Delta’s new Sky Club rules take effect Feb. 1: What you need to know

American Express cardholders represent the “vast majority” of Sky Club visitors, a Delta executive told The Wall Street Journal in 2022.

The cards' annual fees range from $650-695; a standalone annual Sky Club membership also costs $695.

The rules are part of a multiyear journey for the Atlanta-based airline to address overcrowding in its popular airport lounges, in part driven by growing SkyMiles membership ranks.

In 2022, it restricted access to flyers within three hours of departure. In 2018, it stopped selling $59 lounge day passes, and in 2019 it started prohibiting Sky Club members flying on other airlines that day to enter.

While some Delta loyalists have expressed frustration on social media about the new restrictions, these latest Sky Club limits were supposed to be even tighter.

They date back to Delta’s attempt to make sweeping changes to its SkyMiles program in 2023, which included limiting SkyMiles Reserve cardholders to 10 Sky Club visits and Platinum cardholders to six, as part of its “continued efforts to help preserve the premium experience.”

But that first draft, which also included higher spending thresholds for customers to gain SkyMiles status, was revised following customer outrage.

Most of those rules already went into effect, and CEO Ed Bastian told the AJC in early January that spending had not declined as a result.

Delta has simultaneously been adding new lounges and upgrading existing clubs across the country.

In Atlanta, it expects to upgrade lounges in Concourses A and C and will open a new 23,000-square-foot club in Concourse D this spring, the first new lounge in its hometown since 2016.