A year ago Delta Air Lines announced severe changes to its SkyMiles elite program and for access to its Sky Clubs.
- They were increasing the spending requirement for top status from $20,000 to $35,000
- Credit card spend would count – it would take $350,000 spent on their $550 annual fee credit card to earn that status, or $700,000 in spend per year on their mid-tier card.
- And club visits using the premium credit card would be capped at 10 per year (American Express Platinum cardmembers would get just six.
Delta Sky Club LAX
Delta Sky Club LAX
Delta wasn’t offering any more benefits than before, just asking more of customers. Their message to customers: stop being poor.
The blowback was severe and both Delta and American Express clearly got scared. They were trying to get customers to spend hard on their co-brands because while the American Express relationship is successful, it is stagnating. They failed to hit their $7 billion relationship revenue goal for 2023 – and that was a goal set before 20% inflation hit over the course of the pandemic. They thought they’d be much farther along.
So Delta significantly moderated the changes to elite status earning and club lounge access. They even threw in generous improvements to lifetime status. But we’ve known that they still had the same goals as before, and that airline CEO Ed Bastian said it was a mistake to go all the way with the changes, all at once – not that they believed the changes themselves were a mistake.
Indeed, they’ve said they actually want to go even further in the long-term.
So it shouldn’t surprise that Sky Club employees are talking about the full changes to lounge access coming back.
The credit card visit caps will revert to the originally announced ones last September, undoing the “backtrack” in October
The visit cap will not apply to Diamond or 360, assuming they have legit access
The 3 hour before flight rule will no longer apply to Delta One or Diamonds
Delta Sky Club Austin
The credit card limits are harsh. Amex Reserve cards would see a reduction from 15 to 10 visits per year while Platinum cards would drop from 10 to 6. Many cardholders would fine their products no longer worth it, reducing fees and spend.
However it’s interesting that in this version Delta makes efforts to preserve the business of their most frequent and lucrative customers. So they’re only sticking it to semi-regular loyalists.
This remains a rumor, and the rolled back cap doesn’t even go into effect until 2025, so this presumably wouldn’t happen until 2026 if announced.
(HT: Enilria)
Maybe it’s time to just unbundle lounge access from credit cards or elite status. Sell a yearly membership or day passes.
At the same time, Sky Clubs in theory should be less crowded with Delta One lounges opening up. Right? Maybe not. It’s like highways. Adding lanes doesn’t reduce traffic. So in Delta’s case, adding or expanding lounges doesn’t reduce occupancy. The only way you can eliminate congestion is to reduce access. It’s painful but a unfortunate reality.
One more thing. If Delta would offer meals on more flights — even if you had to pre-order or pay a nominal fee in economy for a meal — I think the lounges would be less crowded.
Only a fool is still remaining loyal and chasing status.
how about the tsa precheck? did you see the line got much longer? whatever way the lounge access changes, it wouldn’t be any different. Simply speaking there are way too many fliers
Why is Delta trying to follow Marriott’s lead? I guess Skypeso will become a verb too, like Bonvoy.
The source of the rumor is a single SkyClub agent at an unnamed location. Would take this with a grain of salt for the time being.
Rumor, yes DWT, but you’d have to be incredibly naïve to think Fast Eddie won’t be moving the goalposts once again.
Sorry for my poverty, or maybe not haha.Those are exorbitant spending values.
I wonder who is spending $700,000 on a midtier card that doesn’t just upgrade to the top tier one.
This seems hard to believe after leaving hundreds of thousands of customers stranded all over the world , while their CEO enjoyed the Olympics. Plus a maintenance person died a few weeks back and just yesterday a jet which could have been worse. Delta is losing is premium reputation , this would only throw salt into a deep wound
Now that many more Centurion Lounges are on-board…why not simply give no (or paid) Sky Club access to Amex Plats in those airports and no (or paid) Centurion access to Delta Reserves?
JFK, ATL, MIA, etc. – The lounge for Plats is the Centurion; Sky Club $50.00
The lounge for Reserves is the Sky Club; Centurion $50.00
BNA, ORD, DTW, MSP, etc. – The Reserve and Plats get admission based on the visit cap(s).
IMO, that would help in those major airports. Especially since Delta has multiple Sky Clubs in their other non-Centurion locations (MSP, DTW)
Suprised that ol Timmy isn’t already in the comments explaining how these lounge access restrictions are a premium decision.
Ed is so confident in the changes that he has agreed to be paid 3.5 billion SkyMiles and forgo his $35M USD cash compensation package…
At this point it would make more sense for me just to pay the yearly fee for SkyClub as I will not be able to spend enough to keep status. Very disappointing Delta. I feel like in general, there service is a little better but not that much.
I am thankful Ed Bastian tipped his cards with the “sorry, not sorry” backtrack last year. It made it an easy decision. I completely stopped flying delta, let my status expire and dropped both credit cards (where I spent too much money in chasing status) and am constantly questioning why I need to keep my Amex Platinum.
A premium airline deserves nothing less than premium customers!
@ Gary — So, basically Delta was lying. Shocking. They got people to sign up for credit cards all while lying to them about lounge access. Sounds like a class action lawsuit to me.
What precisely does this mean: “The visit cap will not apply to Diamond or 360, assuming they have legit access”?
I know this’ll go over like a lead balloon with this site’s population skewed toward road warriors but I honestly don’t really care about this. I seem to recall reading elsewhere that the top decile of most active lounge visitors account for over half of cardholder visits to SkyClubs/Centurions. Meaning that a relatively small population costs Amex/Delta more than the remaining 90% of cardholders assuming a steady per visit cost. If you want to visit more, just pony up each time. This’ll honestly be great for folks who travel every month or every other month with a better experience.
As one who worked for DL about 20 years in another life, I really feel sorry for the DL employees who are the gatekeepers for access to the lounges. They are having to continually explain to customers why they are now being denied access, when their financial guru’s continually change the goalposts.
since today is fact check day, it’s time to do that for these comments
1. DWT is right. This is at best a rumor from (a) frontline employee that will not have advance access to policy changes
2. Gary is right that further changes are likely; DL never said they would not make further changes but that they would roll back the severity of changes at that time.
3. jeff t is wrong on all counts – 1. Bastian left after the IT systems were running again in contrast to Scott Kirby that left Teterboro on a private jet while UA’s operation at EWR was in full meltdown mode in 2023 and their operation was not stabilized for over a week. 2. of course, DL’s accident could have been worse and probably was not as bad as it could have been because the DL pilots stopped instead of pilots at AA and UA who each failed to report a serious pilot error incident until the black boxes were overwritten 3. Premium is defined in any industry based on what customers are willing to pay for a product; DL still handedly leads ALL US airlines in getting more revenue per seat mile for its services.
If you want to weaponize an industrial accident death, then you truly are a pathetic person.
DL at some point will be pulling up the qualification requirements because the 3 people that exclaimed on here that they were cancelling their Amex cards didn’t make a difference. If anything, DL has even more data to validate its move was right.
Amex cardholders have higher incomes which makes it unlikely that AA or UA can ever fully duplicate the benefits that DL gets from Amex.
DL carries more business travel than AA or UA and thus gets the benefit of having business travelers carrying Amex cards to get the benefits their companies pay for.
It is all supply and demand. DL can charge more because they get the revenue. UA is trying desperately to copy DL’s strategies but are far short of their plans because of Boeing’s issues – which won’t be fixed anytime soon. UA is #4 out of the big 4 in domestic passengers.
AA simply does not and will not deliver a product that will win over more business passengers.
AA and UA will still copy DL’s policies to tighten elite qualification requirements.
Not only DL but airlines used to maintain lounges as a benefit to their top flyers and mid to higher level elites flying International, which would have been mostly business travelers. Then came the idea let’s open our lounges to infrequent FFs (or much lower levels of traveling) by our co-branded credit cards. Offer Mr and Mrs Jones going to Cancun free Applebees type food and cheap booze and they’d think their prayers have been answered. The result? Well expected as expected, lounges begin to look like Refugee camps. Dirty bathrooms, the food serving areas in disarray, people getting loaded and yelling into their cell phones to the Kettles back home, people camping out like they’re in a hotel room. No comes the pushback.
Of course, Tim has never been in a SkyClub.
The one thing about supply and demand is it is supposed to have free entry and exit from the market. When the government allowed all these mergers they created an oligolpoly of airlines and now we have the socialist type result. If you are the privledged few you still maintain a sembalence of service while the rest are horded like cattle. 10 years as a Diamond, platinum for life means nothing now. This is what happens when you don’t have real competition, quality of service goes to hell. It has nothing to do with the credit cards the problems arose with lack of competition. I stayed loyal to Delta because of the recognition of loyalty in both short and long term benefits. Unfortunately loyalists are being thrown out for short term goals.
well, Gene, of course I have been in multiple airlines’ lounges
and George is correct.
Premium travel experiences was one of the enduring themes that has come out of the post-covid era. Airlines were quick to sell the upsides including lounge access.
Now, the true high value road warriors – of which DL carries more than other airline – are pushing back against a degraded experience.
Airlines can’t build a whole lot more lounges; airports just don’t have the space.
Pulling up the qualifications will happen for any airline that offers sought after premium services.
meanwhile, WN, B6, NK and F9 which they could get just a fraction of the revenue that DL pulls in for premium services including lounges
Tim is the proud owner of the only pair of Delta branded knee pads in the world
1st comment is from FNT Delta Diamond.
“Adding lanes doesn’t reduce traffic. So in Delta’s case, adding or expanding lounges doesn’t reduce occupancy. ”
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, Communist propaganda from those who want to ban cars and only allow buses and subways, except for the Communist party leaders who get limos.
Adding lanes does reduce traffic. See how traffic gets much worse when only one lane is blocked.
The truth of the matter is that an extra lane does reduce traffic but that the growth of traffic is so steady that the capacity of the extra lane is soon reached. If that lane was not built, traffic would be even worse.
Tim
How do those multiple airline lounges you’ve been in compare with your mother’s basement?
@Derek: Invoking communists? Godwin’s law! It’s scientifically proven that widening a highway through the addition of lanes does NOT reduce traffic congestion. The same appears true for Delta Sky Club lounges. Make lounges bigger and they’re still overcrowded because far too many people have access.
These comments all boil down to the same idea. Only wealthy should access to these lounges. The rest of us can pound sand. So the next pandemic or other national emergency comes up, I’ll remember this point when the airline ask for a bail out.Guess what my answer will be
@ Tim — The “experience” was degraded more than a decade ago. Nothing DL does will change that. “True high value road warriors” (whatever the H that is) fly truly desirable international carriers like EK, EY, SQ, NH, JL and QR, not crappy DL 767-300s. There is NOTHING “premium” about Delta or any other US airline.
Gene,
again, the definition of “premium” is what consumers are willing to pay for it.
If you want to change that reality, then posting incessantly on this site isn’t going to change anything.
You need to deal w/ the corporate travel accounts where DL is getting so much business.
It is no surprise that so many people want to mock me when I repeatedly remind them of facts that they simply cannot counter. Delta generates more revenue per seat mile than any other US airline and more revenue than any other airline in the world.
Delta not having rollover on MQDs has already caused me to stop using my Reserve Card AMEX for the rest of the year. I hit Platinum in June and know there is no way I’ll hit Diamond. Why should I waste spend on that card when it won’t count next year and I have other cards.with rewards for other companies. Delta and AMEX have lost out on a lot of revenue.
@ Tim — No wonder at all. Talking to you is like talking to the idiot with the small crowd sizes.
As I’ve said, add meals to flights over 90 minutes. Make it a pre-select option. Or for a nominal fee. That will decrease the crowds in the Sky Club. Likewise, increase pre-packaged salads and wraps, encouraging grab-and-go.
Gene
you refuse to understand that Delta is running a business. businesses act rationally – not emotionally
If DL’s strategies quit working, they will act.
Diamond,
I doubt food is the only reason why people go to the SkyClub or even the major reason.
“Delta generates more revenue per seat mile than any other US airline and more revenue than any other airline in the world.”
It’s funny you think that has to do with product when Delta even tells Wall Street that it’s due to monopoly hubs. “High local share. Low Costs. Local hub premium” I believe is how they talk about it specifically referring to ATL/DTW/MSP/SLC on that slide. Also has to do their ability to generate a higher fare due to frequency in hubs like NYC where Delta commands the LGA/JFK frequency premium vs their primary competitors at those airports. But that isn’t product premium. It’s convenience premium which, I doubt, many would argue with about Delta.
If it was purely about Clubs, Delta would be in Chapter 11 about 10 years ago since they have had such an inferior premium club product relative to AA and UA for years now.
Sure, they have a better spread at their Sky Clubs for the Amex cardholders, but the secret is out with their own clients that Delta barely even lets them into the club.
It would be helpful if you knew something about your own airline, Tim. And what they tell their investors.
So my unlimited access with my $70k spend on my reserve card/platinum status is in jeopardy according to this rumor? Just a little unclear
And Tim,
you’ll probably try to come back with your usual nonsense about “Delta generates… ” blah blah blah without a J-Club and yet here they are investing in J Clubs 10 years later to catch up to AA and UA.
No one expects you to know much about economics, but Delta responding with more cost in new clubs to AA and UA clearly demonstrates they think they have to
Delta has data you don’t and can separate your usual ignorance about “fare premium” from frequency and see what they should be making vs AA and UA at their competitive hubs vs what they are… also shows why their monopoly hubs aren’t getting Delta One clubs — It isn’t about anything other than seeing that AA and UA are doing better with their product in competitive hubs absent frequency advantage and realizing their monopoly hubs don’t need it to compete (same reason CLT doesn’t have a flagship lounge btw)
@ Tim — So am I, and Delta isn’t good for my business. I know it is difficult for you to understand that giving customers less for a higher price isn’t good for business. There are two sides to the equation. I don’t mind paying more, but I expect more when I pay more. Comprende?
@Tim Dunn,, Ed, is that you
Feel free to CUT AND PASTE from a Delta document that uses the word “monopoly.” You can’t because they don’t say it.
In fact, Delta has succeeded in building FOUR coastal hubs in highly competitive markets and doing so largely at AA’s expense.
You do realize that AA schedules more flights out of four largest hubs than DL? And if you think that CLT, DFW, DCA or MIA are competitive, you are the one that is ignorant of economics – and the airline industry.
Gene,
you are free to make your own decision. I have never said otherwise.
I am free to tell you that no company caters to you. NONE.
They are in it for themselves. Just as are you.
And accept that there are plenty of people that find the economics of flying with Delta worthwhile for them.
“ Feel free to CUT AND PASTE from a Delta document that uses the word “monopoly.” You can’t because they don’t say it.”
Are you stupid?
Of course they don’t use that term but they say to investors everything but that word
You’d have to be entirely ignorant to not know that. Delta does. That’s for sure
And per the four largest hubs
This might be the first time you’ve ignored gauge of hubs ever
And also conveniently ignore that all of AA’s nearby hubs have competing airports. Even clt
But nice try trying to spin your usual nonsense into a fake narrative
No surprise
Do better, tim
Stop being purposely stupid
And btw
All of AA’s four largest hubs have competing airports nearby
None of Delta’s four largest do. Something delta spends a lot of money funneling to fake “citizen groups” to ensure
Maybe that’s where you picked up your ability to so easily lie? Just like delta making up fake citizen groups to keep new airports away from their hubs
Some other mathesisesss is really standing out at me.
If Delta and Amex need ** $7 billion ** in transactions…. do y’all realize HOW much in merchant fees that is?
Lets say the average merchant fee for running a GENERIC Amex is 3% (merchants have to pay a percentage of the total to the credit card processor/issuer). That alone is $210 MILLION.
AMEX then nails the business with an affinity fee later, typically 1 to 4% on TOP of the already high merchant fee (my business is 2.9%). So lets go with 2.5% for Delta branded cards: that’s an EXTRA $175 MILLION.
OUCH.
Amex is really making some money here. And this is BEFORE Amex is paying for SkyPesos. *and in case you are wondering why some businesses don’t take Amex…
and, yet, Max, AA dominates those 4 markets as well as DL does if not better.
and there are no second airports in PHL or CLT.
and DCA is slot controlled with a perimeter with AA operating 70% or more of the slots. AA has more flights from DCA and a higher percentage (60%) than DL has from LGA (49.5%).
AA has as many flights at CLT as DL has from DTW and MSP COMBINED.
If AA can’t do at least as good if not better from its 4 monopoly hubs than DL, then it simply confirms how bad of an operation they have.
It is more telling that AA and UA had almost identical shares of flights at ORD not that long ago and now have far less than UA.
at both LGA and JFK, DL has more than twice as many flights as AA. Post 9/11, AA wanted the FAA to cut the number of slots while DL added flights when slot controls were removed.
DL passed up AA to become the largest carrier at LAX because AA cut flights while DL added.
AA hasn’t been able to compete with DL or UA in more than 20 years even though AA has more flights from its monopoly hubs than DL.
DL gets a revenue premium because customers pay for it.
AA carries volume because that is all they are capable of carrying; nobody wants to pay a premium for AA’s services.
It shouldn’t be a surprise why DL’s SkyClubs are full and they are adding D1 lounges to add capacity while AA is being passed in market after market not just by DL but also by UA.
I fly DL when the price and routing is right, and then I use a few miles to upgrade to C+
It is unlikely that I would ever use more than 10 lounge visits per year, and 6 are probably more than sufficient to cover my needs (and the family all have free AU cards).
DL lounges are better than UA and AA, but not so much better as to be worth paying high annual fees. Amex Plat is a much better option for anyone who is not a hub captive.
You’re an idiot, tim
One who doesn’t even know about airports or delta’s own message to investors much less market share in the delta monopoly airports vs AA’s largest 4
Yes
Phl and clt have competing nearby airports
The clt one isn’t huge b7t it is nearby and it exists unlike the corrupt combo of your local home, Atlanta, and delta making sure no new airport exists,
Delta is alone trying to keep their monopoly hubs as such with fake local citizen groups, etc
Not even sure why we’re talking about aa except that, as usual, you don’t know how to reply to deltas own IR products so you bring up new random topics to attempt to distract others from your ignorance
It’s truly amazing to see how ignorant you are about your own airline sometimes and how you publicly announce that ignorance to everyone
Go to bed. You embarrass yourself but, as usual, gloat in your own shame
The problem with lounges is that they are supposed to be exclusive. They aren’t if they cater to a huge number of people. Personally, I’d like to see DL revert to Skyclub members only, meaning status and credit cards wouldn’t count toward entry. In the days of that policy, I loved the clubs. Now, I’d rather just go have food from a local restaurant with an airport location and get other card benefits instead.
you are not only a sore loser than can’t admit that AA makes so little money because of its own decisions but also because you simply do not understand the airline industry.
List the commercial airports that serve Philadelphia and Charlotte other than PHL and CLT.
AA schedules more flights from its hubs that DL does but generates less revenue.
Part of the problem is that AA flies 70% more RJ flights than DL does. RJs are much more costly per seat to operate. AA is stuck in a strategy that might have worked years ago but does not now.
AA cannot with DL or UA and loses valuable corporate and high value revenue in major markets.
You are free to come up w/ your own excuses but the rest of the world knows why DL does so much better financially and operationally than AA – and why DL’s SkyClubs are full – and there are whole lot more of them than AA has.
No wonder you post under that fake made up name.
Diarrhea Delta does it again. Their filthy SkyClubs are overrun with riff-raff gobbling up the free food while they touch it, then spilling it all over the furniture and floor. Haven’t been the quiet places they used to be since before the pandemic. Now, they’re intolerable.
My home is the fetid cesspool of Atlanta. Atlanta has one good pizza place, Varasano’s, that has an outpost at Terminal A. In the event I arrive too early at the Hartsfield-Latoya Jackson Atlanta International and Domestic Abuse Airport or have a flight delayed, I hang out at Varasano’s with a nice glass of wine and a Salumi pizza. I stopped darkening the door of SkyClubs during the pandemic when they became breeding grounds (and still are) for COVID–despite “Diamond status” and flying Diarrhea DeltaOne 2X a month.
Send a message: Stop buying club memberships and stop patronizing their dens of COVID.
Then it will be Ed Bastian who gets the diarrhea when he sees Diarrhea Delta’s investment in “premium” clubs going down George Carlin’s proverbial tubes.
There is nothing that great about the sky lounges, the food is not that good, usually very crowded, do many good restaurants and better opttyhan the skyliunges