Plaza Premium lounge in Heathrow Terminal 4 officially opens today

Whilst it has been in a ‘soft opening’ phase for a few weeks, the new Plaza Premium departure lounge in Heathrow Terminal 4 officially opens today.

You can buy passes via the Plaza Premium website here.

The Terminal 4 lounge follows on from the successful launch of the Terminal 2 departure lounge (reviewed here) and the Terminal 2 arrivals lounge (reviewed here).  At Terminal 2 it is now the only Priority Pass lounge now that United Club – and all United lounges globally – withdrew from the scheme.

Terminal 4 will be tougher for them.  The SkyTeam lounge is very good – I reviewed it here – and that is a Priority Pass lounge.  Will Priority Pass and Lounge Club passengers be persuaded to visit SkyTeam instead?  I’m not sure if SkyTeam sells day passes on the door or not – if it doesn’t, that will give Plaza Premium a chance.

There are a few features which make it look interesting:

it has showers (not sure if SkyTeam does, I don’t remember any)

it has a live cooking station, which may be a first for a UK airport lounge

unlike the Terminal 2 lounge, it has a lot of natural light

it is the only lounge in Terminal 4 serving halal food

it has ‘productivity pods’ giving privacy to people looking to work (again, I don’t remember SkyTeam having anything like this)

Despite losing the contract to operate the independent lounge in Terminal 5 – which is a shame, as it would probably have been classier than the Aspire lounge – it has other big plans at Heathrow.  The company is planning its first UK airport hotel, due to open in Terminal 3 in 2016.

If you pay on the door without using a Priority Pass, there is an opening rate of £30 per person including VAT until the end of June.  This is for a 2-hour stay and includes the use of the showers.  From July the price rises to £35 including VAT.  You can book via the Plaza Premium site here.

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How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (April 2024)

Here are the four options to get FREE airport lounge access via a UK credit card.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,300 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.

You also get access to Eurostar, Lufthansa and Delta Air Lines lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum instead.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £24.  You get four more free visits for every year you keep the card.  

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus.  Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free Priority Pass card, allowing you access to the Priority Pass network.  Guests are charged at £24 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £195 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer.  Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.