Ibiza 2013: Part 8 – The Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge

This is the eighth and final post in a series about my 2013 trip to Ibiza for the closing parties. Part of the free plane tickets were funded by the 40,000 point sign up bonus of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. I redeemed 135,000 points for First Class flights from Miami to Ibiza on Lufthansa.

People who read this blog know I love lounge access.  It is one of the biggest benefits of flying in premium cabins in my book.  I mean who wouldn’t want comfortable seating, showers, free snacks and cocktails while you wait for your flight?  I had around a 2 hour layover before my flight left from Toronto to Charlotte on US Airways so naturally I wanted to find a lounge.  Star Alliance flights often take a bit of work to get lounge access since by the firm and fast rules, you are only allowed in if your next leg is a transcontinental one unless you are Star Alliance Gold.  Since I am not Star Alliance Gold, I didn’t qualify but oftentimes if you just go up to the attendant and are friendly they can make exceptions which they did in my case.   So my advice is to always give it a shot if you are flying in a premium cabin because I have had pretty good luck!

The Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge

IMG_7061 The lounge was nice and spacious with two different wings of comfortable seating surrounding a buffet style center area.Maple LoungeThere was also a media room with a TV which I thought was a nice touch and gave you somewhere else to wait for your flight.IMG_7062The whole lounge was lined with windows so you could watch the planes coming and going while you waited for your flight to board.IMG_7063I grabbed an apple from the buffet and a Molsen Golden on tap and enjoyed my couple hours before my flight back home via Charlotte.

Conclusion

Another Ibiza trip is in the books and it only gets more and more magical.  DC-10… Amnesia… Bora-Bora… Uffff!  I’m already planning my next one and you should be thinking about it too!  Each time I go, I learn better ways to do things, get to know more people and have an even more amazing time than the last.

If you want to get started now, my top pick is the Chase Sapphire Preferred card with the ultra flexible Ultimate Rewards points and its 40,000 point sign on bonus.  If you still need to build up your credit history, check out our top 3 cards to build your credit article.

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Author: John Butler

I live in Miami Beach but love travelling all over the world.