During my recent whirlwind Aeroplan adventure, I had a 1hr40min layover at Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO). This was after I landed from Vienna in Austrian’s A320 business class, and prior to departing to Bahrain in Gulf Air’s A321LR business class.
Continue reading: Review: Plaza Premium Lounge Rome Airport (FCO)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
For a contract lounge, it is quite good, swanky, and has a broad selection of food and great coffee.
Interesting approach to focus on real food instead of cookies, crisps and booze.
Often enough contract lounges have a limited food selection but a decent selection of alcoholic drinks.
While a bottle of wine may only cost 3€, here they sell 4 glasses à 6 Euro - so instead of paying 3€, they make 21€. And with the good food options chances are that i would just pay for the wine pairing.
Those prices for wine are ridiculous when you consider that wine is very cheap in Italy, even in restaurants. I realize that this is at the airport but those prices are inflated, even by airport standards.
@Ben: is this also lounge that Gulf Air uses? Do they even offer a lounge access at FCO?
Agree with your assessment. I spend a lot of time in this lounge and it’s pretty much at the top of my list, followed by the Flagship Lounge at DFW. The prepared food is always excellent, no shortage of staff and the espresso is on par with the best of any high end caffe in Italy. Most US flights arrive and depart in the morning, and even then, it’s a light crowd. As a broker/importer of Italian wine, I find these wines are very reasonably priced. Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino and Amarone are PREMIUM wines, which cost a lot, even in Italy. If you don’t believe, Google it and check out the price. You will not get a glass of these on the Italian economy any cheaper, and often upwards to €18. These are not inexpensive supermarket or restaurant house wines. Also, once a bottle is opened, these wines have a very short countdown until they oxidize and turn, and why they are mostly sold by the bottle in fine restaurants and why they are expensive if even offered by the glass.
This is not the only Plaza Premium lounge charging for all other alcohol than beer. At least in Helsinki the Plaza Premium lounge in non-Schengen area is doing the same.
In my view this is one of the best Priority Pass access lounges I've been to anywhere in the world. Spent a lot of visits here. Shower rooms are perfect as is the f&b offer. Significantly better than the BA lounge next door
Not sure why you always have a weird bias against contract lounges. Typically they're on par with airline lounges, with few exceptions.
It's awesome that this lounge focuses on real food. In the past, I never had an aversion or dislike for packaged junk foods in any situation. But that all changed after I first visited lounges in America and saw it was virtually the only thing on offer. Piles of it! And not even one lousy nutritious crumb in sight....Since then, I've come to despise the very sight of tiny packets of biscuits and crisps wherever I see it. Not just for health reasons, but because it shows how little many lounge operators think of us.
@lucky, as someone a few years older than you I've always wondered how you managed all the food and drink on review trips. I don't wish a slowing metabolism on you, but it does make me feel better to see you recognizing that we can't eat and drink everything on offer.
It makes me sad, but there gym only covers so many sins.
I visited the lounge yesterday (August 21, 2023) and the experience was quite different from Bens when he visited 7 months ago:
- The lounge is now a Priority Pass lounge. It is a contract lounge for multiple airlines as well. It was fairly crowded but there were still empty seats.
- The food is no longer ordered via QR code. There is a buffet (where the example dishes were shown in Ben's review) which contains much less appealing dishes for self-serve: Basic pasta with tomato sauce, sliced chicken, vegetables and rice with vegetables. There are a few deserts for self service in the bar counter too.
- The bar servers refused to make a barista cappuccino even as the machine was right in front of them. Instead I was directed to the much simpler self service machine next to the buffet. I asked two bar men independently with some time gap in between and both refused to make coffee drinks at the bar. (I ended up getting a barista made cappuccino in the PrimaVista lounge that I visited afterwards.)
In summary, the visit was disappointing based on my expectations based on the past review. It is still a good Priority Pass lounge but nothing more.
I would like to add that there is now an airside walkway between terminal 1 and 3, so there is no need to clear security any more.
Am here during breakfast. Good spread of warm food buffet. Nice cappuccino!
Plenty of seats
Just an update , they provide free beer and table wine now.
Quite like the fact that I can pay a reasonable amount to get a better wine ( not available at most lounges)
Hi, I am currently in the lounge.
Bartender now offers complementary red, white and procecco.
Just had a great shower with shaving amenities.
However lack of complementary house spirits is poor