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When I Travel The World

Might have to give it a try this weekend. Looks pretty good

corporate-wage-slave

Here are some photos from the new Premium Plaza in LHR T5. Overall it's quite impressive, close to Galleries First level, and much better than the Aspire lounge. It's about the same size but it is less boxed in so feels more spacious. There are WCs and showers inside the lounge, the showers incur an additional £15 fee.

Entry if 05:00 to 22:00. The entrance is by gate 7 and covers the North east corner of T5 departures. You will need a T5 departure and boarding pass to access this lounge, you can't use it if you are departing from another terminal, there again Premium Plaza has lounges elsewhere in LHR including landside.

Priority Pass not accepted, American Express Platinum is, and in fact all the users this morning were AmexPlats, there were about 2 dozen people using it in all. Cash is the realistic other alternative, at £40 per adult.

The lounge benefits from good views, a reasonably strong breakfast offering (and knowing Plaza Premium this will be continued with food later in the day), a wide range of seating suitable for families, couples and single travellers, plenty of power points, its own toilets, and fast broadband. It is also well suited for the North end departures, typically but not definitively domestic departures. The staffing was professional and got the right balance between too little and too much engagement.

This will be a good option for anyone without status, and perhaps even those with oneworld status if they have a family group larger than their allowance. It's pitched at somewhere between Galleries Club and Galleries First, perhaps tending more to First. However Galleries First has nearly three times as many options in terms of food items available at breakfast, plus the champagne, so I doubt that many GF users will be dashing over to use it. That said, a near empty and brand new lounge always gives a good impression in a busy airport.

Incidentally the poor state of the window cleaning on the North side was very evident due to the layout of the lounge, you can't avoid seeing it. I imagine PP will approach HAL about that. On the other side, facing east, it was fine, the windows looked acceptable in that direction. One other oddity is that HAL haven't changed to the two floor-standing air conditioning HVAC units. These seems overkill for the size of the lounge, one should be more than enough, but I think they just built the lounge around them. Either way it could be fairly chilling near the HVACs.

This is the entrance area by gate 7, just follow the signs for it. Best to use North Security if you have a choice, it's just down the escalator from there and past the WH Smith Book Shop.



There are two long table either side of the bar, which will make a good sociable place for a drink in the evening. It isn't entirely obvious but every seating spot has a UK plug built underneath the edge of the table.


Along the wall of the bar area is a photo montage of some of the sights of London.



The breakfast option consisted of continental options on one side, a middle hot breakfast area, and pastries and juice at the other end.





There are only a few newspapers on offer in the lounge, something the BA lounges are better at providing.



This shows the view southwards from the corner of the lounge, looking towards gate 9. It's quite lounge. The basic layout is a lounge area near the door, a refectory area near the food counter, then some casual seating before getting to the bar area. The bar has the two long table, one on each side, and then finally there are more individual seats at the far end, I suspect these will be the quietest.



Refectory seating



There are quite a lot of these individual seats in the lounge. They have individual lights and power sockets on the inside area of the seating side.







The bar wasn't doing much business at 06:00 hrs in the morning, but they seem to have a reasonable selection of alcohol available as well as soft drinks.

Ldnn1

Looks good... apart from the sausages, which look darn awful! Did you happen to try them, c-w-s?

corporate-wage-slave

Well, there's always a danger in imputing taste to photos, as we have seen! [I've had more PMs about that CCR sofa photo than any other lounge piece I've ever done on FT!]. I didn't partake, but they smelt ok to me and were popular with the other people in the lounge. We probably need for one of Glasgow's finest to give us a better verdict.

Frequent flyer 101

Can you confirm the toast rack status?

Also, is bubbly included or extra?

nh1980

Being able to use GC (and soon GF again woohoo) probably won't use but I do really like the look of those cosy high-walled armchairs for 1, reminds me of the CX solus chairs in HKG

binman

I was in the lounge earlier today having had breakfast in BAs First class lounge. The food in premium plaza was easily on a par with BAs offer but the added incentive is that it was very quiet. Now in No1 lounge in Edinburgh.the food is simply light years ahead of the BA lounge sandwiches and cheese wedges.

corporate-wage-slave

I've updated the earlier post with more information and details. Here is the brochure used to advertise the lounge:

GGla

In the lounge now, access via amex. Really impressed with this place. Staff are very friendly and helpful. Food is really good, chicken wings, veggie lasagna, meatballs, noodles, rice, curry, sandwiches, deserts, bread (with oil and balsamic). Really impressive selection. Drinks selection at the bar looks excellent too. Great views over the runway. Much better layout than aspire which was queued up.

About 10-15 folk in just now.

benjai

Is the food better than in GC? And hopefully it will remain Priority Pass free....before I discovered the wonders of the T3 CX lounge, the PP lounge was always difficult to get in.

corporate-wage-slave

From a sample of a single breakfast visit, it is - in that you have a full hot breakfast option rather than just porridge and bacon rolls. On the other hand the continental options are greater in number in GC compared to the fairly small counter in PP. Hopefully this comes across in the photos above.

echoch

So, this is very good news that the Amex Plat should get entry. I have been in touch via email with both Priority Pass and the new T5 Plaza Premium Lounge staff as well as with American Express travel benefits and I am fairly confident that I can confirm there is access to the T5D lounge using the American Express Platinum card without having visited there. (I expect to be there Sunday afternoon.)

Here is the answer I got from the lounge staff directly: "Regarding your enquire, we do accept American Express Platinum card. However, what concerns the charges, we strongly suggest you to refer
to the terms and conditions of your bank account, as unfortunately we do not have that kind of information."

That was fairly unclear as to whether the card provides "free" access or if they accept the card for payment of entry fees. So I called American Express to see whether they had any information. I was told with good certainty by the agent I spoke with, who consulted with the travel team, that the Platinum Card would provide access to the the Lounge as a benefit.

I will note that on the Plaza Premium Lounge promotions web page there is this promotion listed...

"Enjoy unlimited Plaza Premium Lounge access with the beloved ones with American Express Elite Credit Card"

I asked the American Express agent whether this referred to a specific American Express "elite" card that I had never heard of, and she said "no, we don't offer an 'elite' card, we offer Platinum and Centurion cards which some may consider elite cards."

So, all in all, I am feeling fairly confident that I will be able to spend a couple of hours at the Plaza Premium Lounge in T5 on the departures side.

I hope others find my obsessive research helpful.

GGla

Ive only ever been to GC once last year (it was just after breakfast but before lunch if thats makes a difference) and found the food offering pretty poor. I'm very impressed with the Plaza Premium offer and id say its a lot better.

Oh, and im currently getting service at my table with the staff bringing drinks refills. Will be interesting to see how it changes if it gets busier.

GGla

It was free, i didn't pay, they took note of my platinum card on a form, asked me which country it was issued in and noted that also. I noted from the form there was cards from USA and Canada (presumably admitted to the lounge).