Anagnorisis: you are quite right that many of these responses are specific to North America. How often do other continents' pax get the opportunity to do $215 FC roundtrips of over 4000 miles? (We've been commuting monthly to SAN in Biz/First on that fare.)

The money we spend for the Delta Crown Room Club is extremely well spent. There are two of us travel a lot, we get a spouse + membership.

Whenever traveling through Atlanta, I always allow for 3-4 hour layover. Lounge is wonderful then. Otherwise, you risk missing your connection.

Most Delta lounges have a place where you can escape the bloody awful disgusting &*%$#@ television (what is your real opinion, sir?). These are now omnipresent, and much too loud, in almost all US airport boarding areas.

Most Delta lounges also now have internet connections.

And Delta doesn't charge for the beer! Cheers!

Not to speak of the advantages others have mentioned about being able to deal with the lounge staff for changes/irregularities.

All in all, it's great!

But I'm a relaxaholic. All this "make every second count" stuff puzzles me. Doesn't watching planes out the window count?

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"Service" should be a noun, not a verb.