Despite draconian rules that limit passenger access to its Sky Clubs, Delta still has problems with overcrowding in lounges and long lines to get in at some locations.
Basic economy passengers are banned from lounges completely. Credit card lounge members have the number of visits they can make each year capped (unless they hit spending targets on their card). Passengers showing up early at the airport can’t use lounges until three hours before their flight. And the price of access has gone up dramatically.
Nonetheless, they still have a ‘regular line’ that can back up – especially at places like New York LaGuardia – and a ‘priority line’ for first class passengers and top SkyMiles elites. Not all club members are equal!
- Delta has more of a problem with crowding than United or American because they offer more robust food in their lounges, so people show up and stay longer.
- Delta also has a deal with American Express that lets in anyone with a Platinum card – not just those with the airline’s own premium co-brand credit card like at rival carriers.
- And they don’t do a very good job managing the space they have inside their lounges. The lounges themselves aren’t well-designed to maximize use of seating, either.
Past line at LaGuardia Sky Club
A reader encountered a line “30 deep” at the New York LaGuardia Sky Club – but no one in the priority lane, so he skipped the queue. However no line should have been needed!
I get upstairs and there are dozens upon dozens of seats. Either they don’t have a system to actually control capacity or they’re intentionally holding non-status guests in line.
I easily count 25 seats empty in just my section. But then you have a couple taking up a table designed for 6. …Two people taking up a table for four. Why does Delta have a table for six? These are three separate tables, each designed for 2, pushed together.
Delta probably doesn’t have as good real-time tracking of the lounge’s capacity as they ought to. But I want to address the issue of space utilization.
- Capital One ‘reserves’ all tables larger than two tops and staff escort larger parties at these tables themselves.
- Air Canada’s Signature Suite in Toronto hsa only tables for two, and moves those together to accommodate larger groups – but two is the default.
- Of course, if lounges did a better job accommodating jackets and bags those wouldn’t take up tables and chairs. Capital One designs built-in furniture to have space underneath for standard-sized carry-on bags, so those are out of the way. Jacket hooks go a long way in winter, or else people just stick their jacket on a chair.
Lounge capacity is as much about number of seats – which are easy to count – as about thinking about how people use space and designing around that. What’s the flow like in the lounge? Once you get to the front of the line, does the space feel busy? Are you dodging and weaving other guests going to and from the buffet? Is the line at the bar 15-20 people deep? Or is the bar designed to provide quick service, with the most frequently-requested drinks on tap and the most-needed items prepped and readily available?
Size is the single most important factor, but getting larger space is usually difficult in an airport – so managing that space becomes the difference between a great lounge experience and one that feels equal to or worse than the terminal itself.
My biggest qualm is when solo travelers take up a table that seats two. That selfish act alone cuts down lounge capacity by 50%. I sometimes engage in vigilante justice by joining a solo traveler at their table.
Design isn’t the problem, IMO. Could there be an “induced demand” problem similar to highways – where if you add more lanes, there will soon be more traffic to fill those lanes.
Right now some number of people aren’t signing up for Amex cards, or aren’t choosing Main over Main Basic, because they know their home airport lounge experience is cooked, as the modern lingo would have it.
Here’s what DL ought to do. Create a tier of lounges between Sky Clubs and Delta One. Call them Sky Club Plus or something and designate high-demand lounges like LGA with this branding. Allow AMEX cardholders unlimited annual visits to Sky Clubs in low-demand locations but 1-2 annual visits to high-demand Sky Club Plus locations.
Just jack up the annual fee on the Platinum cards. They’re way underpriced.
Packing more seats into the Delta lounges isn’t going to make things better. Gary, I think you’ve lost sight of the fact that lounges were always supposed to be exclusive respites from the chaos of the terminal. And yes, “exclusive” means exactly that: expensive and intentionally difficult for most of the general public to access. That’s changed rather dramatically as lounges have been re-invented as something perversely different — and they never should have been.
The real solution here is extremely simple: Delta needs to achieve market equilibrium by raising the cost of admission further than it already has. That could mean any number of things, but it occurs to me that they could certainly do this on a location-specific basis, e.g., those clubs with higher-than-average demand come at some sort of premium per entry, or perhaps cost more during certain hours. In any event, a premium lounge isn’t really premium at all unless it’s uncrowded.
Is it mostly Amex card members mucking this up? If so, keep the designated ‘Priority’ entry for those with First, Diamond, 360, etc., and actually let them in before anyone else. Problem solved.
@E. Jack Youlater — One more time, fantastic name, along with @Erect, and a few others. Never stop. Again, I thought @Mike Hunt was also doing a ‘bit,’ but he still hasn’t clarified (my c..t). Also, are you the same person as @Un (also went by @Unintimidated) because he also used BOLD font.
Too much FOMO and people wanting to feel important. Waiting in a line longer than 15 or so mins for SkyClub is kinda dumb.
Most airlines don’t know that there’s still plenty of overhead bin space available before gate-checking, so this sounds par for the course.
Chase Sapphire PHX Is a good example of this as well. They have an insanely small lounge (just over half the size of the PHL Centurion) in a terminal with 2 large airline hubs connected airside, and they decided it needed 2 separate food serving areas, including one with an airstream trailer and a foosball table (probably 12-16 seats displaced as a result) and the full size Sapphire bar shoehorned into a tight diagonal space with a full-size back bar counter and a rectangle shape instead of something closer to a right triangle – probably another 6-10 seats gone for that.
20 additional seats doesn’t sound like much, but when there’s only something like 60 in the first place, it’s a huge difference.
@Ben — Yeah, but that Admirals Club at PHX is also super tiny, so ‘pick your poison’ there. I’m just grateful when there’s an open seat and my flight isn’t too horribly delayed there.
@David S. Waiting for 15 minutes to spend 70 minutes in the Sky Club is not dumb at all. And it has nothing to do with wanting to feel important. Your cynicism and resentment is clouding your view.
@LAX Tom — Well said. @David S would prefer View from the Clouds, bah!
That they let paid F passengers skip the line is a huge help. But if they ever dropped their deal with Amex, that would seriously dent the value of Amex Plat.
@Blake K:
“My biggest qualm is when solo travelers take up a table that seats two. That selfish act alone cuts down lounge capacity by 50%. I sometimes engage in vigilante justice by joining a solo traveler at their table.”
Every moment of every day must be an excruciating trial for one who sees the world in such terms.
The best thing about travel, even if it’s somewhere I’ve been before, is getting the chance to meet someone different and giving life a bit o’ spice.
I guess that’s why they invented basements, so the misanthropes, the mean-spirited, and the anti-social among us have a place to go too; and no overcapacity there so they can all stay as long as they like. And the longer the better.
@Gentleman Jack Darby — You’d like to think travel makes us more open, tolerant, compassionate, and wise, yet for some, like wealth, it just exaggerates who they already are. @Blake K is clearly more of a ‘zero-sum’ individual; seeking out the winners and losers in life/society. Yeah, a shame.
Alternatively, I’ve always appreciated how Rick Steves categorizes travelers into three main types: ‘tourists, travelers, and pilgrims. Tourists focus on popular landmarks and boast about their travels, while travelers engage more deeply with local culture and aim for authentic experiences. Pilgrims, on the other hand, undertake journeys with a sense of purpose and spiritual significance.’
A Premium Paradox