SkyClub membership and DM
 

A newbie question i know, but.. Just hit DM for the first time ever. In addition to the DM membership card on the DL app, i also see a sky club membership card and valid thru 1/17. Do i have individual unlimited SC access now? That doesn't make sense to me bc i thought SC was paid access only.

Yes, as a DM you have SC access.

We lost the guesting privilege recently, however.

If you need guests you can either use DL AX to get them in for $29 or you can use a DM choice benefit to upgrade your membership. I believe you can also use miles or $ but I'm not sure of those details.

Isn't there also a Choice Benefit, perhaps at the PM level, that gives a bunch of SC passes?

Choice benefits then, I can also select the 6 1-day passes which may be used as guest passes.

True, but just getting the upgraded membership gets you unlimited guesting (2 at a time) rather than 6 total.

If you did not want to use the DM choice bennie for the upgrade, as MSP pointed out, you can get 4 passes for PM choice. To me this is not a very good deal, I'd rather pay the $29.

And I believe it is one time visit rather than day pass now. So if you wanted to go to SC at origination and connection that requires 2. If you upgrade your membership then you have no worries.

By the way, the choice benefits on delta.com list this as a "one day pass" but if you click it the link takes you to a "single visit pass." They really need to update this, it is very misleading.

I really only need to guest my wife 2-4 times a year so it is not worth it to me to upgrade. And if the layover is short I would rather spend the $29 on food than the SC anyway.

CJ,
I just hit Diamond as well and have been using my Amex Plat for SC access. The guest policy for Amex Plat was stripped in March of last year.
I've since been ordering guest passes as my Plat benefit or from my SkyBonus account.

But now with Diamond, I got the Exec upgrade to SC as one of the benefits. Traveling with family and/or friends/coworkers makes it alot nicer to bring them in for meals/showers/etc.

So it would really depend on how many times you travel with additional companions as to whether it's a better deal than the half dozen day-passes.

To select the SC exec upgrade, is there a limit to how many travel companions I bring, i.e. up to 3, 4 etc?

Yes. 2 guests per visit.

Simplest way to think about it:
- As a DM, you automatically get an Individual Membership
- If you pick the DM Choice Benefit to upgrade, you will then have an Executive Membership

Details/differences between Individual Membership and Executive Membership are here: https://www.delta.com/skyclub/purcha...Request.action

And actually from the T&C "House Rules" page:
https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...ml#paymentplan

It states:
"Members with an Executive membership may access Delta Sky Club with up to 2 guests or immediate family (spouse or domestic partner and children under 21 years of age) complimentary, provided that Delta determines that adequate space exists. Executive Members may bring up to two additional guests for $29 per guest per Club visit. Member must remain with the guests at all times during the visit."

So 2 guests - but there is an "or" before it says immediate family (spouse and children)
I'm kinda curious to know myself if I can get my wife an 4 daughters or if they mean just two family members also?

You can get wife and 4 daughters in.

As a related question

How does Delta decide at the lounge what membership level you have? regarding guests and family members. All I ever do is flash a boarding card that has the words Sky Club printed on it somewhere and walk in with my wife.

My understanding is that when you scan your barcode, it brings up your name, status and SC membership level.

The first time I used it as a DM, all I had with me was a boarding pass and they let me in.
Since my account has been updated, I now have a SC 'card' on my phone that I use to scan in.
So I believe that any identifier, whether Medallion card, boarding pass or club card will have 'linked knowledge' of the membership level.

Correct :)

In fact, when I was having trouble pulling up my boarding pass (apparently my phone connected to the Sky Club wifi but I wasn't logged in so no data got through) the agent pulled up all the necessary info from my membership number.