King Abdulaziz International Airport, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Neil Scrivener reviews the Plaza Premium Lounge in King Abdulaziz International Airport, accessed by American Express.

Introduction

This is my review of the Plaza Premium Lounge in King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The lounge is one of two available in Terminal 1 of Jeddah Airport (the other being the Wellcome Lounge), if you have an American Express.

Visited

January 2025 at 01:00

Entry Conditions

My understanding is that access can be granted by:

• Having Plaza Premium membership
• Having an American Express Platinum Card
• Paying on the door, around $75USD

There may be other methods of entry too, such as Dragon Pass, etc.

Opening Times

The lounge is open 24hrs daily.

How to Get There

Head towards Gate 39, and you will see the lounge clearly signposted.

You’ll go down a corridor and when you reach the desk you can either go left or right into a lounge.

Layout

In effect the lounge is split in two – but both are identical in layout and food. I think this is from the days of segregation in Saudi, which no longer happens in eating places.

Whether you pick the left or the right lounge they are a mirror image of eachother – so it doesn’t really matter which you pick, and you can walk freely between the two.

The lounge mostly has sofa and casual seating.

The lounge also has some (small) dining areas and desks for working.

Food and Drink

Drinks

Saudi Arabia is of course a Muslim country, and in their airline lounges there is no alcohol.

Across the lounge are various fridges with soft drinks, water and coffee stations.

Food

The food in the lounge was all self-service. Mostly, the food on offer was curries, soup, some salad items and usual Priority Pass food. Potentially, this lounge has the edge over the Wellcome Lounge on food.

Curiously, it has a very nice bread basket on display…..which is not for consumption!

Wifi

The Wifi in the lounge I found to be reliable and OK. I needed to do some banking and other work, and had no issues at all with the Wifi which was good!

Showers

There are no showers in this lounge!

Conclusion

This is lounge is the bigger of the two lounges available in International Departures – the bigger one being the Wellcome Lounge. Whilst this lounge is much smaller than the Wellcome lounge, the food is possibly marginally better.

Like the Wellcome Lounge this is an OK lounge to wait for a flight – but certainly not worth getting there early for!