New Plaza Premium Lounge for Sydney Airport to open early 2020
The original American Express lounge space is being converted to a pay-in Plaza Premium lounge.
By David Flynn, November 6 2019
Sydney Airport will gain its another independent pay-in lounge in early 2020, when the space given over to the former American Express lounge is re-opened as a Plaza Premium facility.
Plaza Premium already manages the adjacent SkyTeam lounge as well as the AMEX lounge, but the move will represent the group's first own-branded paid-entry lounge at Sydney's T1 international terminal.
In a statement issued overnight, the Plaza Premium Group confirmed a "Plaza Premium Lounge will be unveiled in Australia in the first quarter of 2020 at Sydney Airport Terminal."
The old American Express lounge will be remodelled into a new Plaza Premium pay-in lounge.
This will be Australia's third Plaza Premium lounge, with the group already running popular lounges at Melbourne and Brisbane.
However, the relatively low capacity of the old AMEX lounge – which topped out at 60 travellers, often resulting in a waiting list that stretched to 30+ minutes – will make the Sydney lounge one of the smallest in the worldwide Plaza Premium network.
As with its siblings, Sydney's Plaza Premium lounge is also expected to accept Priority Pass cards along with selected American Express cards and some international premium credit cards from China CITIC Bank International, Singapore's Maybank and OCBC, and Hong Kong's Bank of China.
The former AMEX lounge will be one of the smallest in the Plaza Premium network.
While it's too early to know the door fees for Sydney's new Plaza Premium lounge, access to Melbourne's Plaza Premium lounge is charged at $60 per person, with $56 per person at Brisbane – although fees depend on the facilities of each lounge, and it's notable that the original American Express lounge doesn't have its own showers, relying instead on sharing the showers of the adjoining SkyTeam Lounge.
Sydney's Plaza Premium lounge will be competing against The House (formerly the Etihad Airlines lounge), which charges $80 per person when booked online, or $90 as a walk-up rate.
Globally, the Plaza Premium Group has mapped out an US$55 million expansion plan which will see other new lounges opened at Dubai Terminal 3 in December 2019, Dallas/Fort Worth and Denver in 2020, and a 3,000 square-metre 'mega-lounge' complex at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in the first half of 2020.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
22 Jan 2015
Total posts 71
Can't be smaller than the airside Plaza Premium lounge at KLIA2. The SYD lounge pantry is larger than that. Good to see there will be more choice now depending on which end of T1 you're flying out of.
12 Feb 2013
Total posts 47
Will this eventually mean a review of the $36 credit at the food court outlets and the the $20 add on fee accessing The House? Seems a lots of options for Priority Pass card holders departing from T1.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
02 Sep 2018
Total posts 153
Hopefully the crowding won't be too bad in the lounge. All major alliance airlines have their own/partner airline lounges and even the independent ones already have lounge partnerships. AMEX members will go to the AMEX lounge as well leaving international PP holders and overseas Credit Card holders which hopefully won't be too much for the lounge to handle.
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