Major Delta Sky Club Access Changes 2025: Coming Soon

In 2023, Delta Air Lines announced plans to make changes to its Sky Club access policies. We’re now just a couple of weeks from these policies being implemented, so in this post I want to recap the changes we can expect, as they’ll have implications for Delta passengers.

Why Delta Sky Club crowding has been such an issue

Delta Sky Club crowding has been a pretty common issue for many years. In some cases, lounges have just been near capacity, while in other cases, there have been lines out the door.

For many airlines, lounges are a cost center of sorts, and are needed as part of their premium offering. In the case of Delta, Sky Clubs are a pretty big profit center in and of themselves, and a core part of the brand.

Why? Well, US airlines have a large percentage of their profits from their co-branded credit card agreements, and Delta has quite a lucrative contract with American Express. Delta Sky Clubs have primarily become credit card lounges, as the most common way that Delta wants people to use these lounges is with an Amex card.

For that matter, Sky Clubs are a key part of how Delta positions itself as a “premium” brand. The airline knows that many people with a credit card that offers Sky Club access are more likely to book Delta because they’ll get lounge access. So it’s a win-win for Delta — the airline gets more revenue from people booking tickets, and also gets revenue from Amex when people actually use the lounges.

The issue is, given how popular premium credit cards are nowadays, Delta Sky Clubs have become super crowded over time, to the point that there have frequently been lines to just get into the lounges.

Fortunately this is progressively being addressed. In addition to the Sky Club portfolio being expanded, we’ve also seen the introduction of Delta One Lounges, which are the carrier’s premium business class lounges, intended to help alleviate Sky Club crowding.

We’ve also seen Delta progressively introduce more Sky Club access restrictions. The latest of those restrictions is being implemented as of February 2025, so let’s talk about that…

New Delta Sky Club access changes February 2025

As of February 1, 2025, we’ll see the newest Delta Sky Club access restrictions introduced. These were announced back in October 2023, so we’ve had quite a bit of advance notice. Compared to some previous changes, these are actually pretty straightforward and mild.

Currently, these four cards don’t have limits on how often you can visit Delta Sky Clubs:

• The Platinum Card® from American Express (review)
• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (review)
• The Delta SkyMiles^® Reserve American Express Card (review)
• The Delta SkyMiles^® Reserve Business American Express Card (review)

As of February 1, 2025:

• The Amex Platinum Card (personal and business) will each offer 10 visits per year to Delta Sky Clubs
• The Delta Reserve Card (personal and business) will each offer 15 visits per year to Delta Sky Clubs

There are a few more things to be aware of. First of all, all Sky Club visits within a 24-hour period will count as a single visit, including at different airports. So you can access multiple Delta Sky Clubs on the same day, and have that count as a single visit for your allotment (whether those visits are at the same airport or different airports).

Second of all, the access limits are per card, so if you have multiple eligible cards, you could stack the benefits of the various cards. In other words, if you had the personal and business versions of the Amex Platinum Card, you’d get up to 20 visits annually (just keep track of which cards you use each time). Authorized users on the Amex Platinum Card also get their own allotment of lounge visits.

Lastly, these restrictions only apply if you don’t spend at least $75,000 per year on an eligible card. If you spend at least $75,000 on a card, then you still get an unlimited number of visits. Eligibility is based on eligible spending per calendar year, so for the purposes of the first year, this would be based on your spending between January 1 and December 31, 2024.

If you exceed your visit limit with the card, you can buy access at the rate of $50 per person, using the card.

Will Delta Sky Club access restrictions alleviate crowding?

There’s no denying that Delta Sky Club crowding issues have gotten better over time, due to the factors shared above. Do I think these latest access restrictions will make a big difference? For one, I’d expect it to be late 2025 before we notice a difference from these changes, if there even is one. That’s because in February, eligible cardmembers are all starting with 10-15 visits, so it’ll be a while until people run through their allotment.

However, personally I don’t think we’ll see any major changes to crowding levels, since having 10-15 visits per year is quite significant, especially when you consider there are also other ways to access Sky Clubs. If anything, I think these changes are about encouraging people to spend more on Amex cards and improve margins, rather than just about crowding.

I do think some of Delta’s past Sky Club access policy changes have probably made a bigger difference. For example, we saw the biggest changes implemented in 2023, when Delta massively increased the cost of Sky Club memberships, increased the fee to bring companions into lounges, stopped allowing Sky Club members on basic economy tickets access, eliminated lounge access for SkyMiles elite members on international economy tickets, and more.

Bottom line

As of February 2025, Delta will be introducing its latest round of Sky Club access changes. Specifically, those accessing lounges with select credit cards will start being limited to 10-15 lounge visits per year, unless they spend at least $75,000 on the card per calendar year.

Fortunately Delta has done a lot to address lounge crowding, between opening more lounges (including Delta One Lounges), and adding access restrictions. Personally, I don’t think these latest restrictions will do all that much in terms of crowding, but rather I think it’s about trying to generate more revenue, by having people spend more on their cards.

What do you make of these upcoming Sky Club access rule changes?