Plaza Premium reopens its departure lounge in Heathrow Terminal 4

If you have a flight coming up from Heathrow Terminal 4, Plaza Premium has reopened its departure lounge.

It is open from 5.30am to 10pm daily. You’ll find it between Gates 1A and 1B, above the Qatar Airways lounges.

This is now the only independent lounge in the terminal, following the permanent closure of the SkyTeam lounge – which was in Priority Pass – and the odd ART&LOUNGE site.

Our last review of the Plaza Premium lounge in Terminal 4, from just after its opening in 2015, is here.

Remember that you cannot access Plaza Premium lounges with Priority Pass. You can get in via DragonPass or by showing an American Express Platinum charge card at the door.

The arrivals lounge in Terminal 4 – in fact all of the Plaza Premium arrivals lounges in Heathrow – remain closed for now.

You can book access for cash via this page of the Plaza Premium website.

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How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (August 2022)

As a reminder, here are the four options to get FREE airport lounge access via a 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 Plaza Premium, Delta and Eurostar lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

EDIT: Until 25th October 2022, there is an exceptionally generous sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card. You will receive 60,000 Membership Rewards points – double the usual amount – and £200 to spend at Amex Travel. You need to spend £6,000 within six months to earn the bonus.

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 two free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here. 

Additional lounge visits are charged at £20.  You get two 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 LoungeKey card, allowing you access to the LoungeKey network.  Guests are charged at £20 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.