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THE ALVIATOR'S VERDICT
There are a few interesting food options at this pretty lounge, but it's flipping crowded |
3.5
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After flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on KLM, I had four hours to spend at Kuala Lumpur International Airport before my 7:40 PM flight to Kuala Lumpur. Both my departing and arriving flight left KLIA’s Terminal 1, and immigration was an absolute mess. This meant that I was pretty much limited to the confines of the terminal. As a result, I decided to visit the Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur, which I had access to with my Priority Pass membership.
The Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur is a pretty little lounge with access to a wide variety of passengers, and as a result it can be frequently overcrowded, especially during peak season. Unfortunately, I found this to be the case during my visit this time.
Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur Access and Opening Hours
The Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur is accessible to China Airlines, Saudia, Garuda Indonesia, Xiamen Air, and and most Star Alliance passengers flying first and/or business class, along with a few other airlines that use this lounge as their contract lounge.
The lounge is also open to Priority Pass members. I have the Amex Gold Card, which gives four free Priority Pass lounge passes a year; I had used up these four, so each subsequent lounge visit would cost me £24.
The lounge is open around the clock.
Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur Location and Entrance
After taking the bus over from KLIA Terminal 1’s satellite concourse, I made my way upstairs to the departures hall. Since KLIA has security at each individual gate, I didn’t have to clear security at this time, and simply had to make my way upstairs on an escalator. I stopped by a transfer desk to get my boarding pass printed (just in case), with no issues.
The Plaza Premium lounge at Kuala Lumpur is located just by where immigration lets out, at the main concourse.
Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur Location
I was admitted with my Priority Pass card, and reminded of a maximum 3 hour stay. I was then pointed into the lounge.
Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur Seating and Atmosphere
The Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur is a small, partitioned, and nicely decorated room, outfitted in their signature gold-plated and earthy colours. Since it was Lunar New Year’s Day, the room was also decorated with cherry blossoms.
Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur
Immediately by the entrance was a seating area with traditional lounge-style seating, with side tables. There was an area further in with armchairs facing each other, though I wasn’t able to get a great picture due to how crowded it was.
Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur Seating
The rest of the lounge featured more restaurant-style seating, with a range of circular and square tables, as well as booths.
Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur Seating
Then further into the lounge was a larger variety of both types of seating.
Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur Seating
I tried my best to capture the least busy times of the lounge in the above photos, though the lounge was fairly busy with few empty seats when I first went in, and only became more crowded as evening approached.
The lounge did feature WiFi, which was free and usable.
Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur Food and Beverage
The food spread sprawled along the lounge’s entryway and corridor, which connected the partitioned areas within the lounge.
To Plaza Premium’s credit, their lounge in Kuala Lumpur does have a very solid food selection. There were various Chinese/Malaysian dishes, such as e-fu noodles, double-boiled snow fungus soup, supreme seafood soup, and more.
Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur Food Spread
There was also a fridge with fruit and some sweet treats.
Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur Food Spread
There was a broken soda machine, some tea and juice, and a water dispenser.
Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur Food Spread
Perhaps the highlight of the lounge’s food selection was the noodle bar, which had two options – a vegetarian oat noodle soup, and a curry laksa. The curry laksa that I had was flavourful and very good.
Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur Curry Laksa
There was also a bar counter, though Priority Pass members could only have their house wine, beer, and soft drinks for free. In this case I elected to pass.
Plaza Premium Kuala Lumpur Bar
I did think that their food selection was quite strong, though the beverage selection as a Priority Pass member is quite lacking. That’s still above par for most contract lounges, however.
Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur Other Facilities
In terms of other facilities, the lounge has showers and private rooms. Neither are free, though – I only inquired about the shower, which cost a staggering £28 to use – no thanks.
Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur Signage
There was also a separate room for premium DBS cardholders, though I didn’t have access to that.
Conclusion: Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur
The Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur is nicely designed, and features a good food selection. It’s the norm for Priority Pass members to have to pay to use showers (which makes sense, or else queueing for a shower would take forever), though I felt like pricing was on the steep end.
Perhaps I just showed up on a bad day – unless I was hungry, I can’t see this place being a better place to spend time compared to the terminal. The lounge is simply too crowded to be comfortable for me.
Your experience almost mirrored mine when I visited the lounge at around midday in mid June (not yet school holidays) last year – except that it was even more crowded when I went! I literally poured myself a glass of water, drank it standing up, then promptly left…
It makes me wonder if we both managed to visit on a bad day, or whether it suffers from overcrowding on most days…