I don't see Lifetime Members being the problem of over-crowding. We are so few in numbers, and are mostly composed of members who actually paid for lounge access membership. Lounge was supposed to be available to members who paid membership, or flying business class. At certain years, some top elites had complimentary access to its lounges on a yearly basis. Now, entry is available for so many more people including select Diamond Elites who chose SkyClub Option, Delta 360, Skyteam Elite Plus members, American Express Platinum Members flying Delta, and American Express Delta Skymiles Credit Card holder with access, only to name a few.

The problem lies with money hungry Delta Airlines' marketing Delta SkyClub access to various mega corporations..(eg. American Express, Preferred corporate clienteles), without much thoughts on existing membership....but this is Delta. Delta wouldn't blame themselves for the problem, it's the member's problem. Corporate greed.

Jiburi

Without those Amex visitors, you'd have a lot fewer clubs, smaller clubs, and crappier food/bev.

Where did poster say anything about lifetime members? Change affects many more than just that group. DL used to give memberships to all it's Plat members which likely inflated numbers back then as well (they also used to require members fly DL for access). I suspect this was meant to try to drive members to fly DL more and less about club crowding.

I think poster mixed the two topics being discussed above his comment together. One was about LT memberships and a lawsuit, Other was about DL requring a same day DL BP to enter even with SC membership. The comment he was replying to I believe is about the latter, but he accidentally assumed it was about the first.

Lifetime or not, the restriction should be grandfathered for membership that existed prior to this new announcement....Without it, there will be significant impact for members who had multi year Skyclub membership. That would be fair, as many of us had bought membership when such restriction was never in place. Going forward, membership application would clearly indicate such requirement, tho I gather, Delta would have hard time obtaining new members knowing other ways for SkyClub complimentary access. It'll make Skyclub membership obsolete.

Jiburi

Not

United and American lounges don't allow Amex Visitors and the Delta clubs are no better than their clubs.

Alaska has stopped allowing priority pass entries (mostly given out as a credit card benefit) due to overcrowding and limiting access to their club members and first class flyers.

Not blaming people for taking advantage of a credit card benefit (I'll be using my Delta Reserve card for access once my paid memberhsip expires that carried over from before I was diamond).

I'm surprised Delta isn't requiring a Delta reserve card for entrance to the skyclubs to encourage more people to sign up for their infinity credit card like their competition.

I'd argue that... SkyClubs I can reliably get something that approaches, if not, is actually a meal. UA/AA clubs I feel like a hamster at the cereal tubes and left to forage for cheese cubes. SkyClubs might not be perfect, but they sure beat the competition on both food and drink, IME.

DL is my most frequently flown carrier by segment this year. If DL were to axe the Amex Platinum access (which I assume they can't do without a contract renegotiation with Amex) it would throw my loyalty to DL into the air sooner than it would cause me to toss my Platinum card.

I haven't been to an American Club in a long time but I use my passes I get from being a Hyatt diamond at the UA clubs at ORD and LAS and they are pretty nice. I like the UA club by the Delta gates better than the skyclub at ORD as far as food selection goes and like the UA club a lot better than the Club at LAS.

My biggest complaint with the skyclubs is the overcrowding at peak times and lack of outlets.

I'm not blaming anyone for using their credit card to access a lounge, I'm just surprised Delta isn't requiring their own reserve Am Ex for access the same way the competition only allows their branded credit card holders access to their lounges (i.e. you can't access an American lounge with a citi pretige card and unfortunately United won't give access with a chase saphire reserve card, only their premium card). If United gave access with the chase saphire card they would probably get some business from me.

A lot of people are getting access to the Hilton lounges thanks to their Am Ex card as well.

I hope United doesn't follow Delta with this policy. I like being able to use my United Passes from my Hyatt status at LAS and ORD when flying Delta.

I think this is total cheapness on Delta's part. There can't be that many people that use a skyclub not flying delta with a skyclub membership that this will make this big of a difference. The only times I do is if I'm at BNA or DEN. Seeing an Am Ex Delta reserve fee is less than a Skyclub membership, why would anyone buy a Skyclub membership as opposed to getting an Am Ex card that has a lower annual fee and provides MQM's and a companion pass?

So the problem is too many people in the clubs, but when they do something to reduce the number of people, they're being "cheap"?

People paid for memberships with the expectation of being able to use the clubs regardless of what airline they are flying. Like another poster stated Delta should honor that for lifetime members. If it's an annual/three year membership that was purchased before this announcement the skyclubs should allow members in flying another airline until that current membership expires or at least offer a refund on the unused portion of the membership if someone wants to cancel over it.

I don't think this will really make a big difference in the number of people in the club as opposed to the negative goodwill it is creating with paid members. I don't think it's going to be anything like when they stopped allowing am ex cardholders to bring in guests for free and introduced the executive membership and in those cases there was no negative goodwill at all since Delta allowed existing skyclub members to continue to guest in people like always until their paid membership expired and didn't make any changes to the guesting for life time members.

+1. Or offer paid members a prorata refund if they want to cancel after the changes go in effect. At least when they made changes to the guesting policy they were fair and didn't create any negative goodwill since they treated all paid memberships as executive memberships until the expiration date and grandfathered in all lifetime memberships with guesting rights, no one got screwed in that case and it did make a big difference in the crowds.

I'm not sure who would buy a regular membership anymore since a Delta reserve card cost less than a skyclub membership and you get the companion membership, MQMs, checked bag, etc on top of accessing the skyclub and it's cheaper to get an authorized user on an Am Ex than an exec membership. The only way I could see it paying to get a regular skyclub membership with these changes is if someone is blacklisted from Am Ex or can't qualify for a card or if it's a diamond who doesn't have an am ex card.

I just hope the skyclubs don't get so greedy for revenue they start doing priority pass swipes.

DL dropped PP back in 2009. I'd be pretty confident it's not coming back.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delt...rity-pass.html

What they expected and what they agreed to are two different things. Is there a contract that said the entry rules would be set in stone for eternity?

So if you bought a lifetime membership in, say, 1995 (I honestly don't even know when these were offered, just pulling a year out of the air), and Delta did offer such a refund for people mad about this change, how much do you think you should get back (as a percentage of your original purchase price)?

+1. This was my first thought. We're talking about you getting sub-$100 bucks back in a generous scenario.

IDK, there are a couple issues here:

1) IDK where in your original purchase agreement it said that entry rules to the club would remain the same forever for those who purchased lifetime memberships.
2) Whatever monetary impact you want to claim is basically nonexistent at this point in any of the lifetime memberships.
3) I'm not saying you should consider yourself lucky that your membership still exists post-reorganization, but...actually I am saying that lol.
4) Those complaining are among the same that whine about overcrowding. A move that will necessarily reduce the number of club entrants, though, because it affects these people specifically, is all of a sudden a cheap move that will ruin the club for them.

In the case of a lifetime membership I think they should just honor the original rules like they did when they made the guesting policy changes. If Delta is that concerned about overcrowding then they should do what the board room is doing and only admitting their members during peak times. For paid memberships it's a simple matter of just dividing the fee paid by the number of months int he current membership for the monthly rate and multiplying it by the number of months left. It would be a good faith gesture that isn't costing them much. I'm sure Delta has an out though anyway since they honored lifetime membership during the bankruptcy (which was a smart move since it could have cost them some HVC if they wouldn't have).

My paid membership runs out in May and I have another means to get access anyway so doesn't really apply to me except the rare times I use WN out of BNA (and usually by then the reason I am using WN is because they have a late flight and Delta doesn't so the skyclub is closed anyway). My biggest issue with the skyclub is that I had a paid membership before I was diamond and they stopped extending the expiration date, I think I got screwed there because I would have purchased a one year membership instead of a three year if I had known about that change.

People don't like change though if it applies to them. I thought it was great when the sky clubs stopped allowing Am Ex and individual members to bring in their families but there were a lot of people complaining over that change who travelled with family members a lot.

I think it would have really backfired on Delta if they would have not honored lifetime memberships due to the bankruptcy. In this scenario the members aren't flying Delta, but if they would have voided all lifetime memberships that could have made flyers that weren't hub captives give their business to competitors.

If this is to reduce crowding in the skyclubs then why not eliminate guesting on lifetime memberships and require the members to buy up to an exec membership like they are with diamonds? I am sure they have a lot more members bringing in guests when flying Delta than using the Skyclub when on another airline.

Delta, through its past merger, have lifetime members from Western Airlines and Northwest Airlines as well. Merger with Northwest Airlines occurred after 2007 Delta bankruptcy in 2008. I'm not sure about Northeast Airlines......and any other airlines Delta had mergers with.... PanAm?
Guesting was already a benefit of the prior membership.

Jiburi

Northwest could have eliminated lifetime memberships as well as part of their bankruptcy. With a merger the airlines would probably have to honor all club memberships.

I know guesting was already a benefit of lifetime membership but so was accessing the club when not flying delta. If the skyclub can make that change to the membership why can't they eliminate guesting?

I fly Delta 95% of the time, and my employer will pay for one airline club membership per year. I will continue to have them pay for the Skyclub membership as I fly DL primarily. In the off chance I'm not flying DL, I have a personal card with Priority Pass access to other lounges. Sure, that won't get me lounge access on 100% of my trips, but I can live with 95% coverage. By having my company pay for the Skyclub membership, I get one extra choice benefit per year. I will gladly take those extra miles. I have pretty much the same benefits as I've had for years (lounge access wise), but I get 25,000 extra miles in exchange for having to sit in the terminal a few times a year. I'm fine with that trade off.

Adding here since this is the more recent Sky Club posting. Am flying JFK-SEA today. From what I can tell, it appears that there is only one flight (the 7am-ish) sold as D1 and the rest sold as F flights. Even though the D1 page on delta.com says that JFK-SEA is a long haul transcon (Delta One and see the first blue link (Long Haul Domestic)) , I will not have access at JFK to the SkyClub - or do they still allow since its part of that link? Thanks.

You may be thinking Amex Delta Platinum. The Amex Platinum Charge Card is now a better deal than club membership or the reserve card. You get into most clubs with it, $200 airline credit and 5X membership points when using the airline portal.

If you bought a D1 ticket, you get access. If you bought a F ticket, you don't.

Not true till Jan 1. Although they may be doing to alleviate crowding.

Incorrect. The requirement for flying Delta or partners when purchasing a Single Visit Pass is already in place.
https://www.delta.com/us/en/delta-sky-club/house-rules

• A Single Visit Pass must be used in conjunction with same-day ticketed air travel on Delta Air Lines or its partner airlines.

It's been in the house rules for over 2 years (ever since they got rid of the day pass) --

https://web.archive.org/web/20151213...use-rules.html

For me the reserve card is a better deal than the Am Ex Platinum charge. But I use the MQM's and the companion first class certificate.

So...I bought my lifetime WorldClubs membership in 2008 after Northwest emerged from bankruptcy, but before the Delta acquisition. At the time the terms and conditions did not say much about whether access could be restricted, aside from that I had to legally be able to access the club. (And I have proof of this.)

Wonder whether Delta will treat customers who bought lifetime memberships post-NWA bankruptcy differently than before. What about Western Airlines or Pan Am customers bought by pre-Ch11 Delta?

I'm not the litigious type, but this seems like it is a case of a company that experienced bankruptcy trying to avoid liabilities acquired post-bankruptcy.

It hasnt been enforced then. I've seen and know plenty of people to purchase one when not flying DL

You get 5X Membership Rewards points even when buying direct from the airline; you don't have to use the Amex Travel portal.

Unfortunately, that won't get you into the IAD/IAH AF/KL clubs when flying domestically.

I'm trying to remember, but isn't this change more of a return to the way things used to be? I thought way back sometime in the Crown Room Club days you had to be flying Delta to be admitted......

David

Correct.

https://web.archive.org/web/20040619...ules/index.jsp

• Crown Room facilities may be used only in conjunction with same-day ticketed air travel on Delta, Delta Connection® carriers, or Song™.

Yep. Then came the infamous Crown Lounge room slaughter.