Pretty huge difference between simply requiring a boarding pass for ANY airline and requiring one for United. And how often is anyone at the airport beyond security without a boarding pass??

OK I guess but...wait what was your point again? :D

A paid lounge membership should be a lounge membership, not lounge access. When I was a SC member I used the SC when I flew other airlines.

This makes credit card based lounge access much more valuable.

Does DL have a premium lounge card like UA and AA? We don't have a skyclub at AUS (yet) so I've never looked. It would seem bizarre to limit that kind of membership to delta flyers.

Or like how they change lifetime status for the MM programs to annual status

I agree, as long as someone can qualify for a Delta reserve Am Ex they may as well get that instead of an individual membership since it's the same price. And if someone is flying Delta enough they are willing to pay for a Skyclub membership changes are they have status with Delta and the reserve card could help their upgrade chances as well plus they'll get the companion cert.

This also makes the medallion choice benefit of the sky club membership a lot less valuable.

I predict that DL will roll this back when a bunch of people at competitive stations cancel their memberships and opt for AA or UA.

I've used the BNA skyclub a couple times in the past year when flying on Southwest with no issues. A friend of mine that flies united sometimes from Chicago has had no issues using the Skyclub there so not sure why people are saying it's been a policy for a while unless they are trying to gain entrance through an Am Ex swipe. I was at ORD last year and was behind a DYKWIA type who was flying united and his flight was really delayed and was upset that the ORD skyclub wouldn't allow him entrance with his Am Ex card on a United boarding pass which I think is a fair policy.

If someone has a lifetime membership they should honor the original T&C of the agreement. But I wouldn't be surprised if Delta doesn't. I signed up for a three year membership back when I was PM and was told that if I made diamond during that period the remaining portion of the membership would be tacked on after I lost the diamond status. Delta changed their policy on that so I spent money on a three year membership that only gave me six months of benefits:(

As long as the US court system is so stacked against individuals, contracts with large corporations are basically one-way streets.

Most of the T&s's of contracts of adhesion indicate that the more powerful party (Delta in this case) has the right to change rules at their prerogative. Now given the diversity of ways that people have acquired Lifetime SkyClub memberships (from Western, PanAm, NWA, etc.) there might be different governing terms depending on how one obtained grandfathered status. At the same time for the vast majority of members who have subscription terms for a period of time, any damages would probably be limited to a partially pro rated rebate of funds paid.

Life SkyClub members were grandfathered in with Executive membership. A very reasonable, and easy, way to resolve this conflict would be for Delta to maintain benefits for Executive members (i.e. access when not flying Delta and possibly some partner lounge access) and reduce the benefits for general members.

No they didn't. As someone who has had several TiVos with lifetime subscriptions, I've read upon each purchase that it's a subscription for the lifetime of the box.

As I stated, the membership rules have required that you have same-day boarding pass on any airline for awhile now. If you've been let without a same-day flight on any airline, it was a nice gesture by the agent but not part of the rules. As far as the new rule, it allows entry when flying DL same-day or any of it's partners. All of this is covered plainly on the website, so no need for conjecture or relying on an agent's claims.

https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...use-rules.html

"Delta Sky Club Members can only use the Club in conjunction with same-day ticketed air travel but such travel may be on any airline."

"Effective January 1, 2019, Delta Sky Club members may only use the Club in conjunction with same-day ticketed air travel on Delta or its partner airlines and will no longer have access to partner lounges."