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Plaza Premium reopens its departure lounge in Heathrow Terminal 4

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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.

Plaza Premium Heathrow Terminal 4 lounge

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.


Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

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.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

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.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A huge bonus, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

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

Comments (10)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • PeteM says:

    As much as I used to be a fan of Plaza Premium, it feels it’s gone downhill recently. The T5 one is overrun, with a waitlist on the door the last few times I’ve been. If you manage to get in the food has become very disappointing (I would say Galleries is better now) and the drinks selection has been majorly curtailed (both wines on offer are awful), unless you are a ‘premium’ guest. Long are the days of it being a peaceful oasis with a decent selection of F&B.

    I’ve had to employ every bit of charm I have to get into the T2 this year and they regularly turn most AmEx cardholders away. It’s a great space, but with the same F&B issues as above.

    Hopefully with T4 being the quietest terminal it won’t suffer so much from overcrowding, but with the Sky Team lounge gone, who knows!

    • Rob says:

      Interesting, thanks. Not been in post covid. Clearly NatWest Black customers taking over.

    • AlexT says:

      Agreed with the above 100%. Last time I tried to enter T5 PP (2 weeks ago around midday on a Friday) the (paper) waitlist was over 2 hours long. There was zero attempt at prioritization in case a large number of people left the lounge. You signed up at noon for entry around 2 pm.

      In comparison, the Club Aspire waitlist across the terminal got me in 10 min after signing up. It is an electronic queue so the faster lounge occupants leave, the faster the waitlisted person gets in (you get an SMS saying your turn has come). The F&B in Aspire hasn’t changed much over time, but the PP one has really gone downhill, so they are close to comparable now, with maybe a slight advantage to PP for the fact they still include some genuine protein (chicken) in the unidentifiable mush serves in the buffet.

  • Hotelier says:

    Flying from T4 in September. Only have the AX Platinum Business card – would this give access to Plaza Premium? Have been there before with Priority Pass from Gold Card and no issue … has this changed? Thanks

  • Al says:

    When searching for points rates on Hilton, is the amount shown the nightly points rate, or the total for the stay?

    • Al says:

      Following up – looks like it only shows the first night rate. It won’t show me the full rate unless I have enough points in my account (I only have 29k). Is there any way to work out the full rate without having to buy a random amount first?

      • Lady London says:

        Search a day at a time? rates can be less at some hotels for multiple nights, but not seen this much.

        Also IIRC if you pick a 1 night stay and tick the box for Dates are Flexible I think it shows you a calendar (though I might be remembering another site as a few work that way)

  • John T says:

    What does Heathrow do with these spaces that were previously lounges that have now closed? Surely they only work as lounge spaces?

    • Rob says:

      Could be empty for years. The new Qatar lounge was previously used by BA for admin and they left T4 a decade ago!

  • C says:

    Re Krisflyer : Have been waiting for months for the status upgrade to gold after completing 3 flights since March as a Jade member. Who can I escalate to?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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