Review: Plaza Premium First Lounge Hong Kong

By: Ben Schlappig

Updated: October 5, 2025
Published: December 12, 2019

27 comments

Plaza Premium First Lounge Hong Kong Review

Plaza Premium operates lounges around the world, though last year they decided to do something rather innovative in Hong Kong.

They opened the Plaza Premium First Lounge, which is essentially intended to be a significantly more premium version of their existing lounges. It’s an interesting concept for Plaza Premium to embrace, given that they’ve historically been so consistent in their product offering.

I’d note that they also have a Plaza Premium First Lounge in Kuala Lumpur, though it’s my understanding that it’s not nearly as nice.

I didn’t know what exactly to expect from this lounge, though I was pleasantly surprised.

Plaza Premium First Lounge Location

The Plaza Premium First Lounge is located in Terminal 1 at HKIA, on Level 6 near Gate 1. Once you clear security and immigration, just take the escalator down a level and turn left, and you should see the entrance to the Plaza Premium First Lounge.

Plaza Premium First Lounge Hong Kong exterior

Nearby there’s a “standard” Plaza Premium Lounge as well, and this isn’t where you want to go if you’re looking for the Plaza Premium First Lounge. If you’re facing that lounge, turn left and walk about 100 feet, and you’ll see the entrance to the Plaza Premium First Lounge.

Plaza Premium Lounge Hong Kong exterior

Plaza Premium First Lounge Hours

The Plaza Premium First Lounge Hong Kong is open 24/7, making it one of the only lounges at HKIA that is open all night.

Plaza Premium First Lounge Access Requirements

The Plaza Premium First Lounge is accessible to those with a Priority Pass™ membership or with the American Express Platinum Card® (review) or The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (review). (Enrollment required)

Note that either way there’s a 250 HKD (~32 USD) co-pay per person to use the lounge, and each visit can be for up to three hours.

If you’re a member of Plaza Premium’s Smart Traveller loyalty program, you can also redeem 4,000 points for a free visit here, or can redeem 1,500 points to “upgrade” from a standard Plaza Premium Lounge to this one.

When I first found out that Plaza Premium was introducing lounges with co-pays I was really skeptical, though after my visit I have very different feelings.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that some airlines use this for their premium passengers.

For example, Finnair and Qatar Airways use this lounge for their business class passengers. That’s interesting, given the number of oneworld lounges at the airport, and it also shows a significant investment on their part (because presumably they’re paying a premium for this).

Beyond that, Lufthansa and SWISS also use this lounge for their first class passengers and HON Circle members, while Virgin Atlantic uses the lounge for their Upper Class passengers.

Plaza Premium First Lounge Layout & Seating

The Plaza Premium First Lounge is elegant, a significant step up over other Plaza Premium locations, in my opinion. The lounge is about 815 square meters, so just under 9,000 square feet, and can accommodate up to 250 guests.

For one, when I entered the lounge one of the hosts gave me a tour, which they seem to do with every guest who enters.

The bar area is right inside the entrance to the lounge, and is pretty. The lounge seems to have quite a few partnership/sponsorship agreements, as you’ll see based on the amount of branding throughout the lounge.

Plaza Premium First Lounge bar

There’s plenty of seating around the bar, including high-top seating, dining tables with chairs, benches, and more.

Plaza Premium First Lounge seating

Plaza Premium First Lounge Hong Kong seating

Past that is the main part of the lounge, which has more traditional lounge seating, with rows of seats facing one another.

Plaza Premium First Lounge seating

Plaza Premium First Lounge Hong Kong seating

There are also some cozy couches.

Plaza Premium First Lounge Hong Kong seating

In the back left corner of the lounge was a long “U” shaped booth, and there’s even a small nap area there with some “curved” daybeds. One of them was occupied, so I didn’t want to take a picture, but personally I wouldn’t want to sleep there for an extended period of time.

Plaza Premium First Lounge Hong Kong seating

Then in the back right of the lounge was the dining area, which had both a menu and buffet.

Plaza Premium First Lounge Hong Kong restaurant

All around I thought the lounge was beautiful. Two other notes:

The lounge does lack natural light, which is a downside, but I’m guessing this was the only space they could make work
The lounge was really empty; I was here for about three hours, and at no point were there more than a dozen people (and most of the time significantly fewer people than that)

Plaza Premium First Lounge Restaurant Dining

The Plaza Premium First Lounge has a 24/7 restaurant, called “Primo.” This includes both a buffet and an a la carte dining option. I had a meal at around 6AM. There’s a host in the restaurant area who seats you when you arrive.

The breakfast buffet that was set up was reasonably good.

Plaza Premium First Lounge buffet

Again, there’s quite a bit of branding in the lounge. 😉

Plaza Premium First Lounge buffet

The dining area also has a drink station, so while you can serve yourself, the servers will also get you drinks. For any water enthusiasts, they have San Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, which is quite premium as far as water goes.

Plaza Premium First Lounge drink station

A moment after having a seat a server asked what I wanted to drink. I was happy to hear they had iced coffee, so I ordered that.

Plaza Premium First Lounge iced coffee

They have the same menu in the lounge all day, including both breakfast and daytime options. The menu read as follows (guests can select one dish):

It might sound crazy, but my body clock was way off, so I decided to order a burger. Yep, this was my first time ever having an iced coffee and a burger together.

Why did I order the burger? Because I was intrigued by it — it’s a “beyond meat burger” with sweet potato fries, so it’s actually vegetarian. I’m not usually a burger guy, but it was really good.

Plaza Premium First Lounge Bar

There are some things that make the Plaza Premium First Lounge bar interesting.

For one, I was delighted to see that they had barista made drinks, and the Lavazza cappuccino I had was exceptional.

Plaza Premium First Lounge espresso machine

Plaza Premium First Lounge cappuccino

The bar had a long list of complimentary drinks. Here are their signature cocktails:

And here’s the rest of the complimentary drink list:

The bar also had some tasty-looking desserts in a display case, served by the bartender.

Plaza Premium First Lounge desserts

Beyond that, there was a selection of alcohol available for purchase, including whisky flights, premium wine, and more.

Plaza Premium First Lounge liquor

Here’s part of that menu:

Plaza Premium First Lounge Showers

The Plaza Premium First Lounge has showers, located just inside the entrance to the lounge and to the right.

Plaza Premium First Lounge showers

I made an appointment for a shower around 6:30AM. The shower rooms are really great — they’re spacious and feel high-end.

Plaza Premium First Lounge shower room

Toiletries were from Elemis, and were in reusable containers.

Plaza Premium First Lounge shower room

On top of that there were several amenities available on demand.

Plaza Premium First Lounge shower room

Plaza Premium First Lounge Massage

The Plaza Premium Lounge offers complimentary 10 minute pressure point massages. This service is available starting at 7AM daily, so I made an appointment for 7:15AM (which was the first available appointment).

Plaza Premium First Lounge massage

There’s a separate massage room that has two massage chairs, though only one person was working when I had my treatment. The massage was no frills but excellent — I had the you-know-what beat out of my back for 10 minutes, and that’s exactly what I needed.

My one feedback here is that the masseuses use a stopwatch, and at the end of the 10 minute massage it beeps really loudly. You’d think they could try to create a bit more of a soothing ambiance and not have that happen, by just keeping an eye on a clock or timer.

Plaza Premium First Lounge massage

I Love This Lounge, But Don’t Get The Economics

When the concept for this lounge was introduced I was skeptical. I figured it was a slippery slope, and if they started charging co-pays for Priority Pass lounge visits, just how far will it go? Could we start to see co-pays for regular lounges?

After visiting this lounge I take that back. This lounge is so much better than any other Plaza Premium or contract lounge I’ve been to. It’s in a completely different league, and is on par with some international first class lounges.

Between the nice decor, a la carte dining, massages, and overall quiet ambiance, I absolutely love this lounge.

That being said, I really don’t get the economics?

I would estimate that the co-pay slightly more than doubles the revenue that Plaza Premium gets per visitor:

I suspect they’re paid 25 USD or so (give or take) per visit through Priority Pass, Amex, etc.)
Then the 250 HKD co-pay slightly more than doubles that

They’d need to have nearly half as many guests in the same space, give or take, to make this worthwhile. That’s purely accounting for the real estate, and not accounting for the difference associated with guests otherwise (food, drinks, staffing, etc. — I’m not sure how all of that works, given all the branding in the lounge).

Part of what made this lounge so incredible was how quiet it was. Maybe I was just there over a non-peak period, but every review I’ve read of this lounge suggests it’s consistently empty.

They must be losing significant amounts of money with this concept, as much as I love it? Were they expecting more people to be willing to pay the premium, or what am I missing when it comes to the economics of it?

It’s one thing if this lounge was just a couple of months old, but it has been around for about 18 months now.

Plaza Premium First Lounge Bottom Line

The Plaza Premium First Lounge is phenomenal, in a league of its own when it comes to contract/third party lounges.

In general I think “upgrading” to this lounge experience could be well worth it, given how much better this is than most other lounges.

That being said, in my particular situation I’d have a hard time justifying visiting again. Why? Because I get access to Cathay Pacific’s spectacular first class lounges in Hong Kong thanks to my oneworld Emerald status whenever I’m flying a oneworld airline.

If that weren’t the case, I’d visit again in a heartbeat, though.

What do you make of the Plaza Premium First concept?

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