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Get Ready for More Obstacles To Your Airport Lounge Access
The Wall Street Journal|January 15, 2025
More crackdowns are coming as airlines and credit card companies continue to control crowds
- Dawn Gilbertson
Get Ready for More Obstacles To Your Airport Lounge Access

Travelers trying to get into an airport lounge today are often greeted with a buffet of restrictions. Flight more than three hours from now? Wait your turn. Want to bring free guests? Sorry, you'll have to pay, even for the kids. Oh, and that credit card or frequent-flier status that used to get you in? Not now.

More crackdowns are coming in 2025 as airlines and credit-card companies continue their never-ending quest to control crowds. For travelers, the time is now to evaluate whether that costly credit card promising lounge access is worth it. If you want in-and plenty of us do-do the math and make sure it fits your travels.

Capital One just eliminated free access to its swank new lounges for cardholders with two lower-tier cards, and last year raised the entry fee for noncardholders from $65 to $90 a visit. United Airlines surveyed passengers about big changes in lounge policies, so change might be afoot there, too.

The biggest looming change is at Delta Air Lines. The lounge leader has tightened so many rules over the past few years, there's a laminated cheat sheet at the counter. On Feb. 1, Delta will implement a whopper of a new policy. Let's call it a lounge meter.

Travelers whose golden ticket to Delta Sky Clubs is a premium American Express card will now be limited to 10 or 15 annual visits, depending on the card. Extra visits will cost $50 a pop. There's no limit today.

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