Air Canada operates its own Maple Leaf Lounges at airports throughout Canada and the United States, as well as at airports in some other countries that it serves. One of those is France where an Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge can be found at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
While I am not a Star Alliance Gold member nor was I flying in business class, I was able to visit the before my flight to Montreal back in May thanks to Priority Pass.
Continue reading this review to see what it was like.
Location, Opening Hours & Access
The Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge can be found in an “annex” of Paris CDG Terminal 2A that includes gates A37-A39. In fact, it is only about a minute or two away from either of those gates which seem to often be used by Air Canada flights. (My flight to Montreal departed from A39.)
The lounge is located one floor below the departures level, and can be accessed through a semi-automatic (you have to push a button to open it) door.
The lounge can be used by passengers traveling in business and first class on Air Canada as well as other Star Alliance airlines, as well as by Star Alliance Gold members. Besides that, it is also part of the Priority Pass network.
As for the opening hours, the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge in Pars is open between 7:30AM and 1:30PM each day. That should, obviously, not be an issue at all if you are taking an Air Canada flight, but might be limiting in case you are planning to get in using Priority Pass when flying with some other airline.
Lounge Tour
Right past the lounge’s door, there is the reception desk across from which there is a place to store luggage. It’s split into two long and relatively narrow parts – one to the left of the reception and one to the right.
Going to the left from the reception desk, there were some lounging chairs and sofa chairs on the right side and the main buffet area on the left. In the buffet area, there was also a counter with bar chairs.
Further down, there was a couple of dining tables, as well as some reading materials on top of some more sofas.
In the very back part of the left side, there was another seating area with about a dozen sofa chairs.
Going back to the reception and to the right, there was another seating area with black leather sofa chairs.
On the right side of the seating area, there was a passage to the lounge’s business center. On the left side of the passage, there were some reading materials, and on the right side, there were some drinks and snacks.
Finally, the business center itself was equipped with about ten semi-private work spaces some of which included a computer. And, there was also a printer, although it was out of order at the time of my visit.
Food and Drinks
Bites to eat and drinks were spread across two areas – the main buffet area and the snack area near the business center. Unfortunately, though, the selection was nothing to write home about.
There was some coffee and tea in both of the areas, and there were soft drinks including juice and canned soda. There was also a selection of about fifteen different kinds of liquor.
As far as food is concerned, there were no hot meals during the time of my visit, and the selection was one of the poorest ones I’ve seen at airline operated lounges.
There were packaged snacks, fruits, as well as fruit salad and dried fruits. Other than that, there was packaged bread, some cold cuts and eggs.
Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Paris Summary
It’s always nice when you can access a lounge of the airline you are actually flying when using your Priority Pass membership. That said, the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge is not spectacular – especially so when it comes to seating options (it is largely laid out in a typical lounge setup with sofa chairs) and refreshments.
That said, the work cubicles were some of the nicest and most private ones I’ve had the chance to see and were great for getting focused and getting some work done.
As such, while I wouldn’t visit this lounge for a long time again if I just wanted to relax, if I was looking to get an article written or something else done while waiting for my flight, I would certainly choose the lounge as my “office.”
