Delta makes drastic updates to Sky Club access, severely limits access via credit cards

14.09.2023 - 11:25 / thepointsguy.com / Delta I (I) / Delta

Despite years of investing in bigger and better Sky Club airport lounges, Delta Air Lines still hasn't solved the nagging overcrowding issue.

It's built plenty of new outposts, upgraded existing ones and even implemented a host of access restrictions in an attempt to curb the line.

Now, however, the carrier is making perhaps its most drastic change yet, one that's sure to have an impact on Sky Club crowding levels.

The Atlanta-based carrier will cap the number of annual Sky Club visits you can make with a credit card. There are several other changes coming to Sky Club access policies, and I'll recap them all below.

Related: Delta overhauls how you earn elite status

No matter how you slice it, there's some bad news for those with Delta's top-of-the-line credit cards.

Beginning on Feb. 1, 2025, Delta will limit how many times you can visit a Sky Club in each program year, as follows.

Note that these limits are based on the so-called program year, which runs from Feb. 1 through Jan. 31 of the following year.

There are no changes to Sky Club access for those with the Centurion Card from American Express (the "black" card).

Previously, each of the aforementioned cards received unlimited access to the Sky Club when flying on a same-day ticket for a Delta-operated flight or a Delta-marketed WestJet ticket starting with a 006 ticket number.

This is no doubt a major blow to the value proposition of each of these top-tier credit cards, and with annual fees that can reach nearly $700, I'd expect many disgruntled cardmembers to consider canceling their cards and perhaps seeking out alternatives.

Personally, I've long accessed the Sky Club using the Amex Platinum card. I'm not a super frequent Delta flyer, but I certainly travel with the airline more than six times per year. As such, I'll now need to prioritize my Sky Club visits into the trips that matter most — a big change from how things have worked in the past.

There is one way to avoid these caps other than simply buying a Sky Club membership or exclusively flying on Delta One business-class fares, and that's by spending money — lots of it — on your credit card account.

Specifically, if you spend $75,000 or more during a calendar year (from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31) on one of the eligible credit cards, you'll enjoy unlimited Sky Club access for both the remainder of the year in which you spent the $75,000 and through Jan. 31 of the following year.

Delta and American Express will start tracking your spending on Jan. 1, 2024, in advance of the new rules taking effect on Feb. 1, 2025.

"For us, this was something that we were looking at ensuring that if the premium experience has to be preserved, what are things we can do for our most premium [credit card]