Review: Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge London (LHR)

In theory, I love this lounge. It has all the elements of an airport lounge that I love. In practice, however, I found the lounge to be very overcrowded. It seems I visited at the wrong time of day…

The lounge, located in Heathrow Terminal 2, has a great design with comfortable seating. I like the (faux) marble finishes and color scheme. It’s sleek but timeless. You’ll find it right next to the Singapore Airlines lounge on the second floor.

And also very crowded in the late morning. Very, very crowded. Think about it: Air Canada has late morning or early afternoon departures to Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax and St. John’s. It’s no wonder the lounge gets crowded from Air Canada flyers alone. Plus access is granted to Star Alliance gold members flying any other Star Alliance carriers serving LHR.

In addition the design, I appreciated the showers. I opted to take a shower here after my flight from Los Angeles on Air New Zealand. Despite the crowds inside the lounge, there was no wait and I enjoyed a nice shower. The water was piping hot with decent pressure.

I also appreciated the made-to-order coffee and panini sandwiches. The panini bar reminded me of the Al-Mourjan lounge in Doha, which offers excellent sandwiches.

Although the coffee looked beautiful and featured Lavazza beans, it was very weak. Too bad.

A buffet offered additional hot and cold items.

Moving back to the seating area of the lounge, you can see that even the meeting room and work areas were crowded. I had to print a boarding pass for my return flight and appreciated the complimentary printer that allowed for easy wi-fi printing. Wi-Fi, by the way, worked well in the lounge.

A selection of newspapers and magazines were also available:

CONCLUSION

Note the Singapore Airlines lounge next door, which I’ll review next, was not only more spacious but virtually empty at the same time the Air Canada lounge was packed. I’d rate this as a solid lounge, but one to avoid in the late morning.