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The Insider Guide to Delta Sky Clubs

Ramsey Qubein

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June 25, 2020

A tip of the hat is deserved toward Delta Air Lines for being the first of the major North American carriers to heavily invest in reinventing its lounge network.

While it did so by hiking up the price for annual membership, restricting guest access for many members, and lessening the entrance options for non-members, it succeeded in creating a product that frequent travelers are willing to pay for during their travels. With better food, notably friendlier staff, spa-quality toiletries in shower locations and bathrooms, and a wider range of drinks, the Sky Club is at its peak in terms of satisfying customers. This guide will walk you through some of those changes, how to get inside, and what to expect once you’ve gotten that golden ticket.

Locations

Delta has a long roster of lounges across North America plus international clubs in a couple of overseas cities. The Sky Club logo is found in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago O’Hare, Cincinnati, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Nashville, New Orleans, Newark, New York JFK, New York LaGuardia, Orlando, Philadelphia, Portland, Raleigh/Durham, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Santiago (Chile), Seattle/Tacoma, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Tokyo Narita, Washington Reagan, and West Palm Beach.

How to pay to get in

Of course, Delta wants you to pay to access its new club offering, and pay you will. The annual cost can vary depending upon your elite status level from $450 for an individual membership (no guests) to a full, executive membership for $695 that permits two guests. Like other airlines, Delta imposes a one-time initiation fee on new members.

Membership can also be purchased with miles: 70,000 miles for an individual membership or 110,000 miles for an executive membership.

Day passes can be purchased in the lounge for $59, and 30-day passes cost $99 for those who travel frequently in a limited period of time. That’s quite a bargain, and if you like the lounge, that cost can be applied to future membership. Delta SkyMiles American Express cardholders receive a discount when purchasing day passes.

A unique feature is that Sky Club members can also access Air France, KLM, and Virgin Australia lounges when traveling with that airline, even in economy class. Executive-level members can bring up to two guests (only one guest for Virgin Australia) while individual club members cannot bring any guests.

How to get in for free

If you are traveling in business class on a SkyTeam international ticket (excluding Canada, the Caribbean and all Mexican cities, except Mexico City), access is included. If a passenger holds SkyTeam Elite Plus status with any alliance carrier, he or she also has access during international travel.

Passengers traveling in Delta One on flights between JFK and Los Angeles or San Francisco also receive free access during their travel plans.

Virgin Australia, a Delta partner, offers access to the club for its Velocity VIP Platinum, Platinum or Gold cardholders. Delta’s Diamond Medallion members are gifted an individual membership while they hold top status.

Also, those with the Delta Reserve Credit Card or The Platinum Card from American Express gain free lounge access when traveling with Delta.

Guest policies

This is a sore spot with many Delta flyers because when Delta changed to two-tier pricing, individual memberships became only for the member (as the name suggests). Those wanting to bring two guests had to fork over more for an executive membership. Additional guests can come in for a decent amount per person fee. The idea is that the experience would be better for members if the clubs are not as crowded, which has its merits.

Even passengers traveling in premium cabins internationally are not permitted to bring a guest. SkyTeam Elite Plus members traveling international can bring one guests while those paying the pricey fee for the Delta Reserve credit card can bring two guests, but a fee of a certain amount per guest is imposed.

lounge1 — Become an Elite Plus member and receive benefits

Amenities

Sky Clubs have exceptional ticketing desks that can assist travelers rather than waiting on hold on the phone or in a long line in the terminal. Comfortable seating comes in the form of high-top stools and bars, high-backed armchairs with added privacy, and more traditional conversational seating setups.

Most clubs have east-access power outlets, and many add extras like showers (ask for the free Malin+Goetz toiletries at reception) or meeting rooms (for a fee). Magazines, newspapers, cable TV, free printers and wireless Internet access, and individual work stations come standard.

delta_menu — Delta Sky Club is committed to keeping you fueled for your travels with healthy selections and delicious flavors

Food and drink

Lounges have two buffet setups per day. In the morning, premium bagels, Greek yogurt, oatmeal, pastries, hard-boiled eggs, fresh fruit, and cereal are on offer. Later in the day, two kinds of soup (one vegetarian), salads, crudités with hummus and bruschetta topping, snack mix, cookies, and brownies are among the offering.

An open bar offers free house wine, beer and spirits plus a separate paid menu has top-shelf offerings including a variety of regional beer and wine and specialty cocktails.

Delta is the first airline to roll out the option to pay for premium drinks using frequent flier miles (although this is a horrible way to spend miles, which are worth much more for actual travel).

In select lounges that serve a number of international flights departures, a wider menu of complimentary hot items is offered throughout the day. These include Atlanta’s F location and JFK terminal 4 lounge. Delta also sells light meals in some clubs.

lounge4 — Feel yourself comfortable at Delta lounges

Lounges not to miss

Pay a visit to Atlanta’s terminal F or JFK’s terminal 4 clubs because these both offer airport viewing decks known as the Sky Deck. Travelers can watch the action below as they sip cocktails in comfortable chairs or work underneath umbrellas while charging up their devices. Quite a novel concept, which is rarely seen in other airport lounges.

Delta is building new club locations in Atlanta’s B concourse and Seattle/Tacoma’s A terminal. The Atlanta B lounge is the busiest in the Delta system, and the new facility will replace two smaller clubs it opens this year.

The new lounge in San Francisco is the first, LEED-certified location and comes with the added bonus of complimentary, hot food designed by Chef Mai Pham of Lemongrass restaurant.

Most Delta clubs feature regional art and photography from that city. This especially helps to brighten up mood in windowless club locations like Honolulu and Philadelphia.

Hidden secrets

• Did you know that Delta offers access to many other partner lounges in some airports and has created a helpful, drop-down menu that allows fliers to check their accessibility. It is worth perusing as many lounge locations around the world may come as a surprise.
• Did you know that Delta actually offers nutrition information for everything served in the Sky Club on its website? You may not want to take a look, but it certainly can come in handy for health-conscious travelers.
• Atlanta is one of the world’s busiest airports, and that means so are its Sky Clubs. One of the best kept secrets is the A CenterPoint lounge location located next to Chili’s, which fewer travelers know about. It is often quieter and has exceptional airport views, but it is closed on weekends.

RewardExpert, which helps travelers navigate reward programs and credit card rewards, can help you score a ticket in business or first class using SkyMiles. Register today to see if you have enough miles to get a premium award ticket to your destination. If you don’t have enough, we’ll show you how to earn what you need.

Editorial Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.

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Delta SkyMiles Program Review

Gabi Logan

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July 14, 2020

Who Is Delta SkyMiles Good For?

Delta has been taking flak from frequent flyers for years, for a variety of valid reasons: Their awards are much harder to come by than those of most major domestic airlines; you cant book one-way awards without a huge penalty; and its often a huge time suck to find the award you want to book on their website.

PROGRAM	ALLIANCE	CURRENCY
DELTA SKYMILES	SKYTEAM	MILES
POINTS TRANSFER PARTNERS
SPG STARWOOD PREFERRED GUEST; MEMBERSHIP REWARDS
AIRLINE PARTNERS
Virgin Atlantic Virgin Australia Hawaiian Airlines Aeroflot Aeromexico Air France Air Tahiti Nui Alaska Airlines Alitalia China Eastern Airlines China Southern Airlines Czech Airlines	Garuda Indonesia GOL Great Lakes Airlines KLM Korean Air Vietnam Airlines XIAMEN AIR China Airlines Delta Endeavor Air ExpressJet Airlines Shuttle America	SkyWest Aerolineas Argentinas Kenya Airways Mandarin Airlines MEA Saudia Airlines Shanghai Airlines Tarom Airlines AirEuropa GoJet Airlines Compass Airlines

But many uber-frequent travelers have stayed incredibly loyal to them as well, in no small part because of the incredible variety of comfy airlines with great perks that Delta points give you access to, starting with Delta’s sister airlines Air France and KLM (they’re all one company but fly under different names).

Starting in 2015, Delta will be straining loyalties even further with a number of sweeping changes to its award program, beginning with revenue-based SkyMiles earning and extending into an increasingly complex awards chart that will have five redemption categories instead of three, and that will incorporate several key devaluations.

On the bright side, the new award chart, which will kick in on January 1, 2015, will allow one-way awards and cash + points redemptions.

Hubs:

Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport
LaGuardia Airport
Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport

How Can You Use Delta SkyMiles?

Beyond the lack of one-way awards, one of the big gripes is the difficulty of booking Delta award flights, so Ill tell you right now: Use Air France to search for inventory, not Delta.com.

Beyond that, though, Delta’s partner network offers some really great redemptions within Europe and South America, so for short hops to hard-to-reach destinations that can easily run you a great amount of cash back or you can cruise over in business class on earned with credit cards miles.

Now that American has abruptly scrapped its incredibly valuable One World Explorer awards that offered great award redemption rates for round-the-world travel, Delta’s round-the-world awards are some of the only ones still kicking, and you can use them to easily get to especially out-of-the-way places like Tahiti, the Maldives and Australia through partner airlines.

Program Perks:

No fee for last-minute bookings
Hold tickets until 11:59 pm the following day if you do not have enough miles in your account
One stopover or open-jaw per round-trip award
Three stopovers per continent on round-the-world awards
Miles do not expire
Eight segments permitted per award flight

Booking Quirks:

No one-way awards currently, but that changes in 2015 (you’ll be charged the round-trip price to book one until then)
More expensive awards do not carry additional benefits, like Americans AAnytime awards
Delta.com only books flights on AeroMexico, Aeroflot, Aerolineas Argentinas, Air France, Alaska Airlines, Alitalia, China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, Delta Air Lines, Garuda Indonesia, Hawaiian Airlines, KLM, Korean Air, Middle East Airlines, Saudia Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia
Cancellations must be made more than 72 hours before departure to redeposit miles
Maximum permitted mileage (something airlines use to keep travelers from adding too many stopovers in disparate places) is known to be randomly enforced by phone agents

Best Value Awards:

For the perennial dilemma of how to get to London without paying frightfully high fuel surcharges, Delta is one airline that offers a simple answer. You can redeem Delta points on Virgin Atlantic with minimal surcharges, and Virgin Atlantic has a great product on these flights, employing double-decker 747-400s that have economy spots on the back of the top deck. There’s no extra fee to snag them, but you get preferential boarding, a much better flight-attendant-and-bathroom-to-passenger ratio and extra storage space in the window seats.

Worst Value Awards:

One-ways. Often if you’re low on points on a certain airline, or having trouble finding low-level redemptions in both directions on the flights you need, it makes sense to split your itinerary on two airlines, but there’s no point doing this with Delta.

The award chart really confuses this point, because it shows you the number of miles needed for one direction of travel. But, that is the one-way redemption rate based on round-trip travel. If you want a simple one-way, they’ll charge you the number of miles required for a round-trip flight!

The Good Stuff: Upgrades and Elite Status

For frequent flyers who love their upgrades, Delta elite status is a great thing to have. If you book a Y fare, no matter what status level you have, you can get a complimentary upgrade at the time of booking. On other fare categories, unlimited complimentary upgrades are also available, but within a certain number of days of departure, according to status level.

Otherwise, its quite straightforward to upgrade, with two upgrade rates, one for full fare seats and one for select other fares. You have to call to see if your fare qualifies, but if it does, the rate is comparable to the difference between economy and upper class seats on the general award chart.

Delta SkyMiles Medallion Elite Levels and Perks

Silver: Unlimited complimentary upgrades on full fares and award tickets, complimentary upgrades on discount fares one day in advance, solid bonus miles, free checked baggage, priority check-in and boarding
Gold: Complimentary upgrades on discount fares three days in advance, huge bonus miles, priority security line access, priority baggage handling, SkyTeam lounge access, waived ticket change fees
Platinum: Complimentary upgrades on discount fares five days in advance, one choice benefit such as extra miles or lounge passes, waived award cancellation fees
Diamond: exceptionally valuable percent bonus miles, free Delta SkyClub membership, VIP service line, two choice benefits

Associated Credit Cards

All of Delta’s co-branded credit cards are issued through American Express, and you have four options, each with a different focus, according to Delta: Delta SkyMiles Credit Card, Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card (earn miles faster), Platinum Delta SkyMiles Credit Card (achieve Medallion status) and the Delta Reserve Credit Card (elevate Medallion status).

The cards are very different. Let’s start with the Delta Reserve Credit Card. Earn 10,000 Medallion® Qualification Miles (MQMs) and 40,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 in purchases on your new Card in your first 3 months.

The Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card brings you more benefits. Earn 10,000 Medallion® Qualification Miles (MQMs)and 50,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 in purchases on your new Card in your first 3 months. In addition, earn a $100 statement credit after you make a Delta purchase with your new Card within your first 3 months.

All cards offer:

Double miles on Delta purchases and one mile per dollar on everything else
Generous percent statement credit on in-flight purchases

All cards except the basic card offer:

First checked bag free for you and up to eight others
Priority boarding
Reduced entrance fee for the Delta Sky Club (except the reserve card, which includes a complimentary membership)
No foreign transaction fees

Annual fees vary quite a bit, with only the Gold card is coming with $0 intro fee, then $95.
The Platinum Card carries a $195 fee, and the Reserve a $450 fee, because it includes club access, concierge services and a companion certificate upon renewal eligible for first class travel.

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