Strict Delta Sky Club Limits are Coming, Use These Tips for More Visits this Year

After years of failed efforts to combat overcrowding, travelers accustomed to waltzing into Delta Sky Clubs with their credit cards are in for a rude awakening: Starting next month, Delta and American Express are cracking down on your lounge access. But we've got a tip that could make these new policies a little less painful.

Come Feb. 1, travelers with the airline's top-tier *delta reserve card* will be limited to 15 days of Sky Club visits each calendar year. It's even worse for *amex platinum*: You'll be capped at just 10 days of hitting the Sky Club annually. Compared to the unlimited access we've all been enjoying for years, it'll be tough to ration our Delta lounge hopping.

You could stack both cards for a total of 25 Delta lounge visits through the rest of 2025 … but that'll cost you more than $1,300 in annual fees. And you'll get a break when visiting multiple lounges in the same trip, as Delta counts any Sky Club visits in a 24-hour period as just one of your 10 (or 15) visits.

But there's a sneaky – and easy – way for Amex Platinum cardholders to stretch their Sky Club quota a bit further. 

Use Your Amex Airline Credits for 4 More Visits

Among the laundry list of benefits on the Platinum Card, there's an annual credit of up to $200 to put toward extra fees on U.S. airlines, including Delta. That's gotten harder and harder to use over the years, though there are still workarounds you can use to book airfare rather than just pay for bags or seat assignment.

With these new lounge restrictions going live soon, I can't think of a better way for loyal – or even not-so-loyal – Delta flyers to put it to use than to get into Sky Clubs a few extra times each year.

After using up all 10 annual Sky Club visits, Delta will allow otherwise eligible cardholders to buy their way in for extra visits for $50. And because bringing a guest into the Delta lounge with you (also $50) already triggers these airline credits, you should be able to pay for yourself and have that credit kick in to cover the cost, too.

With $200 to spend a year, that's an extra four Sky Club visits a year … for a total of 14, nearly leveling the playing field with the Delta Reserve Card's allotment of 15. If you're bringing a guest or two with you, you'll have to pay $50 apiece for them separately, too.

Now, that obviously comes at a cost. If you've been pairing your airline credits with Delta eCredits to book flights for less, adding to your United TravelBank stash, booking cheap Southwest, maybe this isn't the best move. You'd be wise to do some mental math on just how much you may want or need lounge access before plowing ahead with this game plan.

But if you value hitting the Sky Club before (and even after) a flight above all else – and you're sure you'll exhaust all 10 of those allotted visits from February through the end of the year – this is a no-brainer. And it's an excellent way to put those annual airline credits to use. 

If you haven't already, you'll need to select Delta Air Lines as your qualifying carrier. Just log in to your American Express account, head for the “Benefits & Rewards,” scroll down to the long list of benefits, and select tab to choose Delta. These selections typically carry over from year to year, but it's wise to double-check to be sure. 

Already pick another carrier but want to switch over to Delta for more lounge access? American Express may let you change now (or even mid-way through the year) by simply chatting with an agent online.

Then, just use your Amex Platinum card at the welcome desk to pay the $50 charge for your 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th trip to the Sky Club. A few days later, your airline credit should kick in to cover the cost. 

American Express also has a handy meter which tracks how much of your Amex airline credits you've used. With the New Year barely underway, I'm back at zero … and seriously considering keeping it that way to cover some extra Sky Club visits throughout the year. 

Other Tips for Sky Club Access This Year

While leveraging those annual airline fee credits is an easy path for Amex Platinum cardholders, there are a few other options to get more Sky Club access in 2025 and beyond.

• Spend (a ton) on your Amex Cards: Travelers who spend a whopping $75,000 on their Amex Platinum or Delta Reserve can regain unlimited Sky Club access for the year. Spending that sum on a Platinum Card will also unlock complimentary guest access for Amex Centurion Lounges, while charging it to a Delta Reserve would earn you $7,500 MQDs toward Delta Medallion Status. Add in the card's automatic $2,500 MQD Headstart, and that's enough for Gold Medallion without taking a single flight.
• Buy a Sky Club Membership: Delta sells standalone memberships for unlimited Sky Club access. An individual account will cost you $695 while an Executive Membership (which includes two free guests) clocks in at $1,495 a year. One hitch: You must have some level of Delta Medallion status to purchase a lounge membership.
• Maximize your travel days. Delta counts multiple Sky Club entries in the same 24-hour period as a single visit against your limit of 10 or 15. Have a flight with a connection? Hit the Sky Club before you depart and during your connection! You can even access Sky Clubs upon arrival, if you want a bite to eat, a coffee, or even a shower before heading into town.
• Be strategic about your Sky Club visits. Save those precious lounge visits for long layovers, special trips, and for airports with the best new Sky Clubs like Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP), Chicago-O'Hare (ORD), Los Angeles (LAX), and others. If you have other options at the airport like an Amex Centurion Lounge or Priority Pass lounges, that might be a better choice. And if you only have a few minutes before boarding begins, don't burn one of your 10-15 slots. 

A Quick Refresher on Delta's Looming Lounge Limits

Delta has stopped selling day passes, turned away travelers with the *delta skymiles platinum card*, and banned flyers who booked a Delta basic economy ticket from getting into their lounges – all in the name of reducing overcrowding in its Sky Clubs. But February will usher in the biggest changes yet. 

This all goes back to the Delta's unpopular overhaul of its Medallion status program, when the airline drastically increased how much you need to spend to climb the ranks of status while finally cracking down on how often travelers can enter Sky Clubs using premium travel credit cards. After intense backlash, the carrier eventually rolled back some of the worst of those changes.

Still, even the less-painful tweaks sting. Some highlights and finer points of the new policies taking effect Feb. 1 include: 

• *delta reserve card* holders will be limited to 15 Sky Club visits a year, while *amex platinum* is capped at just 10.
  • But any Sky Club entries within the same 24-hour period count as just one “visit,” so you could head to the lounge before your first flight and again during a connection without burning two precious slots, for example. Same goes for visiting one lounge before departure and another upon arrival.
• After using up that allotment of 10 or 15, you can pay $50 per each additional visit 
  • … or, as you just read, use your Platinum Card to cover up to four additional visits!
• Visits add up across all eligible cards, meaning you'd get 25 visits annually with both The Platinum Card and the Delta Reserve Card.
• Authorized users on the Amex Platinum or Delta Reserve get their own set of 10 or 15 lounge visits, respectively.
• Short of buying a Delta lounge membership (which starts at $695 a year), the only way to regain truly unlimited Sky Club access is by spending a whopping $75,000 on either card. No, thank you.

Beyond that, the same Sky Club restrictions apply. You need a same-day Delta boarding pass to get in the door … and you can only enter within three hours of departure. 

Read our full guide to Delta Sky Club access!

Bottom Line

The days of unlimited Sky Club access are (almost) over. 

Come Feb. 1, even top-dollar travel credit cards will be capped at as few as 10 Delta lounge visits a year. Fortunately for Amex Platinum cardholders, there'll be an easy way you can stretch that a bit further using one of the card's many benefits.