Given my own past AC experiences, as well as that of Dorian, I had no expectation of being granted entrance. I just wanted to test the envelope, and expose the Emperor's new clothes, 'disingenuous' as they are. (Good word! I've been trying to remember it for it for a month.)

Notwithstanding that I arrived from Boston, I had to get up at 5:30am to make the flight, even skipping my shower, and looked pretty haggard after trying to sleep on the 6 hour flight. Had I not been arriving in my home city, the arrivals lounge would have been an ideal way to being my day in Vancouver, after traveling on a plane and through airports for almost 9 hours.

Contrary to the suggestion that "Maybe the language is imprecise," it is in fact completely unambiguous. It states on both AC's and CP's web pages, and in e-mails to various members, that "...Executive Platinum and Gold members will have access to any Air Canada or Canadian Airlines lounge..." It was the agent's language that was imprecise: "It is and it isn't" a lounge.

In the case of oneworld, they are quite specific about which lounges you can use. They even publish a guide, complete with the fine print that explains any exceptions.

In AA's case, one of the main reasons they call their new FC lounges "Flagship" is to explicitly distinguish them from the regular "Admiral's Club" lounges. Even so, as a non-AA oneworld emerald, I have regularly used the AA FC lounges even when travelling on short domestic hops, like ORD-GRB. Ironic that I can get in, but an AA E/P on a first class ticket ORD-LAX can't, but they live by the rules as they are clearly written.

That's the difference here. It would've been different if Dorian had not put the rules to the test. But after his fiasco, they have no excuse for using "weasel words" anymore. They were put on notice back in November that their language was not correct, and was leading to problem.

It seems clear to me they want to imply "any" lounge, suggesting you have access to everything, in the best marketing tradition of puffery. And to suggest that "not many people know about them" is to treat us like the morons they seem to think we are. Reminds me of the heated debates last year about who was or was not eligble for various bonus promotions that were going on. Both CP and AC were guilty in escapade, and appeared to have learned their lesson. Appeared to.

It would be so simple to change "any lounge" to "any departure lounge". But even after I send all my letters, I'm pretty sure they won't.