Business travellers passing through London Heathrow can now book a dedicated escort to walk them through the airport, after Plaza Premium Group launched its ALLWAYS meet and assist service at the UK’s largest hub. The offer covers all Heathrow terminals and is available to passengers arriving, departing or connecting between flights.
The launch matters because Heathrow remains the default gateway for UK companies doing business overseas, and its size is precisely what makes it hard work. A dedicated agent who knows the terminal layout, the queues and the transfer routes turns an anxious 90 minutes between flights into something closer to a managed handover.
How the Heathrow meet and assist service works
ALLWAYS is built around three journey types. Passengers arriving at Heathrow are met at the gate or the shuttle drop-off point and escorted through immigration, baggage reclaim and on to their onward transport. Travellers in transit have an agent handle the terminal change and security clearance between flights. Departing passengers are collected at the kerb and accompanied through check-in, priority security, lounge access and boarding.
Plaza Premium is a familiar name to frequent flyers through its pay-per-use lounges, and the group already runs ALLWAYS at hubs including Hong Kong, Dallas Fort Worth and Orlando; its global portfolio shows how far the brand has spread.
The company has positioned the launch as an answer to shifting passenger expectations, citing ACI World’s 2025 ASQ Global Traveller Survey and its finding that demand for more personalised airport experiences is growing.
“Passengers no longer measure their journey by speed alone and increasingly look for support that feels personal, intuitive and reassuring, not simply transactional,” said Bora Isbulan, deputy chief executive of Plaza Premium Group. “ALLWAYS was developed directly in response to that shift.”
He said the service gives business travellers “a dedicated point of contact to ease tight connections, support schedule certainty, reduce airport stress and help them move efficiently between meetings, flights and ground transport”, and added that Heathrow’s scale as one of the world’s busiest hubs made it the natural next market for the brand.
What it means for UK business travellers
The obvious use case is the connecting passenger with a short window, particularly on itineraries that involve a change of terminal. Heathrow’s inter-terminal transfers can eat into a connection quickly, and a missed onward flight on a client trip has a cost well beyond the rebooking fee. An escort who has already mapped the route and can steer a traveller to the shortest security lane is a practical hedge against that risk.
Arrivals are the other area where the service earns its keep. Heathrow has been working to speed up the landing experience, as our report on fast track arrivals explained, but a first-time visitor, a colleague travelling alone late at night, or a senior guest being brought in for a meeting will still value someone waiting at the gate.
The service is also worth considering for staff who are less experienced flyers, or for those with mobility needs, given the add-ons available. Porter assistance, buggy transfers, fast-track access and entry to a Plaza Premium Lounge can all be booked alongside the core escort.
Pricing and how to book
Plaza Premium has not published a standard tariff in its announcement, but is running a limited-time introductory rate to mark the launch. Members of its Smart Traveller loyalty programme receive a further 5% discount on top of that.
For companies weighing the cost, the comparison is not with a lounge pass but with the value of the time and certainty being bought. Lounge access on its own remains a competitive market at Heathrow, with British Airways planning a major lounge overhaul and independent operators competing for the same premium passengers. ALLWAYS sits above that, as a service that moves the traveller rather than simply somewhere to wait.
Business travellers planning a trip through the airport can find terminal layouts, transfer times and lounge options in our Heathrow airport guide.
