Delta Sky Club access: How to enter the lounge before flying


Although Delta Air Lines is modernizing and expanding its Sky Club lounge network, the airline recently implemented several changes to limit access to the Delta Sky Club for some travelers in an effort to reduce crowding and lines.

So, here’s what you need to know about the various ways you can currently get Delta Sky Club access.

Related: Delta opens stunning new 34,000-square-foot Sky Club in Salt Lake City

Delta Sky Club access via eligible cards

One easy way to get Delta Sky Club access is to hold a card that grants access. Here’s a look at when you can get access with some of the best cards for Sky Club access:

If you’re interested in a card that offers Delta Sky Club access, new cardmembers of the Delta Reserve Amex can earn up to 125,000 bonus miles: 100,000 bonus miles after spending $6,000 on purchases in the first six months of card membership, plus an additional 25,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 on purchases ($9,000 total) in the first six months of card membership.

If you prefer a business card, new Delta Reserve Business Amex Card members can earn 125,000 bonus miles after spending $15,000 on purchases in the first six months of card membership.

Delta Sky Club in Charlotte. SEAN CUDAHY/THE POINTS GUY

Each visit includes 24 hours of access from your first use. As such, one visit can include access to Delta Sky Club locations and Grab and Go locations at multiple airports within 24 hours. However, if you use a Grab and Go location, you can’t use another Grab and Go location or Sky Club at the same airport for three hours, and Grab and Go “access” doesn’t include lounge entry.

If you run out of visits, eligible Amex cardholders can buy additional Sky Club visits for $50 each or Grab and Go visits for $25 each. You can also earn unlimited Sky Club visits through the end of the following Medallion year (Jan. 31) if you spend $75,000 or more on one of the eligible cards during a calendar year. Once you meet the spending requirements, you can enjoy unlimited visits for the rest of the calendar year, the following year and the first month of the following year.

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Delta Sky Club Atlanta Concourse D
Delta Sky Club in Atlanta’s Concourse D. ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY

There are some restrictions to note: You cannot access Sky Clubs when traveling on a basic economy fare. Additionally, you won’t get access until within three hours of your flight’s scheduled departure time unless you are on an eligible arriving flight.

The aforementioned cards only provide Delta Sky Club access to the cardmember. However, you can pay $50 per person or 5,000 SkyMiles ($25 per person or 2,500 SkyMiles for Grab and Go locations) per visit to bring up to two guests or your immediate family (spouse or domestic partner and children under 21). Basic cardmembers of the Delta Reserve and the Delta Reserve Business also get four one-time guest passes each program year to bring guests to Delta Sky Clubs. You can use up to two guest passes per visit.

Finally, if you have the Delta Reserve or the Delta Reserve Business and travel on a Delta partner airline flight not marketed or operated by Delta, you can pay $50 per visit for Delta Sky Club access ($25 per visit for Grab and Go locations).

Related: Why the Delta SkyMiles Reserve card is still one of the best cards in my wallet

Delta Sky Club membership

If you have Delta Medallion status, you can purchase a Sky Club membership with cash or Delta SkyMiles. There are two types of Delta Sky Club memberships:

  • Individual membership: One-year rate of $695 or 69,500 SkyMiles
  • Executive membership: One-year rate of $1,495 or 149,500 SkyMiles

These memberships provide Sky Club access when flying Delta or select partners, as long as you’re not flying on a basic economy ticket.

Delta Sky Club in New York's LaGuardia airport
Patio at the Delta Sky Club at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA). ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY

With an individual membership, only the member can enter the Sky Club. However, the member can pay $50 or 5,000 miles per guest, per visit ($25 or 2,500 miles per guest, per visit for Grab and Go locations) for up to two guests or immediate family members.

Meanwhile, an executive membership is handy for those who frequently bring guests with them into the club. You can bring up to two guests or your immediate family for free.

Sales of single-visit passes to Delta Sky Clubs are currently suspended, but travelers can redeem existing passes subject to capacity restrictions.

Related: 5 ways to ensure you have lounge access before your next flight

Delta Sky Club access via elite status

There are several ways you might get Delta Sky Club access as a benefit of your elite status. For example, Diamond Medallion members can select Sky Club access as a Choice Benefit each Medallion year.

Some of the Delta Choice Benefits can provide Delta Sky Club access as follows:

  • Delta Sky Club individual membership: Diamond Medallion members can obtain this benefit with two Choice Benefit selections.
  • Delta Sky Club executive membership: Diamond Medallion members can obtain this benefit with three Choice Benefit selections.
Delta Sky Club LaGuardia LGA Expansion
Delta Sky Club at New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA). ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY

Delta Diamond, Platinum and Gold Medallion members (and up to one guest traveling in the same cabin) can also access Sky Club lounges when traveling in:

  • Delta Premium Select internationally (excluding the Caribbean)
  • Delta First (to Canada, Mexico or Central America) or an equivalent cabin operated by a partner airline on this route
  • Delta One (or an equivalent cabin on a flight operated by a Delta partner)

If you are a SkyTeam Elite Plus member from another airline, you can access Delta Sky Club lounges with up to one guest before you travel on an international SkyTeam flight (excluding flights between the U.S. and the Caribbean) or a domestic SkyTeam flight connecting to or from an international SkyTeam flight.

Related: Inside Delta’s brand-new Sky Club in Atlanta, its nicest one yet

Delta Sky Club in Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY

There are also a few airlines that give Delta Sky Club access as an elite status benefit, including:

  • LATAM: LATAM Pass Black Signature, Black or Platinum members and up to one guest get Delta Sky Club access when traveling on or connecting to a same-day international flight operated by Delta or LATAM.
  • WestJet: WestJet Rewards Gold and Platinum members and up to one guest get Delta Sky Club access when traveling on a same-day transborder flight between the U.S. and Canada operated by Delta or WestJet.

Delta Sky Club access on premium cabin tickets

Both domestic and international Delta One (which is different from first class on Delta) passengers get Sky Club lounge access regardless of elite status or membership. The same goes for anyone flying on a same-day international first-class or business-class ticket on another SkyTeam-operated flight (though you must be confirmed in business class or first class for every segment of your journey).

You can enter the club even if you’re on a domestic Delta flight connecting to or from a same-day international Delta One flight. However, flights between the U.S. and the Caribbean aren’t considered international for lounge access purposes.

Entrance to a Delta Sky Club in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY

Additionally, Delta partners with two other airlines to provide Sky Club access to their premium cabin passengers (but no complimentary guests):

  • LATAM: Business-class passengers can access Sky Club lounges with same-day international travel or with a connection to or from an international flight operated by Delta or LATAM.
  • WestJet: Business-class passengers can access Sky Club lounges with same-day international travel or with a connection to or from an international flight operated by Delta or WestJet.

Related: These are our favorite Delta Sky Clubs in the US — and a card we love that gets you access

Bottom line

If you regularly fly Delta — or live in or travel often to a Delta hub city — Sky Club access can make your travel experience much more enjoyable.

While Delta has tightened Sky Club access rules, there are still plenty of ways to gain access as long as you avoid booking basic economy fares.

Additionally, these premium credit cards still provide a set number of complimentary Delta Sky Club visits each program year:

You can also earn unlimited visits by meeting specific spending thresholds each calendar year.



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Azure Traffic Manager – Table of Content

What is Azure Traffic Manager?

Azure Traffic Manager distributes traffic to services across the Azure regions. It is a DNS-based traffic load balancer that provides responsiveness and high availability of the services. The Traffic Manager considers the health of all the endpoints and uses DNS to route client requests to a service endpoint based on a traffic-routing method.

A service endpoint might be an application hosted on Azure or an internet-facing application outside of Azure. To suit the needs of different applications, the Azure Traffic Manager offers several endpoint monitoring options and traffic routing methods. It balances the traffic load on services according to set policies. 

Features of Traffic Manager

Here are the features that the Traffic Manager offers.

  • The Traffic Manager continuously monitors endpoints. If, in any case, an endpoint goes down, then it provides automatic failover, which results in increased application availability.
  • The services hosted on Azure run in data centres located around the world. The traffic manager routes traffic to the endpoint with the lowest latency. This improves application responsiveness.
  • If you plan for service maintenance of your applications, then the traffic at the time of service maintenance will be routed to the next best locations, which are alternative endpoints. So, users can perform operations without downtime.
  • The Traffic Manager also supports non-Azure endpoints, which might be on-premise or on hybrid cloud scenarios. These scenarios include burst-to-cloud, migrate-to-cloud, and failover-to-cloud scenarios.
  • It provides various traffic routing methods. We can combine the routing methods to create a nested Traffic Manager profile for more complex deployments.
  • Based on user traffic volumes and patterns, it provides actionable insights. You can get a view of where the users are interacting with the application and the quality of their digital experience.
  • It adheres to the applications of data sovereignty regulations by using geographic fencing.

How does Traffic Manager work?

The key benefits of the Traffic Manager are,

  • The traffic distribution is based on one of the traffic-routing methods provided by Azure.
  • It continuously monitors the health of the endpoints and implements automatic failover.

A client connects to a service using a DNS name. The Traffic Manager will first resolve the DNS name of the service to the IP address. The client is then connected to the IP address of the service to access it. The Traffic Manager works at the DNS level, where it routes traffic to a specific endpoint based on a selected traffic routing method. It is neither a proxy nor a gateway. Clients will directly connect to the selected endpoint. The Traffic Manager will not see the data passing between the client and the service.

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How does a client connect to the Traffic Manager?

When a client wants to connect to a service, a DNS query will be sent to the configured recursive DNS service. A recursive DNS service, which is also known as local DNS, does not host the domains directly. It rather encompasses the process of contacting authoritative DNS services to resolve the DNS name. The recursive DNS finds the name server across the internet for the domain in the DNS query sent by the client.

It then contacts the name server to request the DNS record. It then returns the record that points to the traffic manager of the server. The DNS then sends a request for the traffic manager. Upon receiving the request, the traffic manager chooses an endpoint. The chosen endpoint is sent back as a DNS name record. The recursive DNS service finds the domain name server. The IP address of the service endpoint will be returned. The recursive DSN consolidates and gives a single DNS response. The client then connects to the IP address. 

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Routing methods in Traffic Manager

To route traffic to different endpoints, Azure Traffic Manager supports six types of traffic-routing methods. The routing method specifies which endpoint is returned through DNS.

  • Priority – When you want to send primary service endpoints for all traffic, you can use the priority method. It provides backup if the primary endpoint is unavailable.
  • Weighted – When you want to distribute traffic across endpoints based on some pre-defined weights or evenly, use the weighted method.
  • Performance – When you want the users to interact with the lowest latency endpoint, then you can use the performance method. In this scenario, the endpoints are located in different geographic locations.
  • Geographic – When you want to route users to a specific endpoint based on the geographic location of the user, use the geographic methods. It employs data sovereignty based on different regions.
  • Multivalue – You can use multivalue when you only have IPv4/IPv6 addresses as endpoints. When a query is received, all the healthy endpoints are returned.
  • Subnet – If you want to map a set of user IP addresses to a specific endpoint, use the subnet method. When a request is received, the endpoint mapped to the source IP address will be returned.

Endpoints in Traffic Manager

An endpoint is referred to as application deployment. When the Traffic Manager receives a DNS request, it checks for all the endpoints and chooses an available one, and returns it as a DNS response. Traffic Manager supports the below 3 types of endpoints.

  • Azure endpoints – These are the services hosted in the Azure cloud.
  • External endpoints – These are the services hosted outside of the Azure cloud like on-premise or a different hosting cloud. These are used for IPv4/IPv6 addresses.
  • Nested endpoints – When you want to create more flexible routing schemes, you can use nested endpoints to combine Traffic Manager profiles for complex deployments. A single Traffic Manager profile can have any type of endpoints in it.
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Creating a Traffic Manager for an application

Let us create a Traffic Manager profile that provides high availability for your application. Navigate to https://portal.azure.com/ and log in to your Azure account. You have to deploy your web application in two different Azure regions. So, one will act as a primary endpoint and the other acts as a failover endpoint.

Learn more about AWS vs Azure from this Article Difference between Azure and AWS!

Deploy the web application

Click on the ‘Create a resource’ button on the top-left corner. Click on ‘Web’ and click on ‘Web App’. You will get a Basics tab where you can fill in the web application details. Create a resource group and give a name for it. Give a name for your web application. Select ‘Code’ for the ‘Publish’ field. Give ‘ASP.NET V4.7’ for ‘Runtime stack’, select Windows for ‘Operating System’, select ‘East US’ for the ‘Region’ field. Create a new service plan and give a name for it. Select ‘Standard S1’ for the ‘SKU and size’ field.

Go to the Monitoring tab, select no for the ‘Enable application insight’s option. Click on ‘Review and create’. You will get a review page where you can view all the settings. Click on ‘Create’ to create a website. Follow the same steps to deploy the web application in a different Azure region.

Creating a Traffic Manager profile

Click on ‘Create a resource on the top-left corner. Click on ‘Networking’ and then click on the ‘Traffic Manager profile’. Click on ‘Create Traffic Manager profile’ and a settings page appear. Give a name for the Traffic Manager profile, Select ‘Priority’ for the ‘Routing method’ field, select a subscription method, select your existing resource group, and give the location of the resource group for the ‘Location’ field. Click on ‘Create’ to complete the process.

Add endpoints to Traffic Manager

Give the Traffic Manager profile name in the search bar and select your profile from the results. Click on ‘Settings’ in the Traffic Manager profile. Click on ‘Endpoints’ and then click on ‘Add’. Select ‘Azure endpoint’ for the ‘Type’ field. For the ‘Name’ field, enter the endpoint that you want to set as the primary one. Select ‘App Service’ for ‘Target resource type’, select ‘Choose an app service > East US’ for ‘Target resource’, choose 1 for ‘Priority’ field, and click on ‘OK’. Repeat the same steps for the other endpoint and set the priority as 2.

Testing the Traffic Manager profile

You can find the DNS name of your web application in the overview of your Traffic Manager profile. Enter the DNS name in a browser, and you will get the default website of your web application. Now, disable your primary site in the Traffic Manager profile. Select your primary endpoint in the overview section. Click on ‘Disabled’, and then click on ‘Save’. You can observe the status as disabled when you close the primary endpoint. Check the same DNS name in a different browser, you can see that your web application is still available. You are routed to the failover endpoint.

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Conclusion

Now that you know how to create a Traffic Manager profile, deploy your web application, create multiple endpoints, and try setting up a Traffic Manager profile. It widely improves website response. To reference an Azure Traffic Manager profile, you can also create an alias record name. You can create a Traffic Manager profile through the Azure portal, Azure CLI, and Azure PowerShell. It follows a pay per use pricing plan.

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