Plaza Premium Lounge has a strong footprint at various locations throughout the world, and specifically at London Heathrow International Airport. Our flight from London Heathrow Terminal Two would allow us the opportunity to visit their world class award winning lounge in the Queen’s Terminal. How did the Plaza Premium Lounge in London Heathrow Terminal Two stack up as an international departures lounge?

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This post is one chapter on our trip to Portugal, the United Kingdom (England and Norther Ireland) and Ireland. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines Advantage and enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: Plaza Premium Lounge, London Heathrow Terminal Two, Hounslow, United Kingdom

This review is of the Plaza Premium Departures Lounge at London Heathrow Terminal Two. For a review of the Plaza Premium Arrivals Lounge London Heathrow – Terminal Two, please see our earlier review.

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We had an overnight stay at the nearby Moxy London Heathrow Airport. The next morning, we drove our rental car back to Hertz and it was returned at the quick return aisle relatively easily.

We had a quick ride on the bus up to London Heathrow Terminal 2, along with almost all other passengers riding the bus today.

Checking into Aer Lingus:

We got off where we started and took the lifts up to the 5th floor which was the departure level. London Heathrow Terminal 2 is a beautiful building and is the newest terminal at London. It’s called the Queen’s Terminal, although I doubt Queen Elizabeth’s ever going to fly out of here.

Our Aer Lingus London – Dublin flight check in was located in the “C” Wing. It was a completely automated check in process. We used the kiosk for a paper boarding card reprint, followed by an automated bag drop with the scale, self tagging and baggage acceptance.

After the bag drop, we wandered onwards for the security check. The arrangement is much better set up in London Heathrow Terminal 2 than it is in London Heathrow Terminal 3 thanks to active line management and balancing of the crowds over different security queues. The security area seems to actually be set up with the recognition that the United Kingdom will always have a strong security focus and it was nice not to be too crowded in this zone unlike in the other London Heathrow terminals.

We didn’t purchase the optional lounge access for Aer Lingus offered at the time of purchase, so we headed for the usual standby Plaza Premium Lounge located within the London Heathrow Terminal Two.

Locating the Plaza Premium Lounge:

After the security screening was completed, we wandered down to the ground gate level to locate the departure gates and the lounge offerings.

The Plaza Premium Lounge is located one level down on Level 4 from the Departure Check In Level 5.

The lounge is located in a far away corner of the basement of Terminal 2, immediately adjacent to the airline passenger reconnections channel. If you weren’t looking for the lounge, you’d never have a reason to be down here. As indicated, access today was granted courtesy of Priority Pass.

Accessing the Plaza Premium Lounge:

The Plaza Premium Lounge at London Heathrow Terminal Two is accessed through a variety of methods:

The Lounge offers pay entries at the front reception, subject to space availability. Prices listed on the door started at 40 £, which is similar to the advance on line rate.

The Lounge offers visits booked through their website, in advance. These visits are tiered based on the amount of time that you stay and the amount of features you include (lounge, shower). Rates during our visit were between 40 £ ($52 USD) for a two hour visit, to 82 £ ($106 USD) for a five hour stay with shower.

The lounge also offered access through Priority Pass. Our access for us today was granted via Priority Pass Select. This method has since been discontinued.

For members holding the American Express Platinum Cards, access is also granted through the American Express Membership Lounge Program. Access can be granted by presenting an American Express Platinum Card at the front counter.

Inside the Plaza Premium Lounge:

The lounge is known for its heavily marketed Skytrax 2018 Worlds Best Independent Lounge of the year. Plaza Premium has been quite effective in its marketing of this, as reviews for this lounge often mention this award.

Despite the award, I found this to be a rather typical Plaza Premium Lounge experience.

The lounge has a grand looking entrance, which leads into a regular lounge space.

The lounge was very busy when we arrived; coupled with the morning rush. It was a bit challenging to locate seats together, but we eventually located a pair at a table.

Food and Beverage:

As expected, the Plaza Premium Lounge offers a food station that allows travellers to replenish on food items. Today’s breakfast food in the lounge was just average. It consisted of overcooked scrambled eggs, the usual British slab bacon, oversized sausages and baked beans. It was a reasonable amount available and we did use it to fill up a little, despite having a breakfast earlier at the Moxy London Heathrow Airport hotel.

Surprisingly, in a low rent touch, all the alcohol on offer was for payable starting at about 3 £. Even some certain mixers were pay, making a standard gin and tonic 6 £ by the time you put it all together. As a result, hardly in a festive mood thanks to an early morning flight, I passed on having a cocktail. Drinks were offered from the bar, which was manned.

While we’ve seen lounges offer over the top premium wines and spirits for an additional payment, I haven’t been to many lounges that offer a complete pay menu for it’s alcoholic beverages. It’s usually common to offer a single house white or red wine available on a complimentary basis. It is certainly not a typical experience for an international departures lounge.

After a short stay, we later headed off on our Aer Lingus London – Dublin flight.

The Bottom Line: The Plaza Premium Lounge London Heathrow

All in all, like many other Plaza Premium Lounges, it was a place to briefly recharge but not all that nice of a place to seek out in advance. Consistent with other Plaza Premium Lounges, the food wasn’t all to impressive or tasty. I found the pay per use alcohol to be a particularly low rent touch and below the usual standards for an international departures business lounge. I guess they have many travellers through this location, which makes this a necessity.

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If you travel through the London Heathrow Terminal Two airport, do you have a preferred business departures lounge ?

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