Originally Posted by
zxrst
Lets be honest here. The crowded skyclubs are mainly due to the road warriors who can literally access SCs hundreds of time a year with a credit card. These changes are laser-focused on these travelers. This is why Delta first made it harder/more expensive to buy SC memberships and now cut unlimited free accesses of Reserve/Platinum cards.
If they're accessing the Skyclubs hundreds of times a year, they have Medallion status, meaning they can buy an individual membership. Your post makes no sense.
And, obviously yes road warriors have highest usage. But most commuters don't spend much time in the clubs. My average visit back when I had a Reserve card pre-COVID was like 10 minutes. Just enough for a super quick snack if I got through security quickly enough before a flight. People who connect will stay longer, but high-yielding connecting traffic from competitor hubs (or non-hubbed airports) is what Delta gains the most from capturing so they wouldn't disincentivize those.
Originally Posted by DLHubber
DL doesn't seem to have an issue packing their planes these days. It's possible that getting rid of some of the road warriors paying $575/year to access the clubs 100+ times outweighs the ticket revenue they brought in. We just don't have the numbers.
At least since the post-regulation era, no airline has ever had a problem packing their planes. The question has always been what yield can they pack their planes at. Full planes are not always profitable ones.