I stopped by the new Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge in San Francisco (SFO) earlier this week and was blown away by how nice it was. What a treat this lounge will be to Star Alliance Gold and business class travelers.
SFO Air Canada Lounge Is Excellent Addition To Star Alliance Lounge Network, Boon To United Flyers
Air Canada opened a new Maple Leaf Lounge in SFO this month in Terminal 2. It is open daily from 4:15 am until 30 minutes prior to the last Air Canada departure of the day. This lounge will be particularly valuable to United Star Alliance Gold and business class flyers from San Francisco, because access is granted on any itinerary, not just on international travel (as is true for United’s own lounges). So if you are a United Gold traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles in economy class, you can use this lounge prior to your flight.
The 8,168 square foot lounge is tastefully decorated with seating areas both inside and outside. There’s a beautiful terrace overlooking the apron below.
Food is available via buffet and I found the menu selection quite satisfying. I had flown up from Southern California and had a long layover ahead of my redeye, so ate dinner in the lounge. I tried a bit of everything including adobo chicken, chimichurri beef sliders, seafood cioppino, lobster bisque soup, and a green salad. High marks for the food.
The bar features a cocktail menu (I had a “Sunset Negroni” with mezcal instead of gin) and barista-made coffee, which was excellent (best coffee in the airport, as far as I am concerned). This lounge will be worth stopping at for the coffee alone. Unlike the nearby Alaska Airlines lounge, there are no silly coffee games with limited operating hours…I had my coffee at 9:15 pm.
Part of me is tempted not to mention this lounge at all: the lounge was mostly empty and I’d love to keep it that way. But while perhaps not quite as good as the Polaris Lounge, this lounge far exceeds the trio of United Clubs at SFO and will really be a reason to schedules connections via San Francisco versus other United hubs.
In fact, I prefer it to the four Priority Pass restaurants that are also spread over Terminals 2 and 3 and International (all connected airside).
I’ll publish a full review shortly, but wanted to quickly get the word out that this lounge is absolutely worth your time. Well done, Air Canada!
The boys at AC Marc Nasr and Scott O’Leary ‘CO Insider’ are pretty savvy about gamers.
They are smart cookies – not sure there is “gaming” going on though if United flyers use this lounge. AC will probably appreciate the payments from United…
You know AC has had lounges near UA gates (LGA & LAX come to mind) for years now, right?
Why does Air Canada have a lounge in San Francisco?
It’s a premium market for them with service to all the hubs.
This lounge is so new it’s not yet listed on AC’s website…so you get to enjoy it being empty a bit longer Matthew lol
Whoops. The Maple Leaf Club website, not the AC website.
it’s on flysfo.com
wow! Now we just need a decent Star Gold lounge in the international terminal
I’m in the lounge right now! As you said, no crowd, good food and a fantastic view of the bay.
Exciting. I have United club membership and am 1K – will they let me in, or no?
Yes.
One would hope that this would drive UA to up their game in the SFO clubs, but I doubt it will…
Will probably lead to higher membership fees…
There are SO MANY United Gold or higher fliers without United Club membership in the Bay Area. Once the word gets out this place will be overrun by United domestic fliers. It’s not that far from one large chunk of United gates. Star Alliance is going to have to come up with some exceptions to access rules for this lounge for it to remain viable for the intended audience.
They’re a trash airline but this lounge looks beautiful.
@ Matthew – proper cocktail name when you sub in mezcal for gin (as I do myself) is a Smoky Negroni