Delta confirms a 3rd exclusive business-class lounge, will tighten Sky Club access
For years, Delta Air Lines has been the only "Big Three" U.S. carrier to not offer a business-class-only lounge.
American Airlines has its Flagship Lounges. United Airlines has Polaris Lounges. Delta, however, only offers a network of (otherwise stunning) membership-based Sky Clubs.
But that's changing next year when the airline finally takes the wraps off its long-awaited premium lounge in New York, followed shortly thereafter by a similar space in Los Angeles.
While the airline has so far only shared plans about these two lounges, there's some great news: A third is in the works for Boston Logan International Airport (BOS).
"We have a new location in Boston in the plans. We're working through all the logistics right now," Claude Roussel, Delta's managing director for Sky Clubs, told TPG in an interview.
Delta's third premium lounge will open in Boston's recently expanded Terminal E, which is home to most of the airport's international operations.
This new premium space will be complemented by the beautiful new Sky Club that just opened last week in Terminal E.
As for what we can expect, Roussel didn't share much. He hinted at a possible Sky Deck, but otherwise, we'll have to wait for more details to trickle in over the coming months.
There's no timeline yet for when the new premium lounge in Boston might open, but Roussel confirmed that it'll be after both the New York and Los Angeles locations.
Delta hasn't even aligned on what it'll call these new premium lounges. Many insiders keep referring to them as "Delta One Lounges," but Delta doesn't necessarily want to brand them this way, said Roussel.
"The scope could be a lot bigger, and we decided not to call it a Delta One lounge," Roussel told TPG. (By "scope," Roussel was referring to who can access these premium lounges — policies that haven't been finalized yet.)
Even as Delta gets ready to debut business-class-only lounges, many of its existing Sky Clubs continue to suffer from overcrowding.
To shorten the line, Delta announced a slew of access policy changes that kicked in earlier this year. This includes keeping membership sales limited to Medallion elite members and cutting access on basic economy fares.
However, these tightened policies might not be enough to thin the crowds.
In fact, it seems that Delta is gearing up to announce another round of tightened access policies.
"We continue to work with our partners and continue looking at this issue. It's not a done issue. We have to continue making progress. Our guests are telling us that. They're telling us, listen, we love the clubs. You need to fix the crowding," Roussel said.
In perhaps the clearest confirmation that changes are coming, Roussel added that "there'll be more to come as soon as we are ready."
While it's anyone's guess what exactly the airline (and its cobranded credit card partner American Express) will announce, rumors have begun circulating online in recent weeks.
One supposed Amex employee shared that the airline will impose limits on the number of complimentary annual visits afforded to travelers with premium credit cards.
Of course, we'll need to wait for the official details from Delta and Amex, but I wouldn't be surprised to see some pretty drastic changes.
After all, Delta keeps building lounges that people actually want to visit. Keeping the crowds at bay and maintaining a premium experience is clearly a priority for the airline, and tightening access policies is a great way to do that.
"We don't want to see lines in our clubs. That's not the experience we want to create," Roussel added.
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