FlyerGoldII

I sent an email to Aeroplan, about the lounge situation, with respect to the new airport terminal building. Here is their answer:

We have contacted the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge at the MacDonald-Cartier International Airport in Ottawa on your behalf and wish to confirm the following information.

For your reference, following the opening of the new airport terminal, the existing
Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge located on the second floor between gates 21 and 22 will remain opened until March 2004 from 06:00 to 22:00 for Domestic and International eligible passengers . At that time, a newly built contract lounge will welcome all airlines� customers. Kindly note, unfortunately, the new building facilities do not provide transborder travellers with access to a lounge. The usual guidelines relative to access eligibility (for the contract lounge) will remain unchanged.

Trusting this information to be useful, xxxxx, we take this opportunity to thank you for your longstanding support.

Sincerely,


xxxxxxxxxx
Customer Sales and Service Representative � Aeroplan www.aeroplan.com

As an aside, which other airlines will contract with this new lounge?

[This message has been edited by FlyerGoldII (edited 10-08-2003).]

Ken hAAmer

WestJet.

back seat

Hmm I wonder if this will be a trend.

I hated the shared lounge in Miami,

Another take away .. .

pitz

Any ideas on how Westjet will dole out lounge priviledges? A special club for YOW-based Westjetters? Passes to those who purchase the top-tier fare brackets on Westjet? 'Victims' of Westjet overbooking and/or delays? Or a $20 pass sold from a Westjet vending machine?

Sounds like another nail in the MLL coffin.

Ken hAAmer

WestJet doesn't overbook.

'Victims' of WestJet delays (of 3 hours or more) already get their fare refunded in the form of a voucher.

Shareholder

Maybe someone should contact the YOW Authority and see if they plan to sell lounge memberships/access. If West Jet does provide access, they will likely establish a VIP list for MPs, etc. by invitation. But why would a MP or Senator fly a one-class, one stop carrier back to the west coast? This lounge may also be an affiliate for the Priority Pass program.

AC is not phasing out MLLs, rather YOW has had to set up its own VIP lounge because it wanted too much $ for the space from AC and AC did not give in.

Thanks for the initiative in confirming this information, FGII.

pitz

Ummm, Westjet has been known, on occasion, to substitute a 737-200 for a 737-700. Sometimes this leads to involuntary denied boarding on an otherwise full originally scheduled 73G flight. For these rare instances, offering a lounge pass would be quite appropriate.

Altaflyer

Westjet has non-stop service from Ottawa to Edmonton and Calgary. In the case of YEG this is the same non-stop frequency as AC, AC has more flights to YYC from what I recall.

exAC

Yet.

Shareholder

So when did Edmonton and Calgary end up on the coast? I was talking about service to Vancouver, and beyond. Remember that a lot of MPs live in areas not served by WJ. And the idea of a MP or Senator not being able to prebook a seat, and have to sit for four hours between two other people does not make for a very productive trip. Not to mention no meals as they dash from Parliament Hill to YOW to catch their flight, then maybe have a long drive from their nearest airport.

Ace Cdn

This is starting to happen with airports across Canada. In YYC the airport authority would not renew the lease for the MLL transborder lounge. They are opening their own common use lounge and this way they want the airlines to pay them.

YOWkid

Thanks for the confirmation FGII.

It's too bad YOW won't have a MLL. Benoit sucks...

airbus320

I was told last week that the new YOW terminal would have only four in terminal car rental companies. Does anyone know which ones are in terminal?

FlyerGoldII

Jetsgo and Canjet also serve Ottawa. I suppose that their passengers, under special circumstances, have access to the new YOW contract lounge.

Bytepusher

Canjet and Jetsgo and probably WestJet will, in all likelyhood, have nothing to do with this corporately, it's a cost they simply don't want to incur. Now there's some possibility that the authority may try to force them into it in some way (which would be tough to do without violating the competition act but that probably won't stop them trying) or they might try requiring all airlines counter agents to sell passes (which I think would be legal) but it seems more likely that the authority will simply try to sell passes or memberships themselves.

I find it hard to imagine that at the end of the day they'll wind up making more off this then they would have renting the space to AC at a reasonable rate, AC obviously believes their share of the costs would be less than the rental would have been and the incremental number of passengers above what AC will send them will be miniscule, most people flying Canjet ain't gonna pony up extra real $$ for access to a lounge...