Air France has this week unveiled its latest fully redesigned lounge, and it’s pretty nice-looking.
In this post:
Details of Air France’s Montreal lounge
Air France has completed a full refurbishment of its lounge at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL). The 490 square meter (~5,300 square foot) lounge has seating for 149 guests, and features lots of natural light, with windows overlooking the runways.
The design looks stunning, and in particular I love how well Air France’s branding has been integrated into the design of the lounge. There’s the frequent use of blue, grey, and white, along with some touches of red, and then Air France’s winged seahorse symbol is also present in a couple parts of the lounge, including at the entrance.
The lounge is broken up into several different zones, depending on whether guests want to relax, work, or dine. There’s even a dedicated private space for Flying Blue Ultimate passengers.
The lounge’s primary focus is on catering. There’s a self-serve buffet with hot and cold dishes, and a particular focus on French cuisine, wines, and champagne.
Perhaps most exciting is that this fall, Air France will introduce a new dedicated catering service for its late night flight from Montreal. The idea is to be able to enjoy pre-flight dining, so that you can maximize your rest onboard. If you do choose the pre-flight dining option, you’ll be served exactly what’s offered onboard in business class, including starters, hot dishes, cheese, desserts, and the same wine and champagne list available onboard as well.
Customers can still choose to enjoy another meal onboard, or can ask to not have the meal loaded, to avoid waste.
The Air France Lounge Montreal is open daily from 2PM until 10PM, and can be accessed by Air France and KLM customers, including business class passengers and SkyTeam Elite Plus members. Montreal is a major market for Air France, given the French connection, and the airline operates up to four daily flights to the airport (in addition to KLM’s service).
Air France’s inconsistent ground experience
In general I’m a big fan of Air France’s transatlantic business class experience. The exception is with Air France’s ground experience in North America, which is highly inconsistent.
Air France has been renovating some of its lounges, like the ones in New York (JFK) and Washington (IAD), both of which are now great and feature pre-flight dining for select flights.
Unfortunately some other Air France lounges in North America are pretty awful. For example, I recently flew KLM business class from Chicago to Amsterdam, so I used Air France’s lounge in Chicago. The lounge was so bad that I just decided to sit in the terminal instead.
The lounge felt outdated, was crowded, had only packaged snacks, and worst of all, had no natural light (the lounge has windows, but they face a dark wall, or something, because the below picture was taken in the early afternoon).
Part of the problem is that Air France seems to be of two minds when it comes to its lounge network in North America. Some lounges offer a premium experience that match what you’d expect from the airline, with pre-flight dining, while other lounges are open to Priority Pass members throughout the day, so then all customers get quite a watered down experience.
Anyway, the moral of the story is that I hope that more Air France lounges get the Montreal treatment…
Bottom line
Air France has opened a new lounge at Montreal Airport, which looks gorgeous. The lounge has an excellent design, and will also feature pre-flight dining for late night departures. This is now the third Air France lounge in North America to get a full makeover, in addition to the ones in New York and Washington.
What do you make of Air France’s new lounge in Montreal?
@Dan... U.S. to Europe flights via Canada DO NOT require CBSA clearance. Even your checked bags go to their final destination without having to be picked up in Canada. This feature is available in YUL, YVR, and YYZ.
Does the winged seahorse transmit wi-fi signal?
AC Maple Leaf Lounge is the best in Canada. Doesn't touch AC's Signature Lounge in Toronto.
AF KL has a significant operation at LAX with up to 5 daily flights including Tahiti pre Covid. They use the ( currently closed ) Korean Air Lounge which isn’t the best one. I believe La Premiere customers were invited to the Qantas First Lounge, although that’s closed.
Since they relocated to the midfield concourse I understand they will have their own dedicated facility, as there’s allocated space for 4-5 pointed on 2 levels. I...
AF KL has a significant operation at LAX with up to 5 daily flights including Tahiti pre Covid. They use the ( currently closed ) Korean Air Lounge which isn’t the best one. I believe La Premiere customers were invited to the Qantas First Lounge, although that’s closed.
Since they relocated to the midfield concourse I understand they will have their own dedicated facility, as there’s allocated space for 4-5 pointed on 2 levels. I understood it would be similar to the new Dorval one. I guess costs are a consideration now.
On another note, there’s an entirely new lounge at 2F at Charles de Gaulle.
Meanwhile since Etihad is suspending LAX am wondering what will happen to their lounge.
I believe the ORD lounge, in particular, is one that is slated for permanent closure due to DL’s move to Terminal 5 and subsequent opening of a new Sky Club. It’s been advertised at ORD already and will be something like 29,000SF - likely enough to ensure all SkyTeam access.
If there's one AF/KL lounge arrangement that needs fixing in North America it is at IAH. BOTH AF and KL have separate lounges there under their own brand, and both look small and crappy. Why they even bother with that arrangement rather than close one and consolidate or both and save money puzzles me to say the least...
Style is exactly like the recently renovated AF in GVA. So I think this is the look of the current generation.
The new AF lounge in CDG T2F should open soon. We'll find out if it uses the same design language.
So if one flew Delta One to YUL you would get access? Is it only for access prior to a flight or could one access after arriving?
Delta flyers will not be able to access the lounge at all, practically speaking.
This is because all flights to/from the U.S. use a separate wing of YUL compared to Europe-bound flights (as is also true of many other Canadian airports) and you go through both U.S. customs and Canadian exit customs before entering that wing (which means a "domestic" arrival so you can just claim your bags and go/connect in the U.S.).
I don't...
Delta flyers will not be able to access the lounge at all, practically speaking.
This is because all flights to/from the U.S. use a separate wing of YUL compared to Europe-bound flights (as is also true of many other Canadian airports) and you go through both U.S. customs and Canadian exit customs before entering that wing (which means a "domestic" arrival so you can just claim your bags and go/connect in the U.S.).
I don't think DL/KL/AF/VS will sell itineraries U.S.-Europe via Canada given the customs pre-clearance issue.
Canadian "exit Customs"? You're scaring me
My error- just U.S. customs. But I think you would have to go through Canadian customs to get from the U.S. departure/arrival terminal to the international terminal (any other destinations). So not really practical to imagine connecting there. Positioning flight if I found an incredible fare might be a different story.
@dan: Customs & immigration. I find a lot of Americans don’t understand the difference. Immigration deals with people, customs deals with goods. The former check your passport, the latter check what’s in your bags. In many countries, these are people from different agencies.
@dan I wouldn't say they don't, for instance delta advertises both YVR & YYZ for canada transit to and from the US (via sky team and WestJet), especially since YVR is built for transborder transit as well as YYZ going through major renovations currently because its very profitable also thats why sky team has significant presence at YVR despite no Canadian airline being a current or historical member
It’s only for departures to Paris and Amsterdam. If you’re connecting to one of those it’s fine provided you’re in businesses, first or elite plus. I think they even sell access for non status
If flying Aeromexico (Business or Elite Plus), is access to the AF lounge possible?
When are we getting that KLM review? Would love to know how service is post-COVID.
Looks really good, compared to the AC Maple Leaf Lounge (International). AF/KL should strengthen their position in YUL, but even expand to YOW and YQB as the demand is there.
I thought the AC Maple Leaf Lounge (International) at YUL was pretty decent, but agree that this new lounge looks good.