canopus27

A brief update on this, as it seems there have been no updates for the last few years.

I am in the YYC INTL Aspire lounge now. I can confirm that it's open, and also that an AC J BP (still) grants access.

The lounge itself seems reasonable ... but it's empty. There are only a tiny handful of people here. There is some hot food, but not much (overly dried rice and beef stroganoff) and some drink (but not a huge selection) ...

But if you're departing YYC INTL in AC J, this is certainly still an option in terms of basic lounges.

Stranger

Indeed it's open. Number of people, depends. If there are other flights, such as WS, it's not quite empty.

Very clean, but choices are limited.

Couple of weeks ago I tried to find if it was open ad accessible to AC pax. So I phoned the central concierge line. The guy did same as I could do: check on aircanada.com. With no mentino of Aspire... So he directed us the the MLL. As a result we checked in on the domestic side. Of course the local concierge knew the answer.

KDS777

It's my default when flying UA out of YYC. Not bad at all IMHO for a free lounge using AMEX to enter. Sometimes it does get pretty full though. But that was 2 years ago.....heh.

Adam Smith

That's a different lounge. There are two Aspire lounges at YYC. One of them is in the transborder area (i.e. past US pre-clearance, segregated from the rest of the airport), a.k.a. the E gates, which is the one you're talking about.

The lounge referenced by the posters above is the lounge at the D gates, which before COVID was the international departures area, only accessible if you were on a flight departing Canada (and excluding US flights). With the recent nonsense inflicted on us by the incompetent people who run YYC (what's relevant to this thread is international departures are no longer segregated), the (formerly) international Aspire lounge has been accessible to AC pax.

The international Aspire lounge is generally nicer than the TB one, and in particular has had much better food offerings in the afternoon/evening.

KDS777

Ah gotcha......which explains why after clearing security in the domestic terminal I had to walk all the way to the international terminal to board my YYZ bound flight.

What a difference being away for 22 months makes. Thx !!

yyckiwi

Does anybody know if the lounge has removed all the COVID food/drink restrictions?

Iranmehr

A bit of a delayed response to your query, but I was in this lounge on September 30th (last week) and I didn't see any - food was self-service buffet style. It wasn't busy at all, although I did spot some uniformed Air Canada crew .

Somebody was telling me that you can access this lounge when departing from a domestic flight from YYC, as long as you were willing to take the hike (or catch a ride on the LINK Passenger Shuttle) to the international terminal. Was able to confirm this last week on a domestic flight to YVR - cleared security in the domestic terminal, walked over to the international terminal, and (without clearing security again) was able to access the Aspire lounge on the international side.

quinzinho

If I transit from domestic in YYC and my connecting flight is to the USA on UA, being *G, can I use one of these Aspire lounges?

Iranmehr

According to the Star Alliance lounge finder, no...only Air Canada flights can access the Aspire lounge on the International side with Star Alliance Gold. I would use the Maple Leaf Lounge in concourse C before heading over to concourse E for the USA flight...I've done this a few times with United MileagePlus Gold status before getting LoungeKey/DragonPass access through a credit card. Make sure to leave enough time for clearing security (again) even of you haven't left the secure area for the USA preclearance concourse E