Review : Plaza Premium Lounge (domestic flights), Vancouver International Airport (YVR)

Close to gate B15 of Vancouver International Airport’s main terminal, you’ll find the Plaza Premium lounge. The lounge is open daily from 5am to 10pm. All travelers with a domestic flight can easily get there before their departure. For us, who had a WestJet departure to Ottawa at gate B13, it was on our way and therefore really ideal to stop there.

Note that there is a second Plaza Premium lounge (café-style) accessible in the same terminal near gate C29. This one has only 36 seats and is completely open onto the main terminal corridor. Keep this option in mind if your starting gate is somewhere between C29 and C52.

The easiest way to gain free access to the Premium Plaza Lounge is by presenting the Business Platinum Card^MD from American Express, the Business Platinum Card^MD from American Express; lounge access is for the primary cardholder as well as a traveling companion. Access is also possible through Priority Pass or Dragonpass membership, and many credit cards offer free access via DragonPass.

When we arrived at the lounge reception desk, the admission formalities were quickly completed. There was no waiting around 2pm. Once registered, simply take the stairs or elevator to the mezzanine level and enter the actual lounge. If you’d like to linger in the reception area, there’s a chair offering massages ($).

On the mezzanine level, in a recessed area, there’s a bar offering a free and a paying menu. The bar is not self-service, so you’ll have to ask the attendant, who can serve you a variety of alcoholic beverages, including beers, wines and spirits.

No non-alcoholic mocktails are offered. The offer is strictly limited to what is indicated on the menu.

From the bar, a short corridor leads to the main lounge area. The mezzanine, with its half-glazed walls, provides a view down to the departure level.

The lounge has a capacity of 130 people, and I can confirm that it was almost full when I arrived. Fortunately, it only took a few minutes for seats to become available. In fact, as the afternoon wore on, people were leaving the lounge in droves.

Seating consists mainly of individual armchairs and a section of tables (two of which are very large, placed just in front of the counter where food is served). There are also a few individual (semi-private) workstations for using your computer. Unfortunately, since there are no deckchairs, it’s also a bit difficult to have a quiet private space if your neighbors are noisy.

The free wifi available in the lounge is the same as at the airport, and the signal works well.

The food is basic and there are two choices for the main meal. The service is alright. We notice that food dishes are not left empty for long, and that tables are cleared regularly.

The coffee machine in the main lounge area wasn’t working at the time of our visit, but the one by the bar did the trick just fine.

Our three-hour visit to the Plaza Premium lounge for domestic flights was a good one. The lounge was at capacity when we arrived, but we soon found a quiet corner to settle into. The food was adequate to replace a restaurant meal, and we were able to take a piece of fruit (apple or pear) home with us from the lounge. No soft drinks are available in cans or bottles.

In comparison, this lounge is quite similar to the Aspire Lounge at Ottawa International Airport, but slightly inferior to the Elevation Lounge at Calgary International Airport.

Read on for more Canadian airport lounge reviews: