I'd been elite for a couple of years and made extensive use of the lounges in Montreal and Toronto. Lately I've been doing all my flying through Montreal. I lost my wallet a year ago, and with it my Aeroplan card. I never bothered to get a new card and just showed my ticket to the lounge attendant for access. I think I received a new card a few weeks back, but left it at home because, let's face it, we all carry too many cards anyway and I didn't really need the Aeroplan card. Lately they've been pestering me that I have to bring my card so they can swipe it. Yesterday they half-jokingly said they wouldn't let me in if I didn't bring my card. Why? Why do they need that card when my ticket shows that I am eligible to use the lounge? What if I wasn't an Aeroplan guy but had purchased lounge access? I appreciate that they like the convenience of being able to record my trip to the lounge, but I am actually inconvenienced by flying Air Canada to begin with (curse those loyalty programs)!

Sorry go off on a rant here, but has anyone else experience this?

They're inconsistent for sure. I often fly J and use the lounge just by showing my boarding pass. Occasionally I fly Y on very short legs or on regional jets that only have a Y cabin, and I hand them my platinum Aeroplan Amex to get lounge access.

Sometimes they only want to see the card. Other times they ask for the boarding pass with the card. There seems to be no rhyme or reason.

I too have found it to be inconsistent (but then isn't inconsistency what Air Canada prides itself on?).

I am SE, so I use the MLL often in Canada. I just have to mention here, after spending a week travelling in New Zealand my experience with the NZ lounges. I had three colleagues travelling with me, none of whom were *G or travelling on business class tickets, and in three difference cases and three different Air NZ lounges, the attendant let them in with me as guests even though I was only entitled to one guest - never an issue, never a hassle, and no attitude from officious lounge attendants. If that isn't contrast enough with the Air Canada MLL experience, the Air NZ lounges blow AC's lounges out of the water in terms of amenities, food and beverage.

So while AC staff obsess over rigid protocol (such as presenting a physical aeroplan card, despite what is on the boarding pass), Air NZ staff obsess over creating a positive customer experience. What a novel concept!

There was a lengthy thread about this a while ago, but it was a little nasty because of the personalities involved, so I will not suggest reading it for enlightenment.

Anyway, the T&C are perfectly clear from the AP website:

I personally don't think it is reasonable to suggest that having to carry the AP card on trips where you want to enter the lounge is inconvenient. It's not like it's one of those massive coins with the hole through the centre for a log to be inserted so that three or four men can haul it to the next village to purchase a wife. It's a little plastic card.

Also, any inconsistency on the part of the lounge people was in your favour, not theirs. Apparently there is pressure on them to scan the cards. They aren't making up those rules, although some of them will relax the rules for people from time to time. That's good service, not bad service.

I think your best bet, to avoid disappointment, would be to bring your card when you want to enter the lounge. You never know when the agent won't (or can't) bend the rules for you.

It depends what Dragon is working the lounge...

...don't leave home without it! (That's for the younger board members)
Look, there is a simple solution...bring the card with you...end of story.
Forget the dragon lady working the counter...the lack of rhyme or reason...just punch a hole in the thing and use it like a bag-tag.
Ending this thread will allow us to move back to more important topics...like how angry we are that the warm nuts are gone from J class...

"I personally don't think it is reasonable to suggest that having to carry the AP card on trips where you want to enter the lounge is inconvenient."

How heavy was that straw that broke the camel's back?

I have three credit cards, each of which get used on every trip. Driver's license, health insurance card (not needed yet), food discount card (used nearly daily with savings of ten to twenty bucks a week), debit card, and chipped corporate ID card that gets me into the office. I don't carry my birth certificate because I have to carry a passport. Air Canada wants me to carry around a card I use only once per trip? I know that Hilton, Marriott and National Car Rental would like me to carry their cards, I use their services every trip, but they know better than to insist. I won't carry a card for American Airlines, Continental, Best Western, Delta Hotel, Hertz, North West Airline, Starwoods, Thrifty or United Airlines either.

It is not for our convenience they want us to carry these cards around.

With people now having the ability to print their own BPs... it's all to easy to "upgrade" your BP to give you lounge access.

So, I don't blame AC for wanting to see the plastic.

Brilliant! Here I was, fretting about how I could pay off my debt from all the flights I bought just so I could get elite status and get a personalized luggage tag..and you solved the problem so simply and cheaply!

Presumably six cards wouldn't do it. :-:

Presumably you should carry whatever cards you need in order to get the services you want. If AC, or any other airline for that matter, requires your card in order to access their lounge, as others have pointed out above, that is their business. And their business to refuse you entry if you refuse to follow their rules.

Simon

Hmm . . . if someone is falsifying their boarding documents, I think lounge access is the least of the airline's worries.

I always carry my SE card, but I guess the point is that AC has designed their policies around pedantic compliance and enforcement rather than from the customer perspective. What is the realistic level of probability of the status printed on a boarding pass not being accurate? And if it is innacurate, what risk does this present - one in five hundred passengers using the lounge who shouldn't be? Weigh this against the inconvenience caused thousands of passengers who are entitled to lounge access . . . seems like a no brainer to me. Anyway, what is the barcode for on the boarding pass? - scan that thing - surely no one can be accused of trying to alter than in their favour.

How inconvenient can it possibly be to carry a small piece of plastic?

Five grams?

(That's what my kitchen scale said about my E card.)

Agreed. I've gone to the same gym for 20 years. They know me, they know why I'm there, they see my gym bag in hand. Nevertheless for 20 years, they've asked for and swiped my card.

The requirement of the card has been well publicised, it is on the ckin desk of the MLLs.

Once I have put myself back together after security, I get out my E card, hold it with my BP and present them together entering the MLL. It really is not very difficult.

Maybe I'll tell the next merchant I deal with in person, that they should take my word on the CC number I rattled off verbatim, no need for the card itself.