Facing overcrowding that makes the lounge experience unpleasant, Delta Air Lines is tightening the access policy for its network of Sky Club airport lounges.
Delta Air Lines Restricts Sky Club Access – New Time Limits, No Post-Flight Access
If you’ve visited a Delta Sky Club lately, you may have noticed how crowded it has been. With current domestic U.S. travel demand exceeding pre-pandemic levels, Delta lounges are bursting at the seams during high-demand travel periods. In hopes of reducing crowding, Delta is making the following changes to its Sky Club access policy effective June 3, 2022:
- No lounge access more than three hours prior to your scheduled flight
- This does not apply if you are between flights on a connecting itinerary and the layover is longer than three. hours
- If your flight is delayed creating a window of more than three hours, you still have access
- Delta 360 members are exempt
- Departure access only
- No access on arrival
- Delta One (longhaul business class) passengers are exempt
- Delta 360 members are exempt
Limiting access on arrival is particularly harsh and greatly undermines the definition of a club (as did limiting access to only when traveling on a Delta or SkyTeam carrier, which occurred prior to the pandemic).
While the move make sense from a pragmatic perspective, I’m not sure how many people actually arrive that early to use the Sky Club or stay to use it after a flight. A crowded lounge is a miserable lounge and as travel continues to rebound and exceed 2019 levels, crowding will remain major concern.
A large source of traffic in Delta Sky Clubs is American Express Platinum cardholders, but limiting access to AMEX customers would be a tough sell considering Delta’s best customer in the world, by revenue, is American Express. Perhaps Delta should consider restricting guest access or limiting access for its SkyMiles Gold members.
CONCLUSION
With early boarding and new time and place limits on lounge usage, Delta hopes to empty out some of his clubs. While this undermines the concept of membership, it may help some. However, the only way Delta can truly solve the crowding issue will likely be to add more space or raise membership prices even further.
(H/T: Zach Griff)
Good. We all hate freeloaders. Let us cut off the freeloaders.
You consider someone who paid between $545 and $845 per year to be able to shower after a long flight a freeloader?
Anyone who costs more than they pay is a free loader from deltas perspective. What you pay is immaterial.
Or it could be that the value of the club is more than the cost to the patron, so delta can raise prices. In this case you are not a freeloader.
I do not know
Kurt has a valid point. Delta has used a blunt instrument to solve the problem. Perhaps alternative restrictions should have been proposed. But, let there be no doubt, something MUST be done about overcrowding. Given supply vs. demand, the straight-forward solution is to raise the price of admission.
You’re the kind of person that when they go into any restaurant or any place feels obligated to be treated like royalty and you’re probably the person that doesn’t even tip waitresses you’re a narcissistic individual like you are deserve something in life oh cut out The Free Loaders how about cut out the rich pompous assholes who assume that the world revolves around them hence you
Ooh, I bet you’re really going to get your self-righteous panties in a bunch now that Delta has REVERSED THE DECISION to limit on-arrival access.
June 31?
I don’t see this being a problem. I’ve never used a lounge after arrival. Plus if I really had to shower after a flight, I could wait +1 hr to get to my hotel to do just that.
But I do like to see the overcrowding dwindle. ATL SkyClubs are super packed all the time.
Other than arrivals lounges after international flights for a quick breakfast and shower I have never once used a club after arriving. With internet now on virtually every flight and the ability to communicate until landing what in the world or why would anyone want to linger at the airport further in a crappy, dirty, overcrowded domestic club? I just want off the plane and out of the airport and to my hotel. Can’t believe people actually access lounges upon landing at destinations. I hardly imagine that will have much of an impact on crowding at all. I mean, this is not 1990 and pre-cell phone and internet, lol, when you did run to a lounge to make calls quickly.
The only way it will ever be alleviated is to:
1. Limit access to a single person only unless they purchase a partner/spouse membership.
2. No more credit card memberships. You pay a membership. Period. Just like the old days.
3. No more cheap day passes. You buy a full year membership.
In addition, with that, United and American could sell super premium memberships for, say, double the price allowing access to Polaris or Flagship lounges. This would also help move some members to those lounges in the crowded hubs as they are often far less crowded. It would also generate more revenue for clubs.
It’s pretty simple. Airlines are literally just giving away access to these lounges to most anyone. It needs to stop. Make it paid only, develop a paid premium membership for top lounges as well, increase the offerings and service at all lounge levels, and everyone wins.
@Stuart: “ No more credit card memberships. You pay a membership. Period. Just like the old days.” Nice try!!! Airlines sold their souls to credit card companies and you expect them to not allow those who are paying over $500 for a credit card membership to not have access to the lounges? LOL!!! Try again. Now, I don’t think any credit cars allows more than 1 person into the lounge but I can tell you that Delta lounges are a zoo. It looks like everyone has a membership to access their lounges.
I agree, but until they ALL do away with giving away memberships via credit cards the problem will NOT go away. The other option is to raise the price of credit cards that allow lounge access, as $500 is too cheap given the other benefits you get. Have a club option card at $1K annual fee and that will help greatly.
And it’s not just DL lounges. AA is insane these days as well at the clubs. DL probably more so though as everyone and their mother has a Platinum Amex.
Not sure if there is a solution as credit cards basically dictated how the airlines lounges work. If they increase the membership cost they may see people dropping the cards. I think Delta limiting access to lounges is very very bad. Many times I used the lounges in arrival.
A commenter on another blog suggested that Amex may be pushing these access rules in order to reduce how much they’re paying DL for each instance where someone enters a lounge. That certainly makes sense for arriving pax, but not for restricting access to 3h prior to departure, though there’s something to be said about matching Centurion Lounge rules.
Does anyone have insight how these new Sky Club rules apply to Lifetime members who as of 1/14/19 had club access even when not flying Delta and if that carve out still exists.
If Delta has an overcrowding problem, these changes sound like they will be completely marginal. Passengers on arrival or more than 3 hours before a flight are probably well less than 5% of the people in the lounge. Maybe only 1-2%. But the few times that could be valuable (waiting for a scheduled shuttle, arriving after a red-eye flight, maybe you lost your hotel room before a red-eye) it is punitive and may not even correlate to peak lounge times.
Thankfully, I never fly Delta. United is much more convenient and accommodating.
I would recommend a separate Diamond Lounge within the existing lounges. They could offer a premium service to their premium flyers while creating the “how can I get in there mystique”.
Delta has screwed the executive members… after a 3 hr flight it’s nice to stop on arrival for a pit stop… I’d like to see the stats that prove that arrivals are a big issue ….15 mins max…
Bright side my renewal is in July which I guess I won’t renew…
I have paid for my membership for years and have a Delta Sky Miles Amex Platinum card and now have just gotten my American Express Platinum card.
I mentioned this to Delta on my flight just the other day. I travel most Mondays and Fridays sometimes middle of the week 100 – 150 segments per year. Direct from ATL. Told them that I’d not be renewing my membership and will be using the Centurion lounge in ATL once it opens primarily based upon recent changes.
When I do fly through CLT and PHL on AA I’ll be using the Centurion lounge in those locations despite there being a small SkyClub in PHL
I fly AA about 10 – 20 segments per year. The value of paying for the AAdmirals Club is not there for me. Though AA charges $69 for a day pass.
The AAdmirals Club in ATL is hardly worth that. Delta changing the rule regarding access for other airline passengers especially for a Platinum / Diamond medallion passenger that pays for a membership every year was a bad decision.
I often use the Delta SkyClub after arrival while I wait for my ride home from the airport to arrive. I use that time to catch up on the weeks administrative aspects of my work so I don’t have to worry about it during the weekend.
Just another way for the airlines to devalue thier offerings.
A nice rule change would be for Medallion members to be offered unlimited access and those that actually pay for their membership. As most people I see accessing the lounges are Amex Card holders.
If Delta wants to give complimentary access to the lounges to card holders make it just for those that hold The Delta Reserve Amex platinum card. AMEX Platinum Card Holders would come after everyone else.
To tell A Diamond or Platinum Medallion member that pays for thier membership they can not access the club is in my opinion not a good move.
They’ve rescinded the “no access on arrival” rule (the only new regulation I was upset about). Are you going to post a follow-up (or update this one?)