Review: the Plaza Premium lounge at London Heathrow Terminal 2

This is our review of the Plaza Premium lounge at London Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 2.

With Heathrow Terminals 3 and 4 closed, Terminal 2 has been welcoming a number of airlines it wouldn’t normally see.

Plaza Premium is the only independent lounge in Terminal 2 – all other lounges belong to Star Alliance members with the exception of the Aer Lingus lounge.

This makes it the obvious lounge for displaced airlines such as Virgin Atlantic and Delta, who announced they would be offering complimentary access to Plaza Premium for Upper Class and Business Class passengers.

The Plaza Premium lounge in T2 is still open to Priority Pass and American Express Platinum card (reviewed here) holders – at least it was at 7am.

It was surprisingly empty when I entered given this is the only independent lounge in the terminal, although this is evidently a reflection of the state of the aviation industry. T2 has always been less crowded than T5 but it was virtually empty on Thursday morning at what I imagine would be a peak time.

To be perfectly honest, I can’t imagine it gets much busier. With the majority of Virgin Atlantic and Delta flights being to the US or other countries with quarantine requirements, you can probably count the business class passengers on each flight on one hand.

I’m not complaining – I’ll take an empty lounge over a crowded one any day. Plaza Premium in T2 makes excellent use of the windowless space it has to create a cosy lounge:

It achieves this look through a lot of clever lighting and Asian architectural styles. It lets you forget that you are underneath what is effectively the check-in and baggage drop areas on the floor above!

The Plaza Premium lounge at Heathrow Terminal 2

Once the manned desk at the front has verified your entry eligibility you enter into a lovely atrium-style space which has a bar on one side and access to two other areas:

The space has been separated into semi-permeable ‘rooms’ with the use of wooden dividers. This makes the lounge feel cosy despite its size.

Different areas include a more formal dining area near the kitchens as well as a range of slightly more casual single and double armchairs.

Connectivity is excellent with virtually every seat having its own plug sockets.

The staff were doing an excellent job of cleaning. I noticed my side table had just been wiped down before I sat at it and I saw other tables around me being cleaned on a regular basis.

Food and drink at Plaza Premium Heathrow T2

The biggest change in how the lounge operates is with the food offering. There is no buffet any more. Instead, the buffet is staffed with someone who takes your order.

Here is the breakfast menu. You can pick from any combination of items:

• Scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon and baked beans
• Porridge
• Selection of cereals, fruits and yoghurts
• Selection of breads, pastries and muffins

I don’t think the food has changed at all post-Corona – I imagine it is just no longer self-serve.

I decided to go for a hot breakfast:

….. which was decent except that there seemed to be some kind of cream under the eggs which rather overpowered the flavour! Very odd.

It also would have been nice to have a bit more choice – for example, some hash browns and smoked salmon, perhaps. As it stands, the breakfast offering wasn’t hugely different to what you’d find in a British Airways lounge.

I also noticed they had ‘chocolate cornflakes’ on offer:

….. which is clearly Nutella on normal cornflakes. I wonder if they ran out of actual chocolate cornflakes and were told to improvise …….

Coffee, tea and fruit juices (more like fruit juice ‘drinks’) were self-serve. The ‘juices’ came in these glass dispensers with a tap (do they have a name?). Instead of pulling the lever, Plaza Premium had fitted them with a push accessory, meaning you didn’t have to touch them at all:

You can also get drinks at the bar, although when I asked for anything bubbly they asked how I got lounge entry. When I said it was via my Amex Platinum card, they told me that only a few spirits, beer and wine were available! It didn’t feel right to drink a G&T or glass of wine at 7am so I left it ……

Conclusion

Despite the pandemic Plaza Premium in Heathrow Terminal 2 continues to offer a relaxing lounge away from the rest of the terminal.

Whilst the food offering could be improved slightly, I’m not sure whether this is simply a reduced offering to reduce contact. It’s a shame that I couldn’t get free champagne or prosecco. In hindsight, I should have just walked out the lounge and re-entered using my Priority Pass insead of my Amex Platinum card – although that assumes that Priority Pass cardholders get better treatment.

If you don’t have access via Priority Pass or Lounge Club, you can buy access via the Plaza Premium website here.

If you don’t have a Priority Pass, you get a free one with an American Express Platinum card.  You can also buy a Priority Pass for cash here.

Travelling from Heathrow Terminal 2? Here are your lounge options ….

At Heathrow’s Terminal 2 you currently have eight lounges to choose from.

Our overview of the best airline lounges at Heathrow Terminal 2 is here, or you can read individual reviews of all the lounges here:

• Aer Lingus Lounge review
• Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge review (Star Alliance)
• Lufthansa Business Lounge review (Star Alliance)
• Plaza Premium Lounge review
• Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge review (Star Alliance)
• Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge review (Star Alliance)
• United Club lounge review (Star Alliance)
• United Global Services Lounge review (Star Alliance)

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How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (January 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 Plaza Premium, Delta Air Lines and Eurostar 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.