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London Heathrow Plaza Premium Lounge, Terminal 4. My Review

The London Heathrow Plaza Premium Lounge, Terminal 4 is an excellent lounge. It’s a classy and bright space. It has high quality food, lots of seating and a separate bar area. It is a great place to kick back before your flight.

Best of all, there’s a number of ways to enter the lounge. You don’t need to be flying in business class. You get access with a Priority Pass Card. If you use my link, then you get an exclusive 30% discount.

I was in the lounge at 6.30am, and was pretty tired. However, I made sure to take loads of photos. As always. Each photo in the article can be clicked. To pop out to a slideshow.

This page on my website has some of my favourite travel deals and hacks. Including my favourite rental car company (outside the US). It’s definitely not one of the big rental car companies! I also describe how I booked long haul business class for $700 return.


What I liked

  • Large space
  • Large windows and lots of natural light
  • Cook to order items available
  • Breakfast buffet was decent
  • Large bar area, separate to main lounge
  • Well designed space

What Could Be improved

  • They could cook the buffet with more flavour

The Entry Requirements

How to enter the Plaza Premium Lounge Heathrow Terminal 4.

I accessed the lounge with my Priority Pass Card. You can become a member of Priority Pass on this page. Priority Pass is the Largest Airport Lounge network in the world. You can access over 1,700 airport lounges worldwide.

If you use my link, you get a 30% discount. Membership starts at £48.

I’m a fan of Priority Pass, but there’s some things about the program that annoy me! The program is mass market, and the lounges get busy. If the lounge is full, then you might be refused entry. But you can pay £6 to Priority Pass and pre-book a timeslot. Which will guarantee your entry.

Also, the program isn’t Uber Luxury. Don’t expect bottomless champagne from your £48 membership! It’s not Emirates First Class!

The discount is an exclusive offer for my readers. It’s not a publicly available discount. Thanks to Priority Pass for this generous offer.

Standard Plus Membership costs £183 and comes with 10 free lounge visits per year. So each lounge visit cost £18.30. Great value for unlimited food, unlimited alcohol and your own personal space.

There are a large number of London Heathrow Priority Pass Lounges. Your membership won’t go to waste! The Plaza Premium Heathrow Terminal 5 is the best non-BA lounge in Terminal 5. My review is here. The Plaza Premium Heathrow Terminal 2 has been voted as the best contract lounge in the world. My review is here.

My Favourite Activities in London


London is a global city. And also the place where I was born. Below are some of my favourite things to do. Best of all, there are many things that are free or low cost.

Sky Garden is the largest public garden in the city. It’s free to enter, but you need to pre-book a timeslot. I’ve been there a few times. The views are AMAZING.

London’s Theatre District is world famous. You can also get some amazing offers. Book your tickets here. You can book Hamilton Tickets from £23 – in the cheap seats, obviously! Many shows have tickets for under £15.

Virgin Balloons are the largest Hot Air Balloon Operator in the UK. Operating from over 100 sites in the UK. If you use this link, then you get a 5% discount – bookings starting at £139. I did this with my wife for her birthday and had a great time. We were given a glass of bubbly upon landing. It’s not going to be the cheapest thing you do, but it’s a lot of fun.

You can book a combination ticket to visit Madam Tussauds, London Eye and the London Dungeon. Each of these attractions is world famous. The cost is £64, which is a big saving on booking the tickets separately. These attractions are commercial as hell, but such is life!

How to get to Heathrow Airport


Heathrow is my local airport, and I view myself as an expert on how to get there. It’s easy to get ripped off, e.g. taking a black taxi to Central London for £150! If you plan ahead, there are better ways to travel.

National Express coaches are probably the cheapest way to get to Heathrow Airport. This page says tickets start at £10. But I’ve seen fares as low as £7 (from Birmingham). It’s probably the slowest way to get to the airport. But the coaches are nice. With wi-fi, leather seats and toilets.

For airport taxis, I don’t use a black taxi (expensive) or Uber (expensive and crap). I use Welcome Pickups – book here. They have a 4.9* rating on Trustpilot, because they’re reliable and well priced. Uber has a 1.7* rating. The only drawback is that you need to pre-book on their website.

For airport parking, I normally use Purple Parking. They’re rated 4.1* on Trustpilot. Compared to 1.3* for the Official Heathrow Meet and Greet. 4.1* is pretty good although not perfect. I’ve never had a problem with them. Purple Parking promise to always be the lowest priced - although I can't personally verify that!

The Lounge

I really liked the London Heathrow Plaza Premium Lounge, Terminal 4. On the right side of the entrance, is the main lounge area with buffet, floor to ceiling windows and lots of seating. On the left hand side of the entrance is the segregated bar area.

There was a range of seating in the main area including restaurant style table and chairs, lounge chairs, and large square table.

As is common with many Plaza Premium Lounges around the world, they had put a lot of effort into the decoration of the lounge – which I appreciate. I really enjoyed the decoration in the lounge and thought it was very classy. They made use of exposed wood flooring and a lot of grey seating. The highlight was the large square table with a designer tree in the centre of it – check out the photo in the above slideshow.

Design is something I really appreciate – I put a lot of effort into the design of this site, and I hope you like it! The great thing about airline lounges, is that you get taken away from the madness of the terminal building and can enjoy a little piece of luxury. A well designed lounge helps to enhance that feeling of luxury.

The Food

The food at the London Heathrow Plaza Premium Lounge, Terminal 4 was pretty good. 

I was there at 6.30am, during the breakfast service. The main area of the lounge has a buffet counter to one side. The buffet contained standard English breakfast items. In addition, there was a small menu with cook to order items. The lounge had the following items:

  • Cook to order eggs and veggie sausages
  • Sausages
  • Scrambled Eggs
  • Mushrooms
  • Baked Beans
  • Roast Potatoes
  • Poha (Indian dish – flattened rice)
  • Yogurt
  • Fruit
  • Cereals
  • Teas and coffees


I had some cooked to order veggie sausages, mushrooms and roast potatoes. I enjoyed the veggie sausages, but the other items from the buffet were lacking in flavour. I would say that it was the equivalent to the breakfast at a 4* hotel. This is pretty good for a contract lounge

The Drinks

The Plaza Premium Heathrow Terminal 4 has a separate bar area, and it is really rather classy. There is no natural light in the bar area - they have some nice mood lighting and wooden flooring to create an upmarket feel. As it was 7am, I decided against a drink (those days are long gone!), but I did take a look around and snap some photos.

I took photos of the drinks menu. It contained premium spirits that were chargeable. I assume that all other items (beers, house spirits etc.) were complimentary.

The Gulf Air Lounge is also in Heathrow Terminal 4. It also has a beautiful manned bar - in the centre of the lounge. That lounge is impressive. It’s well designed and has sweeping runway views. My review has a stunning shot of a Gulf Air Dreamliner!

The Business model of contract lounges

The Plaza Premium Lounge London Heathrow Departures Terminal 4 is a contract lounge. 

Unlike airline lounges, you don't need to be traveling in business class or have airline status to access the Heathrow Plaza Premium Lounge, T4. You can pay for entry, but most people will use a priority pass membership to come in. Each time you use the lounge, priority pass will reimburse the lounge a set fee.

Historically, contract lounges have had a bad reputation. Often these lounges are in the darkest corner of the terminal - think food in a packet and cheep beer. There is a reason for this. Airlines invest in their lounges to drive business to their premium cabins. However, as contract lounges have a fixed payment structure, there is not a lot of incentive for them to invest large sums into them.

This trend has changed in recent years, and places like London Heathrow now have a number of good options. Heathrow has a large number of travellers who have high expectations. Also, most terminals have more than 1 contract lounge. This combination has driven up the standard of contract lounges at the airport.

My Take on the Plaza Premium Heathrow Terminal 4

There are a large number of London Heathrow Priority Pass Lounges. This lounge is amongst the best. 

The Heathrow Plaza Premium Lounge in Terminal 4 is an excellent contract lounge. It is large and bright, with good food, charming decor and lots of seating. It is not a destination lounge, but is a great place to spend an hour or two before your flight.

Plaza Premium also have an arrivals lounge in Heathrow Terminal 4. It’s pretty good. Small but mighty! There’s an excellent selection of a la carte dishes to choose from. The food is restaurant quality and the alcohol is complimentary.

One of the best value airport hotels at Heathrow is the Ibis Styles. I paid £66 for a family room. The hotel is located on Bath Road, where most Heathrow hotels are. The décor was modern and fresh.



Debbie Kimber

Bathrooms were disgusting, The in side of the lounge was disgusting it was dirty and the food was terrible,they lounge had hardly anything left to eat. I have picture of this location it’s a disgusting I would recommend people stay far away and not use it. Staff are rude and need to go to school on service to the public. This lounge has no idea on how to run or service people. We paid 38 .00 pounds each my husband and I and would like my money back.

September 2, 2023

Hieu Dao

The lounge is terrible from food quality to the toilets. I recommend not to use this one

January 1, 2024