Plaza Premium is a contract lounge operator that has more than 140 lounges across 35 airports in 16 countries.ย The quality of contract lounges can vary greatly, but Plaza Premium is generally one of the better ones- their new lounge in Hong Kong, for example, wouldn’t look out of place for a top tier airline.
Plaza Premium has partnered with Arrture toย start its own free-to-join loyalty program where you earn points every time you visit a Plaza Premium lounge. Note that although there are 140+ Plaza Premium lounges, not all are currently participating in this loyalty program.ย 37 currently are (including, importantly, the one in Singapore) and you can see the full list here.
The program is still in its infancy, but right now the deal is that you earn 100 points every time you visit a Plaza Premium Lounge, and once you hit 2,000 points you can redeem a free Plaza Premium Lounge coupon. ย As per their website, they plan to offer other redemption options in the future. At the very worst you could gift that coupon to someone else.ย You can’t sign up for Arrture online, unfortunately, as you need to pick up a physical form from a participating Plaza Premium lounge.
Why is this interesting? Because Plaza Premium lounges can be accessed through the Priority Pass program, and a lot of miles earning credit cards in Singapore will offer a handful of free visits a year.
Not too long ago I did an article on credit card lounge access. Here’s a recap of who gives you what.
[table id=7 /]
I think you know where I’m going with this.
If you hold a HSBC Visa Infinite or Citibank Prestige card, you get unlimited visits to Priority Pass lounges. Therefore, even if you already have lounge access elsewhere, it might be worth the 5 minutes dropping by the Plaza Premium lounge in T1 every time you depart SIN just to register a visit (as per the T&C, both paid visits and complimentary visits via your credit card issuer count towards points earning).
I personally don’t think the current reward (20 visits= 1 free visit) is that exciting, but I’m keen to see what additional rewards they add to this program. So I would start building my points balance regardless, if I had a card with unlimited lounge access. Obviously, if your credit card only comes with limited visits per year you might be wiser to save those visits for when you really need them.
I see what Plaza Premium is doing here and it’s really quite clever. They know that credit cards which come with unlimited lounge access tend to be top tier ones, owned by people who probably have lounge access of their own already (through flying premium cabins or airline loyalty programs). Since Plaza Premium earns a fee every time someone Priority Passes their way into the lounge, it would make sense for them to encourage such individuals to start utilizing the visits they would otherwise not bother to make.
Too bad I can’t justify paying the annual fees for either the Citibank Prestigeย or HSBC VI, or I’d be making a lot of trips to Terminal 1…
Priority customers of SCB holding a SCB Priority Visa Infinite would also get unlimited visits a year.
thanks! have updated the table.
You’re welcome. Thanks also for your tip – I’ll try to drop by Plaza Premium just to clock a visit next time I travel.
To add. some airports have more thatn 1 PP lounge, each in one terminal.
but for citi prestige, the free pass after 20 visit, isnt much use but if they start giving other rewards.
Now that would be interesting.
The T1 lounge is actually decent enough especially when quiet. Food is good enough and perfect to hide from the throngs outside!
There is now an option to sign up online. Will be using my unlimited PP at plaza premium lounges from now on!
download the APP to use the E-membership card.
[…] pay a HKD 200 (S$35) top-up fee to access the Plaza Premium First lounge. You can also pay 1,500 Arrture pointsย for access. I went with the Priority Pass option, using the unlimited visits I had thanks to my […]