Discounted Sky Club fees upsets some frequent flyers
Apparently some flyers aren’t too happy about Delta using Groupon. Apparently this was important enough to write an article about.
“The cheaper they make it for somebody to go in, the more it’s like the regular concourse,” said Rick King, a technology executive at Thomson Reuters. “If it’s like the regular concourse, the benefits for me go down.”
Well I don’t even know where to start. Unless he was sitting at the counter tracking how everyone was gaining their admission how would he know that it was one-day passes? During peak times there are a lot of business travelers. Business travelers are likely to either have their membership compensated by their company or they have diamond status and get in for free. They may even have one of the credit cards that extends membership. If we get rid of anyone, it would be the AMEX Platinum people.
Regardless of that, there are a lot of people wanting to enter the lounges and if there aren’t enough seats, then what is the point? When I enter I mainly expect a seat with an outlet. Anything less than that and I’m unhappy. A couple times at B9 in ATL there were no seats available so I did just leave and went to the less crowded boarding area. I also don’t like if someone takes all of my chocolate chip cookies. I paid $350 for the right to eat as many chocolate chip cookies as I can and if they aren’t there and I’m stuck with the other varieties I feel cheated! (sarcasm)
The key is that some businesses may be buying these passes for their members instead of full lounge membership because some people really just need ~6 passes instead of a full membership.
so: Delta better start increasing capacity to match these sales or things are going to get worse. I don’t know if ATL has room for many more lounges, but I’ve always had problems with crowding the couple times I’ve been to MSP. DTW is fine as long as a lounge isn’t under construction. I’m not familiar enough with other lounges to comment.
You know, the single biggest thing that’s probably increased club traffic at MSP is the free membership for Diamonds like Mr. King. Before Delta there was no free membership for high level elites. And the ranks of Diamonds have only grown in the last year.
I agree. I just didn’t want to say it. I guess since I’m a gold rate paying member I have some say. Diamonds do fly a lot which means they have more opportunity to use the club than other flyers, but they do fly a lot so Delta likes to give them more perks.