Delta Sky Club DTW Review & Overall Impressions
This past weekend I flew to Michigan on Delta. I hadn’t flown the airline in quite some time and the last time I did, I wasn’t a holder of a card that gave me access to Delta’s Sky Club. Despite the fact that I wanted to get to my hotel upon arrival, I decided to checkout the Sky Club in Detroit’s Concourse A across from Gate A38.
Over the past couple of years I have heard about all of the Delta Sky Club enhancements including improved decor and better food and beverage options. Since I was traveling alone, my American Express Business Platinum card got me in the door with no fee.
Initial Impressions
I walked in to find a very friendly agent. She checked my boarding pass, id and credit card and welcomed me to the lounge. While I didn’t think there would be any problems, I was able to confirm that there aren’t any issues accessing the lounge on arrival. As long as you have a same day Delta boarding pass, you get access with the American Express Platinum card.
This is the most centrally located of the four Sky Clubs in DTW Airport and thus it is probably the busiest. I landed just before 7pm and the lounge was packed. There were lines for the food, lines for the drinks and most importantly it was difficult to find a seat in a convenient area. There were still seats off to the side though and the lounge is quite large.
Decor & Furniture
The decor in the lounge uses a lot of earth tones which I tend to like. Once I did find a seat it was pretty comfortable, although I was in close proximity to other people since I was there to grab some food and that area was very crowded. Since I wasn’t staying long it didn’t matter, but it would have been difficult to get a lot of work done.
Food & Drink
I really do believe the Sky Club’s food offerings are a step above the Admiral’s Clubs and United Clubs. After seeing the decent selection of food, it became clear as to why both American and United felt it necessary to begin upping their offerings as well.
Speaking of food, it was extremely popular during my visit. I can’t believe I was able to get the one shot above, since there was almost always a long line. I didn’t have any of the normal food, but did try the soup. (White Chicken Chili I believe.) It was extremely good.
As for drink, unlike most Admiral’s & United Clubs, this Sky Club had alcohol sitting out for open pour. I don’t know if this is the case with other Delta clubs, but this is far more convenient and is in line with most International lounges. I really hate having to deal with a surly bartender just to get a drink, although it is harder to get in trouble that way!
Overall Review
If I was trying to get work done, then I would have probably gone to one of the further out lounges, since this was too busy and loud to be productive. With that said, the furniture was comfortable, the decor was attractive and the food & drink were decent for what they were. Overall I was impressed with the Sky Club at DTW and hope to experience more of Delta’s lounges at other airports.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now
bonus_miles_full
Learn more about this card and its features!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Any idea if Admirals lounges allow you to go in on arrival…will be flying into LGA in a few weeks and wouldn’t mind saving a couple bucks on lunch versus NYC prices.
The Amex Platinum doesn’t get you access to Admiral’s Clubs anymore, but if you have the Citi Prestige or AAdvantage Executive cards (or other membership) you should be able to go. I have gone to an Admiral’s Club on arrival using my Citi Executive card. I assume it should work with the other cards/memberships as well.
The DTW clubs are virtually unchanged from the NW days, other than the food and beverage menus. The JFK T4 is the flagship club of the system by far, followed closely by ATF F. But many of their clubs have a very different look that’s a lot more in line with current DL branding than the former NW clubs have.
I really need to get to more of them. Overall I felt it was a decent product compared to the American and United lounges. If only Delta SkyMiles wasn’t such a tough program I would probably fly them more!
Delta has a pretty solid product for a US carrier, and an enviable on-time record. If your priority is just simply earning and redeeming miles, then, no, they’re probably not a first choice. If you weigh everything, and place lower priority on maximizing award redemptions, then as far as US-based airlines go, they’re pretty much above everyone else. Sure, they’re not perfect, and fall behind others in some areas, but overall, they’re quite consistent and very good at doing what they do.
I definitely agree and have always enjoyed flying them. You are spot on. If I was a normal business flyer or someone who didn’t really care too much about the rewards, then I would definitely fly Delta more. I generally redeem awards and Delta doesn’t have the strongest presence in my hometown either, so the opportunity isn’t there most of the time.
Overall I can’t say very many negative things about Delta. They have made a business decision regarding SkyMiles and I don’t take it personally. Time will tell if they made the right one or not, but as someone who tries to maximize awards to spend the least out of pocket, the value isn’t with Delta right now in that respect.
SkyClubs at ATL, JFK and LGA offer traditional bars, which are annoying rather. And food is decent at SkyClubs? Were they feeding you drugs? Sorry, only foreign carriers offer decent food at their clubs in the US. For example: AF, KE and AZ at JFK T1.
Some SkyClubs have that open bar, others have a traditional bar. I think that the older, former NW, lounges are the ones with the open bar arrangement since the open bar is common in former NW strongholds like SEA, MSP, and DTW. ATL has newer clubs and those are the ones with the traditional marble bars.