Category Archives: Travel

Whydrogen – The dubious appeal of the hydrogen train

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Summary

Trains should be powered by overhead wires.

Hydrogen is some shiny object tech boondoggle.  Hydrogen is not a power source, nothing is “hydrogen powered”.  Hydrogen is a battery that stores energy you have to get from some other source.

Hydrogen mostly makes no sense, so in usual fashion we are chasing after hydrogen.

If you just want to book the train, jump to The Train to Baie-St-Paul.

Details

Hydrogen is not a fossil fuel, it isn’t stored energy from the sun.  If you had a big bucket of hydrogen you could use it in various ways to get energy, but no one has a big bucket of hydrogen because it’s the lightest element and it binds to lots of things, so what doesn’t float away gets turned into mostly-water.

Once hydrogen is bound, you need to put in energy to get it unbound.  So the most common scenario is you use electricity to crack hydrogen out of water so that then you can convert the hydrogen to… electricity later on.  This is basically like a lossy battery process.  The question is, if you already have electricity, why don’t you just use the electricity directly rather than inefficiently turning it into hydrogen?

The only reason is when you’re going somewhere that doesn’t have electrical wires.

The modern way to run trains is with overhead wires, you just send them electricity directly, so they don’t need any heavy onboard storage that they have to haul around.

If you have a primitive rail system like Canada’s, there is I suppose some vague argument that if you want to cheap out (which we always do) and chase pointless tech shininess (which we always do) then you can replace a diesel train with a “hydrogen” train rather than electrifying the line.

This will be touted as magically green, but it’s only green if the entire production and storage chain for the hydrogen, end-to-end, is green.  And you have to invest in all kinds of expensive new hydrogen-handling technology rather than just using the existing well-established electrical grid.

A bunch of extra money for an experimental new thing when you could do it better and cheaper with existing proven technology is basically the definition of typical government transit and tech planning.

SIDEBAR: Ontario almost went down this pointless path too.

TVO – June 16, 2017 – Ontario is thinking about hydrogen-powered trains. Why? – by John Michael McGrath

and then after years of study it didn’t (also a typical pattern for Canadian transit and rail planning)

TVO – February 16, 2021 – Fail, Hydrail: Metrolinx finally ditches plans for hydrogen-powered trains – by John Michael McGrath

After four years of investigation, the company has all but abandoned the idea of hydrogen-fuelled trains zipping through the GTA. Good riddance.

END SIDEBAR

The Train to Baie-St-Paul

Quebec City has a train that goes to Baie-St-Paul and then on to La Malbaie.

https://traindecharlevoix.com/en/

It’s fine, it’s a regular Canadian train, which is to say it’s for tourists only, it mostly only runs for a few months in the summer, it leaves from an inconvenient station (Montmorency Falls) and it’s about three times slower and ten times more expensive than just driving from Quebec City to Baie-St-Paul.  Another Canadian rail success!

I have ridden it multiple times but you have to be a serious rail fan to do so.  The view is nice.

In Canada’s spirit of chasing pointless innovation, in 2023 the Quebec City to Baie-St-Paul part of the route will now be served by an Alstom Coradis iLint “hydrogen” train (sometimes?).  The booking site really expects you are doing a single day round-trip, not staying over night.

The regular diesel train is a Deutsche Bahn DB Class 628 (DB-Baureihe 628.1).

The train leaves Quebec City at 9am, arrives in Baie-St-Paul 2.5 hours later at 11:30am (you could drive to BSP in an hour), and continues on to La Malbaie 4.5 hours later at 1:30pm (you could drive to Malbaie in an hour and 40 minutes).

The magic hydrogen train is an Alstom Coradia iLint (Ottawa’s old Line 2 trains, which will now serve the Line 4 airport shuttle segment, are regular Alstom Coradia Lints).

It has the same schedule, departing at 9am and arriving at BSP at 11:30am.

Maybe you can figure out their schedule, I can’t.  As best I can tell, the hydrogen train runs Wednesdays through Saturdays only, and the diesel train every day.  Maybe on hydrogen train days you have to change to a diesel train at BSP if you’re continuing on to La Malbaie.  I can’t figure it out.

You can book the magic hydrogen train (possibly day round-trip only) at

https://traindecharlevoix.com/en/hydrogen-train/

and the regular diesel train, or some unknown combination of trains, at

https://traindecharlevoix.com/en/schedules/

As there is zero benefit to riding the hydrogen train, other than to be able to say “I was on a hydrogen train!”, you should just book the actual trip you want and ignore the hydrogen part.  Make sure you don’t get stuck with a round-trip ticket for the same day if you actually want to spend a night or two in BSP.

There is a very nice Le Germain hotel connected to (and in part on top of) the BSP station.  The best restaurant in BSP is Le Mouton Noir.

Museum opening days in Paris

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Please note this information is from 2016 and may be out-of-date.

Closed Mondays: Petit Palais, Orsay, Marmottan, Crypte archéologique du parvis Notre-Dame, Musée Carnavalet, Musée de Minéralogie, Musée du quai Branly, Palais de la découverte, Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, Musée Rodin

Closed Tuesdays: Orangerie, Louvre, Musée de l’Homme, all museums & buildings in the Jardin des Plantes (Les Grandes Serres, Grande Galerie de l’Évolution, Galerie de Minéralogie et de Géologie, Le Cabinet d’Histoire du Jardin des Plantes)

Closed Sundays: Musée de Minéralogie

Not listed in any particular order.

Not a museum but anyway

  • La Grande Roue de la Concorde à Paris – SortirAParis – ParisInfo
    • Du 18 novembre 2015 au 15 septembre 2016
    • De 10h30 à minuit en semaine
      De 10h00 à minuit le dimanche
      De 10h à 1h00, vendredi, samedi et vacances scolaires

France iDTGV train and iDCAB taxi

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NOTE: This information is from 2015 and is almost certainly out-of-date.

France has not one but three high-speed train companies that share the same rails.  There’s the traditional TGV which you can book about 3 months in advance, the low-cost iDTGV which you can book up to 6 months in advance (but only runs on certain routes), and Ouigo, which you can book up to 9 months in advance but which departs from outside Paris and runs only along a single route.

(There’s also TGVpop, where it takes a certain number of votes before the train is confirmed to run and can be reserved.  Voting starts 2 weeks before the train would depart.)

Booking iDTGV

UPDATE 2017-03-17: SNCF has announced that it will discontinue iDTGV as a separate brand with separate booking.  See e.g. iDTGV brand to disappear.  ENDUPDATE

iDTGV can be booked from its own website or app, which has the advantage of offering seat selection, or through voyages-sncf, which I gather doesn’t.

It has two types of “zone”, basically a quiet one (iDZEN) and a family/louder one (iDZAP).  See http://www.idtgv.com/en/idservices/idzen-and-idzap  It also has two classes, but in my experience it’s not worth getting 1st class on French trains.

It sort-of works for booking outside of France (including a good English interface).  There are a number of issues though (and some outright bugs / website errors).

To make it work without a European credit card and French phone number:

  1. When creating an account or checking out, do not try to enter a cellphone number unless you have a French cellphone.  The form only accepts French numbers (of form e.g. 06 xx xx xx xx).  The cellphone number is optional, except…
  2. When going through the booking process, on the options page, do not select the iDCAB taxi option.  It will make the entry of a cellphone number at checkout mandatory (this is a bug in the system).
  3. If you have a non-European credit card, your first checkout will almost certainly fail with “rejected”.

iDTGV support says « les cartes étrangères, non Européenne sont bloquées par défaut sur notre site par mesure de sécurité » which translates roughly as “non-European cards are blocked by default on our site as a security measure”.

However, having done the initial transaction and gotten your card rejected, you can email or contact form them and ask them to unblock it.  Just send them the last four digits of your card, not your entire number.  Thanks to Seat 61 for the info about credit cards.

If that doesn’t work, try also calling your credit card company to see if they have blocked the card on their end too.  Sometimes transactions on European websites trigger North American credit card company blocks.

I had to both email iDTGV to get the card unblocked at the website end as well as phone my credit card company to get the card unblocked on the card end.  I had the credit card support stay on the line while I ran the transaction through, a practice I highly recommend as it saves you calling back if it’s still not working.

Be aware that the iDTGV website will silently time-out if you’re idle for a while.

Other bugs:

  • In the Details of My Order section of Print My Tickets (the summary page), the links under “You Can Still” mostly don’t work (they just point to the summary page).  Use the links under My Booking (upper left) instead.
  • If you’re booking in English in the iDTGV app, check the dates very carefully.  it looks to me like there is an off-by-one error (e.g. you have to enter January 1 in order to get January 2), probably due to the fact that the French calendar week starts on Monday and the US/Canadian/UK calendar starts on Sunday.

UPDATE 2016-04-11: It looks like iDTGV has joined a number of other apps in now only being available in the French iOS Apps Store, rather than being available e.g. in the Canadian store as it was previously.  As the easiest way to display your tickets is in the iDTGV app, this makes it less convenient.  If you have already downloaded the iDTGV app, it will continue to work.  ENDUPDATE

Booking iDCAB

iDCAB is a taxi-like service for travel to and from the train station.  It’s available for quite a few of the major stations in France.
iDCAB 10 Euros
You can add iDCAB to your iDTGV booking (on the website) without any problems AFTER you’ve booked and paid for your main train trip.  However (if you have a one-way ticket at least) it appears to only offer the option for a taxi on the departure end of the trip, not the arrival.

In the iDCAB interface you can enter an international number (e.g. +1 xxx xxx xxxx) although it’s anyone’s guess whether it actually gets recorded correctly in the system.

iDCAB is not currently available as an option in the iPhone app.

You can also book iDCAB as a stand-alone service at http://idcab.sncf.com/ (thanks to Jérémie Croyère, CTO of iDCAB for this info – @cpasbanal on Twitter).

On the SNCF site you’re supposed to be able to submit your train booking reference to get it to autoload your train stations, but I couldn’t get it to work with an iDTGV booking reference.

Unlike the interface at iDTGV, the SNCF interface won’t give you options for how early you want to arrive or estimate travel time to the station; you have to choose your pickup time yourself.  It also won’t let you specify the number of passengers (however this doesn’t really matter as it’s a flat price regardless, up to max 4 passengers).  The price on SNCF is also higher than on iDTGV.  The SNCF interface will tell you what car service is picking you up though.

Baggage Restrictions

Note that iDTGV has tighter baggage restrictions than the TGV:

You can take 2 pieces of luggage for free (details below).

If you take more than two pieces of luggage, you will have to pay an extra charge of €35 per piece of luggage (on the iDTGV website in “My travel options”), within the limit of 2 extra pieces of luggage per person.

If you did not pay this extra charge when you booked, the payment will cost you €45 on board.

The free pieces of luggage per person cannot exceed:
– two pieces of hand luggage (suitcases, rucksacks, travel bags) per traveller; or
– one hand luggage and an object per traveller (a children’s pushchair, a wheelchair, a bicycle with its wheels removed and placed together in a special protective cover of 1.20 x 0.90m maximum, a surfboard placed in a protective cover of 1.20m x 0.90m maximum, a pair of skis, a monoski or a snowboard, a bag containing a ‘small-sized’ domestic animal; or
– a piece of hand luggage per traveller and a piece of luggage of 50cm x 50cm x 50cm ; or
– a piece of hand luggage per traveller and a musical instrument.

For more details, check out the full page at Seat 61: www.seat61.com/idtgv.htm

French intercity first class isn’t

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UPDATE 2013-07-02:

France has two kinds of intercity trains.  For shorter distances or smaller towns, or where the high-speed network hasn’t been built yet there are slower trains, the TER and Intercités trains.  (Still fast by North American standards.)  This post is about first class on these slower intercity trains.

For the slower trains, there are 1st and 2nd classes, but there is no point in getting 1st class.  (Disclaimer: At least for trips less than 2 hours, which is what I was taking.  I was on 8 trains in total, three different routes.)

France has also been building out a high-speed network, the TGV trains.  This connects major cities, across long distances, but is not complete yet.  You can see the current lines in blue on this official map or download a detailed PDF map (15MB).

UPDATE 2015-04-11: While the TGV does have a first-class service, it has many similar characteristics to the TER – mostly you’re paying for a bit more space.  There may not be a lounge, and there’s no food service.  ENDUPDATE

Canada has no high-speed rail, there is a single kind of intercity rail, VIA.

Here’s a handy comparison chart, between Canada’s VIA Business Class (used to be called VIA 1), and French TER/Intercités 1ère classe

[Extensive rewrite of above section.]  ENDUPDATE

feature Canada VIA Business Class France TER/Intercités 1ère classe
lounge yes no
assigned seating yes no
priority boarding yes no
dedicated car(s) yes no, usually half 1st, half 2nd
located for ease of detraining and/or boarding yes, usually front of train, or near entrance no
baggage area yes, large sometimes a tiny (2 bag) one
lots of room for mid-size bags above seat yes no, a purse or small bag at most
seats offer extra space, better materials yes no
free drinks yes no, no service at all
included meal and snacks yes no, no food whatsoever

In summary: French TER/Intercités 1st class is a more expensive version of 2nd class, I’m guessing mostly intended to separate business travelers from regular travelers. It is in no other way better than 2nd class. You end up walking along the train trying to find the first class car (or usually the first class part of a car, indicated by a 1 and an arrow), and then jamming yourself in, no different from second class.

Don’t get me wrong, the French TER/Intercités intercity trains are great.  Service is frequent and many towns and even villages have stations.  Almost all stations are in the town centre.  Just don’t bring a big bag (you will have a hard time even finding space for a carry-on rolling bag) and don’t bother with first class.  And buy any food and drink you may want before you get on the train.  If there are 3+ of you traveling together, you can try to get to the cars as soon as they announce the track, and look to see if the 4-person tables are available and go in and grab them.

UPDATE 2013-07-02: If you want to know more about the French train network see the complete page of maps from RFF (the rail infrastructure operator) as well as the list of projects.  (Linked to French pages as the English pages are out-of-date.)

Passenger Rights

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NOTE: This blog post is from 2012. These links are outdated.

Just a quick set of links about rights for air travelers (and rail travelers in the EU).

Flight Rights Canada – http://www.tc.gc.ca/flightrights

US Fly-Rights – http://airconsumer.dot.gov/publications/flyrights.htm

EU Air passenger rights – http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm or brief info at http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passenger-rights/en/03-air.html – there is also an app http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passenger-rights/en/mobile.html

EU Rail passenger rights – http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/rail/index_en.htm or brief info at http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passenger-rights/en/13-rail.html

Aeroplan Around the World Reward

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NOTE: This post is from 2012.  The reward structure has changed substantially since then.

I noticed this off on the side of the Aeroplan rewards chart.

Around the World Reward
  • Economy Class – 200,000 Aeroplan Miles
  • Premium Economy Class – 250,000 Aeroplan Miles
  • Business Class – 300,000 Aeroplan Miles
  • First Class – 400,000 Aeroplan Miles
  • A maximum of five stopovers and one open jaw are permitted per reward on allowable routings.
  • A maximum of one stopover is permitted in any one city.
  • Travel must commence from and return to the same country, and return cannot go beyond the point of origin.
  • Must include one transatlantic and one transpacific crossing.

Considering that the cheapest business class flight you can get to Europe is 90,000 miles the 200k and 300k reward levels are pretty good.

airport lounge access without Elite status

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NOTE: This post was last updated in 2018.  There are many more and different options now, including new Aeroplan Infinite and Aeroplan Infinite Privilege cards from several different banks.

This posting is about getting lounge access if you’re flying economy, without Elite status.  This post has a focus on Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges (MLL) and Canadian options.  It also looks at paid options for other lounges.

An airport lounge can be useful if you have a while to wait: it’s a bit quieter, you get a bit of food, and if you’re traveling alone with carry-ons, you can go to the washroom while more-or-less-safely leaving your bags behind.

Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges happen to have particularly complicated access options. I have tried to decode them as best I can.

Note that the price for adding a guest, the price to add lounge access to a ticket, and the number of Aeroplan miles needed to get membership/passes continues to increase almost yearly.

UPDATE 2022-05-26: At the moment it is not possible to purchase Air Canada lounge access as an add-on to an economy class ticket.  END UPDATE

UPDATE 2013-02-10: Also note, MLL access requires a confirmed same-day ticket on Air Canada or a Star Alliance partner; you can’t use the Maple Leaf Lounge if you’re flying on a non-partner airline.  This isn’t reciprocal: MLL access usually doesn’t mean you can use a Star Alliance lounge; you have to be flying with that specific Star Alliance airline.  ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2013-11-04: CIBC will no longer be offering Club Privileges Travel after 2013.  All cards will expire Dec 31, 2013 at the latest.  ENDUPDATE

Air Canada: Canada, Paris, London, Los Angeles…

There aren’t many Maple Leaf Lounges. They’re across Canada, but internationally there are only lounges in Paris, London (both departure & arrival lounges), Frankfurt, Los Angeles and New York (LaGuardia airport – LGA).

You can see the list of lounges at http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/airport/maplelounges/locations.html

UPDATE 2016-04-11: The Montreal international lounge is being renovated.  A smaller (but perfectly nice) international lounge is now located further down the hallway (past gate 52) until the renovations are complete.  ENDUPDATE

Air Canada’s Frankfurt lounge is in Terminal 1, Concourse/Departures B (Level 3) as of 2013.

The basic level of MLL access only gives you access to those lounges. So it’s really only useful if you’re traveling within Canada or to one or more of those five international destinations.  Also note, if you’re departing for the US, there is no MLL lounge access in Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Ottawa and Winnipeg as the US preclearance takes you to a separate departures area.

You can sort of get the lounge access story at http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/airport/maplelounges/access.html

The basic options are:

  • Air Canada Maple Leaf Club – Canada*
  • buy (with Aeroplan miles) Maple Leaf Lounge passes**
  • CIBC Club Privileges Travel / Club Travel Privileges
  • American Express AeroplanPlus Platinum
  • lounge access added when you purchase Air Canada ticket (from AirCanada.com)

* Canadian lounges ONLY
** North American lounges ONLY

access price limitations add guest? extras
Air Canada Maple Leaf Club – Canada $375/year or 49,500 Aeromiles/year Canadian lounges ONLY yes***
Maple Leaf Lounge Pass 7000 Aeromiles North American lounges ONLY. One pass per person per lounge. no
CIBC Club Privileges Travel $189/year but you must already have a CIBC Aerogold Visa card ($120/year) yes***
American Express AeroplanPlus Platinum $499/year yes*** Priority Pass Standard membership ($100 value)****
lounge access purchased with ticket $25-$50 per direction, see price table below no

*** $15 per additional person per lounge (before 11am) / $25 per guest per lounge (after 11am).  Please note that in the Frankfurt lounge the cost is €25 (Euros) regardless of the hour and the London Heathrow Departures lounge cost is £25 (GBP) regardless of the hour.
**** for Priority Pass standard you still have to pay $27 per person (including the member) per lounge

Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge access can be purchased for the following fares (rates listed are per person, per one-way trip).  Lounge access can be added online up to 24 hours before the flight.  It may also be possible to buy lounge access at the airport.

UPDATE 2018-04-04: There is now a new Economy Comfort fare with a price for lounge access between Flex and Latitude.  Purchasing lounge access is not an option for Basic or Standard fares.  Lounge access appears to be included now for Premium rouge for some destinations.  ENDUPDATE

  • Latitude fares: $25 CAD/USD
  • Premium economy: $25 CAD/USD
  • Premium rouge: “complimentary on select flights within Canada, to the U.S. and Sun destinations“
  • Comfort fares: $40 CAD/USD
  • Flex fares: $50 CAD/USD

I don’t think it’s worth it using Aeromiles for club membership or particularly for a pass, you’re paying 49,500 miles for $375 worth of service or 7000 miles for about $50 of service.

As far as I know, you can’t buy a MLL day pass or pay to enter the lounge at the front desk.  Unlike most of the US airlines (which let you buy day passes online or at front desk), unless you’ve added MLL access to your ticket 24 hours in advance or have access due to one of the options listed above, you may not be able to get into the lounge.

UPDATE 2014-01-23: Although TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite is advertising “Access to the Maple Leaf™ Lounge” this is extremely misleading.  It’s not a general MLL access card.  They’re actually offering only one single Guest Pass (one use of one lounge by one person), valid only if you’re travelling on an Aeroplan rewards ticket (not a regular ticket), with an expiry date (after one year), valid for all MLL except Heathrow arrivals.  It’s so restrictive as to be essentially worthless.  ENDUPDATE

CIBC Club Privileges Travel

The CIBC Club Privileges Travel card no longer exists.

IF you already have a CIBC Aerogold card the Club Privileges Travel add-on is not bad if you will be flying more than a few times in locations where there are lounges. You can currently ONLY buy it over the phone 1-888-737-2665 (select the “all other services” option). There’s supposed to be a website www.aerogoldtravelclub.com but it has been down for months. You can view the old (may no longer be valid) pages in the Wayback Machine: CIBC Club Privileges Travel (February 2, 2011); Participating Airports (more or less same as the lounge list from Air Canada above).

AmEx AeroplanPlus Platinum is NOT a Platinum Card

In general despite the name, the AmEx AeroplanPlus “Platinum” card does NOT have the same lounge access rights as a regular AmEx Platinum card. The primary focus of the AmEx AeroplanPlus Platinum is Maple Leaf Lounge access.

You do not get AmEx Platinum Concierge services (see Reserve card below if you want Concierge).  You do not get free AmEx Platinum lounge access.  This means:

  • VIP lounge in Quebec City – no free access.  Instead you either pay $35 or if you prefer to use the Priority Pass membership card you pay the US$27 Priority Pass lounge fee.
  • Plaza Premium lounges – no free access (have to pay for access)
  • Swissport (formerly Servisair) Executive lounges – no free access (have to pay for access)
  • AmEx Centurion Lounges – access with any AmEx card but not free, need to pay for $50 one-day pass.  Purchase pass at lounge only.  (Paid access not verified but consistent with their Platinum card policy.)

See AMEX Aeroplan Platinum No More Plaza Premium/Servisair Access in FlyerTalk.

To get free access to the set of Platinum card lounges you need to get the regular AmEx Platinum card (which is $699/year).  This regular AmEx Platinum card does not give you Maple Leaf Lounge access.  Instead it gives you free access to American Airlines, Delta, US Airways, and Centurion lounges. 

UPDATE 2015-08-30: Regular AmEx Platinum now lists Delta Sky Clubs, Airspace Lounges, and Centurion Lounges as included.  ENDUPDATE

(Check the Airport Club Access Page for details; the participating lounges may change.)  Although the regular AmEx Platinum earns “points”, you can convert those points 1-for-1 to Aeroplan miles.

You can see how Canadian AmEx Platinum (left), AmEx AeroplanPlus Platinum (centre), and AmEx AeroplanPlus Gold (right) compare in the table below:

AmEx-card-compare

For Toronto Pearson specifically, AmEx has info about what access you get with the AmEx Aeroplan Platinum and the AmEx regular Platinum cards at http://www.amexcloud10.ca/

AmEx AeroplanPlus Reserve Card

American Express has added a level above Platinum for AeroplanPlus cards, the Reserve Card.  The main difference is that the Reserve card DOES include Concierge service.  For this you pay an extra $400 per year ($899 yearly vs $499 yearly for AP Platinum).  The Reserve card also adds $500,000 Travel Accident Insurance.  As well you get Aeroplan call centre priority (normally you need Aeroplan dDiamond level to get this).  Household income must be $60,000 or more (a lower threshold than the TD Infinite Privilege card below).

You can see how the AeroplanPlus Reserve card compares with the AeroplanPlus Platinum card below:

AmEx AP Reserve vs Platinum

TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege

Given that the condition to get the card is “Minimum of $200,000 annual gross household income”, this is an option that applies to almost no one.  The card itself is $400 per year.  It has 4 MLL guest passes a year, but like the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite pass, these are only if you’re travelling on an Aeroplan rewards flight, and as always, it’s one pass per person per lounge.  (So basically useless.)  In addition, it has complimentary membership to Airport Angel lounge service, and six complimentary visits.  This is worth maybe $150 a year.  It’s not clear if this is a yearly free membership, with six visits a year, or one-time.  It’s also not clear if it’s a member and guest membership, or member only.  Airport Angel lounges include some MLL lounges.  There is more information about Airport Angel at https://www.airportangel.co.uk/ and pricing at http://www.cppdirect.co.uk/airport-angel/ as well as a section on the service along with other paid lounge options towards the bottom of this post.

OTHER vERY-HIGH-END CARDS

There are other very-high-end cards in Canada that include lounge access.  Be aware that some US VIP card branding and features are different from Canada.  In general if you have enough money to be eligible for these very-high-end cards you should have enough money not to have to worry about lounge options.

Selecting an option

For just the Air Canada Maple Leaf Club specifically, there are two higher levels of membership: North America Plus for $495/year (includes European MLL) and Worldwide for $665/year. You can see the available lounges (many more than just Air Canada lounges) for those levels of membership at http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/airport/maplelounges/pop_mlclounges.html

You can see it’s fairly easy to figure out the best option as long as you know where and how much you will be traveling.  If you’re flying a lot, eventually the AmEx card will be cheaper than buying lounge access each time.  Given the high cost of just getting the Maple Leaf Club card, it appears to make more sense to get the AmEx card in most cases.
For one person if you have e.g. two trips to London it’s cheaper to add on CIBC Club Privileges Travel ($189) assuming you have an Aerogold card, than it would be to purchase the lounge with your ticket (it’s per-direction, so it would be 4x $55 = $220).

UPDATE 2013-02-10: The higher levels of Air Canada’s Maple Leaf Club get you access to more non-Maple Leaf lounges.  But that’s only if you have that specific Club membership (yes, I know it’s confusing).  This access is specific to the Air Canada membership card; you don’t get the same levels of other lounge access with the CIBC and AmEx cards.  ENDUPDATE

Business Class and Elite

Although not the focus of this post, the low-level Elite options are so complicated I decided I would explain them too.

UPDATE 2014-02-23: If you have a business-class ticket you get lounge access automatically. For Air Canada Altitude Elite 50k and above, you get lounge access automatically.  For Air Canada Elite 35k you have to choose “Complimentary access to International Maple Leaf Lounges and Star Alliance Business Lounges” as a Select Privilege.  ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2015-08-30: Starting in 2015 Air Canada Elite 35k will no longer be able to add International (outside of North America) Maple Leaf Lounges as a Select Privilege.  Instead there is a Select Privilege to get 50% off Maple Leaf Club.

Complimentary access to International Maple Leaf Lounges and Star Alliance Business Lounges

Altitude Elite™ 35K members will no longer have the option to choose complimentary access to International Maple Leaf™ Lounges and Star Alliance Business Lounges as part of their Select Privileges. Instead, members will be able to select a 50% discount on any Maple Leaf Club membership.

As part of their Core Privileges, they will continue to enjoy the comfort and amenities of select Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges located in the domestic and trans-border departures zones of Canadian airports, along with those in Los Angeles and New York (LaGuardia).

UPDATE 2016-04-11: Air Canada now distinguishes between International and Domestic lounges even if the lounge is in Canada.  International lounges, e.g. the lounge for international travellers in Montreal, are now for Elite 50k and above ONLY (or those travelling on a business class ticket, or with Star Alliance Gold).  If you only have Elite 35k they will send you to the Domestic lounge even if you are on an international flight.

UPDATE 2016-09-18: As a reminder, international is a lounge type, not necessarily a lounge location.  For example, in Montreal there is both a (often very crowded) domestic lounge and a nice international lounge.  If you are Elite 35K and travelling internationally, you will have to pay in advance for MLL access on your ticket, otherwise they won’t let you into the international lounge.  (Assuming you haven’t bought the Maple Leaf Club membership.)

UPDATE 2014-03-02:  Air Canada Altitude Elite have “additional privilege of access to the domestic Maple Leaf Lounge upon arriving at airports in Canada”.  ENDUPDATE

Comparing Maple Leaf Club Options IF ElITE

Maple Leaf Club Canada – $375

Maple Leaf Club North America Plus – $495
(A bit confusingly named.)

  • all Maple Leaf Lounges – Canada, USA, and Europe
  • United Lounges in the US

Maple Leaf Club Worldwide – $665

  • all Maple Leaf Lounges – Canada, USA, and Europe
  • all United Lounges
  • All Star Alliance™ member airline business lounges
  • Air Canada Contracted Lounges
  • one free guest

It doesn’t make any sense to me to get these as standalone club memberships at full price or by using Aeroplan points.  For example, you might as well get AmEx AeroplanPlus Platinum for $499 and have a credit card AND lounge access, rather than just getting North America Plus membership for $495.

The only scenario where these memberships make sense to me is if you use Altitude Select Privileges: Prestige 25K Select Privilege (35% off: $244, $322, $432) or the Elite 35K Select Privilege (50% off: X, $248, $332).  Then it’s a matter of estimating whether you will be travelling enough to justify the membership rather than paying the per-trip access cost, and weighing the pros and cons of this option versus many other Select Privilege options.

Note that for Elite 35K, North American lounge access is already part of the privileges; only international Maple Leaf Lounges require either a per-trip access or a club membership.

Other Air Canada Elite Options

You can also get lounge access through the “aircanada.com Travel Options” Select Privilege, at the cost of giving up many eUpgrade credits, and only for flights booked through aircanada.com

Also note that the Guest Passes available as privileges and Select Privileges are for North American lounges only.

Premium Rouge

Premium Rouge has Maple Leaf Lounge access for North American domestic lounges only, when flying to Canada, US, or sun destinations.  You have to pay $25 per person for lounge access when going anywhere else.

Pay Lounge Options

In general European airlines don’t have an option to pay for access to their lounges.
However, there are various paid lounge options for international travel. There are both lounge subscription services, where you pay a yearly fee, and one-time lounge access (day pass) options.  The higher levels of Air Canada Maple Leaf Club are effectively a subscription lounge access service.

Typical one-time prices are US$50 for a day pass, or 30 Euros/C$37 (sometimes for a day, but be careful, sometimes it’s only for 3 hours).

Note that you should check which terminal a lounge is in, and whether it’s for domestic or international departures. Buying lounge access is no use if you have to clear security into the international departures area and the lounge is in the domestic terminal.

United, American, and Delta lounges

UPDATE 2014-02-23 and 2015-08-30: United Club, American Airlines Admirals Club, and Delta Sky Club all let you purchase a pass for access to their lounges for US$50 (per person).  You do not have to be flying with that airline, but you will need a ticket with some airline for that day.

You can buy the pass at the lounge front desk, or you can buy passes for the lounges online (for United and Delta only with the app, not website).

Passes purchased online can be used once (on one travel day), any time within a year of purchase.  (Not sure if passes purchased at the door are also valid for use anytime within a year, if you don’t use them immediately.)

The American Airlines One Day Pass and the Delta Sky Club One-Day Pass is valid at any lounge during your travel day (i.e. lounges in multiple airports if you have multiple stops).  For United One-time pass it’s only valid at one lounge.  (American Airlines terms are much clearer than Delta’s.)

Apps:

ENDUPDATE

These airlines have many lounges around the world.

The American Airlines Paris lounge is between Terminal 2A & 2C (connector building) as of 2013.

GoSimply lounge service

GoSimply provides access to a range of for-pay day pass lounges, including in Canada: http://www.gosimply.com/airport-lounges/

It’s not a standalone lounge brand, it’s a way to get access to other brands of lounge. GoSimply has no eligible lounges in Helsinki or Frankfurt.  It has lounges in France including Paris Orly and Nice, but not Paris CDG.

Swissport lounges

Servisair is now “Executive Lounges by Swissport” with a branding of Aspire Lounge for some of its lounges. There are Swissport lounges in airports around the world, including Canada. You can pay for (3 hours of) lounge access, e.g. Helsinki is 35 euros (about C$43).

Swissport has no lounge in Frankfurt and no lounges in France; the majority of their lounges are in the UK.

Plaza Premium Lounge

Plaza Premium Lounge operates lounges mainly in Malaysia, China and Saudi Arabia.  It does however have three lounges in Canada (Toronto, Edmonton, and Vancouver) and one at London Heathrow.  A lounge in Winnipeg is reported to be coming Q3 2015.  It is expensive.  In Toronto 2 hours is US$33 and 6 hours is US$62.  The AmEx regular Platinum card provides Plaza access, the AmEx Aeroplan Platinum card does not.  The Priority Pass (described below) also provides paid access to some Plaza Premium lounges.

Priority Pass

Priority Pass has many many lounges worldwide, including Canada. It is a yearly subscription service.  At the Standard level you pay $100/year and then $27 per person per lounge.  Priority Pass members can add accompanying guests for the same $27 per person per lounge.  The Standard level $100 membership is included with the AmEx AeroplanPlus Platinum card.

It’s not a standalone lounge brand, it’s a way to get access to other brands of lounge.  There are Priority Pass eligible lounges in Helsinki, Frankfurt, Paris and Nice.  In Paris CDG the Terminal 2 lounge is the Maple Leaf Lounge.

Airport Angel

Airport Angel has lounges worldwide, including Canada.  It is a yearly subscription service.  At the Standard level you pay £60 per year (approx C$110 per year) and get two included visits.  Additional visits are £15 per person per visit (about C$27 per person).  Some level of membership is included with the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege card.

It’s not a standalone lounge brand, it’s a way to get access to other brands of lounge.  There are Airport Angel eligible lounges in Helsinki and Frankfurt.  In Frankfurt the two lounges are the Air Canada MLL Terminal 1B lounge and the Sky Lounge in Terminal 2.

Airspace Lounges

Airspace is a US-only lounge company.  Just four airports: New York JFK, Baltimore, Cleveland and San Diego.  Pricing depends on the aiport, roughly US$20 to US$25.  Free access if you have a regular AmEx Platinum card.

List of Paid Access Lounges

RewardsDB has a great Paid Lounge Access by Country & City list covering Priority Pass and day pass options, however note it is sometimes out of date.

Airport-specific Paid Lounges

Individual airports may have lounges where you can pay on-site.
For example Frankfurt lists: LuxxLounge Terminal 1 at 30 Euros/day and Sky Lounge Terminal 2 at 35 Euros per every 3 hours (e.g. 70 Euros for 6 hours).

Air Canada Premium Economy

Air Canada Premium Economy is still economy; it doesn’t include lounge access.  You can pay $25 per direction to get lounge access, e.g. when booking your ticket.

Booking Business Class

Booking Business class just to get lounge access doesn’t make any sense. But there might be other reasons you book a Business class flight.

If you buy on the Air Canada site, you can split the class of travel per direction. For example, you can book your outgoing flight Business class (to get a bed for overnight flight to Europe) but your return flight Economy (since you will be awake during the day flight anyway).  This includes splitting class of travel using Aeroplan miles (there used to be a penalty for this but now each direction requires 50% of round-trip miles as you would expect – you may need to book two one-way flights to do this with Aeroplan miles).

Business class roundtrip to Europe using Aeroplan miles is a good deal. It costs 90,000 110,000 miles to Europe with about $1000 in fees. You can also change your booking for about $100. The booking window is very tight though. The moving Aeroplan window is a year minus 10 days (e.g. on July 19, 2012 you can book flights up to July 9, 2013). At least for high season to Europe, you have at most a couple weeks to book before all the Aeroplan business class flights at 110k are gone. Basically you need to book about a year in advance of your flight dates.

Upgrades

Typically if you have an economy ticket that you have upgraded to Business class, you DO NOT get lounge access (they base the access on the original class of the ticket, not the upgrade).