Review: Plaza Premium Lounge (Zone A) at Taipei Taoyuan Airport

Plaza Premium has four lounges at Taipei Taoyuan Airport – two in Terminal 1 and two in Terminal 2. During a more than six-hour layover at the airport during my recent trip to Europe, I had a chance to check out one of the two in Terminal 2 (the other one is currently temporarily closed).

Continue reading this review to see what the Plaza Premium Lounge “Zone A” was like.

Location & Opening Hours

The Zone A Plaza Premium Lounge at Taipei Taoyuan Airport is, like the currently closed Zone A1 lounge, located on the fourth floor of the central part of Terminal 2. The lounge is airside – i.e. you need to have clear security and immigration before accessing it.

Confusingly, while the lounge is named “Zone A,” it is actually located between piers C and D. Conversely, “Zone C” and “Zone D” lounges are located in Terminal 1 which actually consists of piers A and B.

With the fourth floor being one floor above the main departures level, the Zone A lounge can be reached using escalators and an elevator located in the third floor’s duty-free shopping area. The fourth floor is also where the terminal’s food court and other lounges including EVA Air’s four lounges (The Garden, The Star, The Infinity, and The Club) and the Oriental Club Lounge can be found.

Unlike the Zone D Plaza Premium Lounge which is open non-stop, the Zone A one is only open from 5AM until 11PM each day.

Entry Requirements

All of the Plaza Premium Lounges at Taipei Taoyuan Airport including the Zone A one belong to the Priority Pass network. That is the easiest way to get into the lounge for up to two hours and that is how I entered it before taking my flight to Vienna.

The Plaza Premium Lounges in Taipei can also be entered using DragonPass and they belong to the American Express Global Lounge Collection. Additionally, some airlines might invite their business and first class passengers and frequent flyer status holders into the lounge.

Some services such as shower use and private sleeping rooms come at an additional cost.

In case you cannot access the lounge for free, you can also pay to enter the lounge regardless of the airline and class you are flying. The entry fee starts at 1,500 TWD (approx. 50 USD) for two hours.

Lounge Tour

Across from the reception of the Plaza Premium Zone A Lounge and, in a way, outside the lounge itself, was a large communal table with about a dozen seats.

There were also a couple of small round tables for two and a coffee table with a couple of chairs and small sofas facing a TV. The TV, like another one inside the lounge, was showing a sports channel.

Going past the reception was the lounge’s dining area. On the left side was the buffet area, on the right side was a live cooking station and a hot drinks station, and in the middle was some seating. I will get back to the food and drinks selection in the next section of this review.

As for the seating in the dining area, there were mostly tables for two – some with two chairs and others placed along a bench. Additionally, there was a communal table seating eight and a couple of booths for four. Above the booths was a pair of TVs.

Behind the dining area were two hallways dividing the rest of the lounge into three sections running parallel to each other toward the back of the lounge.

In the middle was a seating area in a typical set up with rows of sofa chairs. Pairs of rows were facing each other and between each pair of chairs was a console table. The console table housed power outlets too. While there were no partitions separating the rows, at least the wooden partitions separating the area from the hallways provided some sense of privacy.

On the other side of the left-side hallway was a row of four “VIP rooms,” each seating about eight to ten people and each equipped with slightly different furniture.

While some of the “rooms” appeared to be available to all of the lounge visitors at an extra charge, others seemed reserved for specific groups of people.

At the end of this hallway was also a meeting room that was available for use at an extra charge.

The hallway running along the right side of the lounge was lined with a few fully-enclosed sleeping rooms. While costing extra, those were a great option for people with longer layovers wanting to get some proper rest. On the day of my visit, all of the rooms were booked.

At the end of this hallway were the lounge’s restrooms and shower rooms.

Food and Drinks

Cold soft drinks in the Plaza Premium Lounge (Zone A) at Taipei Taoyuan Airport could be found in the buffet area and included:

• Canned soda (Coke, Coke-Zero, Sprite, and HeySong Sarsaparilla)
• Small boxes of iced coffee and various teas
• Dispensers with grape juice and cucumber-infused water

Hot drinks, on the other hand, were on a counter at the live cooking station and included a selection of coffee drinks from an espresso machine and half a dozen different kinds of tea bags.

Alcoholic drinks included Taiwan Beer on tap and bottles of red and white wine.

There was no liquor in the Zone A Plaza Premium Lounge.

At the live cooking station, four items including one dessert were available:

• Pork noodles soup
• Vegetarian noodles with bean curd
• Smokey chicken mini burger
• Tofu pudding with peanuts

The buffet offered a good range of self-serve options too.

Lighter items included some cheese, a good selection of salads, and some bread with butter and jam.

Then there were two soups – pumpkin cream soup and miso soup.

The selection of hot main dishes was good too with items like fried fish with curry, chicken with basil, fried rice, spaghetti, and meatballs.

There was also a side of steamed vegetables.

Lastly, there were also some snacks and desserts in the form of cheesecake, whole apples, cookies, and crackers.

Plaza Premium (Zone A) Taipei Taoyuan Summary

While I didn’t stay in the lounge for too long as my wife and daughter were waiting for me in EVA Air’s The Star Lounge, the Plaza Premium Lounge (Zone A) looked like a nice place to spend a layover in.

There were some decent seating options (although I would have appreciated some workstations), tasty-looking food (although the selection wasn’t as good as that in the Oriental Club Lounge), and a good enough selection of drinks (although there was no liquor).

The one downside of the lounge was that access to showers came at an extra fee.