Delta Passenger Calls State Police After Locking Herself In Sky Club Restroom

A passenger in the Boston airport Delta Air Lines Sky Club locked herself in the bathroom when a stall’s handle fell off the door. Surprisingly, despite kicking and banging on the door, no one responded to her calls for help. Desperate, she pulled out her cell phone and placed a call to the police. Before they responded, though, another passenger finally heard her and brought help.

I’m tempted to ask whether Delta’s Sky Clubs are so crowded that nobody can hear you scream? But Delta’s lounge in Boston is new, 21,000 square feet, and in the afternoon and evenings there’s also a mini-Sky Club Express there. And if it were as crowded as other Sky Clubs you’d expect enough turnover in the restrooms that someone would hear the passenger banging and yelling.

The more accurate allegory, I think, is that Delta viewed their SkyMiles elite customers and credit card holders as like this passenger – stuck and without options. They believed they could shift member behavior to spend substantially more on their credit cards by raising requirements for elite status and both allowing spend on their premium co-brands to count towards status and requiring it for unlimited lounge access that had previously been bundled with the airline’s premium co-brand. But members banded together to help. And the airline has signaled that everyone will be freed from the SkyMiles and lounge bathroom jail with a temporary and partial reprieve.

And that the bathroom door breaks in Delta’s six week old lounge probably underscores that the carrier, while once committed to the best quality, has seen an across-the-board decline since the pandemic.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Take a look at the X profile and history of this woman who got locked in the bathroom and then ask the question “why call the cops?”. Obviously a hysterical lunatic type who has been so micro-aggressed that she had a meltdown. Bet she didn’t wait 10 seconds to call the cops – and then yelled at them afterwards.

  2. The updated terms on the restroom door clearly spelled out how much co-brand card spend was required to exit the bathroom stall. I put this one squarely on the traveler.

  3. The airline should update its Ts & Cs:

    “Delta only allows flyers to enter the lounge within three hours of their departing flight, or – if stuck in the bathroom at one of its SkyClubs – up three hours after the scheduled departure time.”

  4. Stall handles now are limited to Delta 360 members. Others should leave the stall doors open.

  5. Well, the first thought that surfaces on reading this: just call Delta. ZZZZTTTTZ buzzer! Delta won’t answer, silly girl. And if someone does answer … they won’t speak English. Calling the police is a good solution. Memo to self: note emergency phone number of all airports I transit.

  6. Gee thanks @Jonathan.

    I just burst out laughing in the middle of the breakfast dining room and now everyone is looking at me.

  7. After reading this View From the Wing article about a passenger trapped inside a Boston Airport Delta Sky Club® restroom, I will forever think of Sky Club restrooms as the equivalent of the Black Flag Roach Motel. According to the Black Flag commercials linked below, roaches can check in but can’t check out, just like the passenger trapped inside a Sky Club restroom. View the video linked below and let me know if you agree.

    View the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkfEylGemJQ.

  8. The door didn’t break. The handle was improperly installed so that the retaining clip wasn’t holding the handle in. Yank it out and that’s what you get.

    Jiggling the latch mechanism does nothing useful, except to demonstrate to everyone you post it to that you are clueless.

    She should have inserted the handle all the way in and turned, which would have released the latch. Alternately instead of jiggling the latch mechanism, she could have tried to hard-turn it. It is hard to turn because it has a spring holding the latch out (and into the jamb) and is about 1/4″ wide so hard to grasp without a tool.

    Either way, jiggling the handle and calling 911 are certainly signs of someone used to falling on the floor and crying loudly whenever something is not going their way. She’s flying Delta, so she better get used to it.

  9. If she was a congresswomen from Minneapolis foot taping then we would have a problem . Was there a Hole in the Wall?

  10. You do realize this DIDN’T occur in the new International terminal Sky Club, right? Seems like you’d do some fact checking before bashing Delta and their new club on the internet…since you’re a “travel expert” and all. Sir, you are just another example of how the news is no longer credible or reliable.

Comments are closed.