Delta One Lounge LAX To Open This Week

LAX Becomes Second Location To Open Delta One Lounge

Good news for the biggest spenders on the coasts (and those willing to drop six figures of SkyMiles per award flight): you can now leave the regular degular shmegular "elites" in the SkyClubs behind at JFK and LAX, because the latter's Delta One Lounge opens this week and the only way you can get in is to actually fly D1.*

How Can You Get In?

You should've seen the asterisk above coming, right? Lounge access seemingly always ends up with at least one side door option, and though the D1 Lounges have meaningfully tighter access control than SkyClubs, there are still three paths in:

  • Delta One Pax can enter departing, connecting and arriving; but no guests
  • Premium Cabin fliers on several partner airlines can enter solo at departure or connecting airports (but not on arrival):
      Air France La Premiere and Business Class (Long-Haul)
    • LATAM Premium Business Class
    • KLM Business Class
    • Korean Air First Class and Prestige Class, and
    • Virgin Atlantic Upper Class
  • Delta 360 Members on Delta First Class tix can enter departing/arriving and can bring 2 paid guests OR immediate family, assuming all are ticketed on a Delta flight

Is It Worth It?

Yes, because it's free. Or rather, it's baked into the cost of your premium ticket. If you're going to fly fancy anyway, you just get this as a perk, and it's sure to be a more refined and comfortable experience than the oversubscribed SkyClubs. But if you're wondering whether it's worth splurging on a more expensive flight to get access, that's a subjective decision (DL values lounge admittance at $100, based on guest pricing, roughly double the SkyClub fee), but I'd say for most of you, the answer is likely 'no.' You probably have ways to get into other perfectly decent lounges already, and Delta tends to defend its steep pricing differentiation for D1.

Tad's Take

Part of me worries the premium lounge concept will be another instance of a problem US carriers face cyclically - but anecdotally is most acute at Delta - they overpromise benefits to elites, thereby attracting more elites than they're able to cater to at promised service levels, and they fix that by introducing some new, higher tier and promise that will restore the old feelings. The end result for ordinary frequent flier benefits was making elite status less attractive, full stop. One hopes they don't do the same here and leave the SkyClubs as minimally staffed backwaters.

But for now, I love to see ritzier hospitality in airports I transit through, and I look forward to sliding through one of the side doors, soon!