Delta Reducing Sky Club Access To 3 Hours Before Flight & No Access On Arrival

Delta announced today that it is making a couple of changes to its Sky Club admittance policy, although people will likely have different opinions on whether the changes are positive or negative.

There will be a change from June 1, 2022,

• Guests will be able to access Clubs anytime within three hours of their scheduled departure time (and connecting customers can continue to access Clubs at any time prior to departure).
• All departing and connecting customers will have access to Clubs. With the exception of arriving Delta One customers, Club access will be unavailable for arriving customers without a connection.

Sky Clubs are becoming overcrowded because of the rebound in air travel, and so Delta is trying to manage that overcrowding.

These changes seem reasonable to me. If Delta is turning people away from Sky Clubs because they arrive more than three hours early, it makes sense that they wouldn't let someone who wants a quick drink and a bite in. If you have a layover of more than three hours, you will be allowed into Sky Clubs, but only if you arrive very early for your first leg. If your flight is delayed, you will be able to enter a Sky Club within three hours of your original departure time, so there is no negative effect on the Sky Club.

Not having access to Sky Clubs on arrival seems like a fair policy if someone else's access is affected.

I am curious as to how meaningful these changes will be. I can't imagine how many people choose to arrive at the airport more than three hours early to sit in a Sky Club until their flight. I wouldn't have thought there were many people who get off the final leg of their flight and immediately make a beeline for Sky Club. If my assumptions are correct, they don't seem to have a big impact on capacity controls for their airport lounges. Delta has more detailed information about their Sky Club visitors than I do, so they must have calculated that it will make a difference. We have to hope that they don't make any more changes to their Sky Club access policies in the coming months and years that will affect more people than the limited changes.