Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge

This year I achieved the lowest echelon of frequent flyer status with Air Canada (copper? no, "prestige 25K"). I do some travelling for work, to conferences and to collaborate on projects, but not that much, and always with the cheapest fares since I am travelling at the tax-payers' expense. I have only achieved "status" twice in my life. This time, I must have been pushed over the top by the trips to Barcelona and Beijing last year. My prestige status gives me free checked bags - pretty nice. I also had some optional rewards and I chose to get four tickets into the maple leaf lounges. The last time I had reached status I also picked this option, but always forgot to bring the tickets when I travelled. This year, I finally got a chance to enter the lounge, in Toronto terminal 1, D gate area.

I have been keen to see what these are like, and I am an enthusiastic guy with a good imagination. So, it didn't quite live up to my completely unreasonable expectations of hot and cold running gin, and beautiful heiresses just dying to get to know me better. There was a mediocre self-serve breakfast. Wine did arrive eventually but it was eleven in the morning, and I decided that was too early even for me. I have to say that the area was quite nice (except for the quite grotty carpet) with very comfortable seating groups, widely spaced, and lots of windows with a nice view. There was good coffee. It was very quiet, a really calming area of refuge to the stress of travelling. While not as good as my imagination, I really did see the appeal. I will happily use my remaining three tickets this year if I can.