be interested in doing a review for us. If so please email us at info@rewardscanada.ca
Learn more about the new lounge here.
All images courtesy of Air France unless otherwise noted.
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