This week is very exciting for our customers who visit Minneapolis–St Paul and for those of us who work with the Delta Sky Clubs! We celebrated the much anticipated opening of our renovated Delta Sky Club in MSP and that’s just the beginning. We’ve been hard at work and this month, we’ll be unveiling three more remodeled Sky Clubs in Atlanta, New York – LaGuardia (Phase 1) and a new club in Philadelphia. The refurbishments are part of Delta’s more than $2 billion investment in its product through 2013!
We hope that you have noticed that the changes. Here’s what the new clubs have:
- All new contemporary furnishings in addition to our standard bars with free beverages and snacks all day
- New art featuring aerial photography of the region, updated restrooms, satellite TV and a work zone that comes with free Wi-Fi
- Cyber bars for you to plug in a recharge, desktop computers, wireless printers and additional charging options
We’ve incorporated a lot of the feedback we’ve received directly from our customers (such as more power) and made sure we kept some of your favorite elements like the complimentary alcohol, fresh, healthy snacks all day and of course the “real” cheese.
Last year we renovated Sky Clubs in Los Angeles and Atlanta, opened a new club in Indianapolis and made improvements (like new carpet, new upholstery, upgraded serviceware, etc.) to all other clubs. In addition to the four clubs we plan to open this month, later this year we’re also building new clubs in Seattle and in Atlanta on Concourse D and will finish the renovation of the clubs in New York-LaGuardia and Atlanta near Gate A-17.
We hope that you’re enjoying the clubs and find them the best place in the airport for comfort, convenience and cocktails!
Not a member of the Delta Sky Clubs? Find out what all the buzz is about for only $50. Stop by the club to purchase a one day pass or better yet an annual membership!
We look forward to welcoming you soon.
Kelley M.
Delta Sky Clubs
January 22nd, 2011 at 1:19 am
Kudos on the changes that have been happening lately in the clubs. We’ve come a long way from the days of shelf-stable cheese! The snacks have been getting noticeably much better as of late (the soup and oatmeal are especially appreciated, in the clubs that have them!). Thanks for investing here – it really does make a difference.
I’ve also always wanted the clubs to have more local flavor to them, so hearing you’re purposely installing regional aerial photography is fantastic – thanks! The regional beers (like Alaskan Amber in Seattle) are also greatly appreciated. It would be great to see even more of this – what about brochures or download stations with suggested music playlists from up and coming local musicians, or maybe art from undiscovered local artists? Maybe local magazines on the literature rack? It’s so nice to be able to tell your destinations apart and experience the joy of local diversity while traveling…
The other main improvement that’s high on my priority list would be installing additional showers. Even though I had a two hour layover, I was unable to use the shower facilites in Atlanta last week because I was #8 on the waitlist for two rooms. The situation is even worse in Minneapolis, where there are no showers available at all. As clubs with significant international or transcontinental traffic are renovated (Seattle, for example), it would be really great to see showers installed… and Atlanta in particular needs additional capacity over and above the one club in Terminal E.
One last note… I haven’t made it to the newly renovated MSP F/G club yet, but I trust the self service bar has been retained? In cities with full service bars (ATL, for example), it’s really frustrating when you even have to ask a bartender for a simple soda…
January 22nd, 2011 at 10:38 am
Cant wait for LaGuardia to open!!! Wish the Skyclub was back in San Juan, PR.
January 23rd, 2011 at 11:02 pm
I love waiting 10 minutes for a Coke! That old method of self-serve drinks meant I could get a coke in like 30 seconds, what a waste! The more time it takes, the better!
I hope you move towards this time enhancement in your self-serve clubs.
January 24th, 2011 at 1:14 am
Looks like the new MSP SkyClub will be great. It has been missed while under renovation. Is the bar (or at least the soft drinks) configured for self-service? Thanks. Which way will it be at LGA? Will we at least be able to self-serve soft drinks?
January 25th, 2011 at 3:35 am
No, to those who asked, everything is behind the bar, even the cheese/yogurt. You have to ask. Or in my experience in ATL, you have to wait 8 minutes for someone to come in from the back, watch them make three drinks for someone, then ask for a Coke errr cup full of ice and a splash of Coke.
Can’t please everyone!
January 26th, 2011 at 2:17 am
A Club in D!!! Yes! Having to fly in and out of D always felt like a punishment this will be great. C used to be the same way until the amazing club opened there.
I do have to agree with BenA, showers are badly needed anywhere that there are trans con and intl flights. I’ve also been down on the shower list after a long haul flight.
The new LAX club is great, especially the showers, great job.
January 29th, 2011 at 5:57 pm
I do welcome the changes, since they are needed. And I second the comment about LAX, that is a nice club. One thing that bugs me is the quantity and available selection of complimentary reading material in some of the clubs. If you go to any airline club in Europe, they tend to have a wide variety of newspapers and magazines for you to take with you – usually the English options are at least USA Today, Int’l Herald Tribune, WSJ, and FT / Time and Newsweek for magazines. In some airports like Munich, newspapers are free even in the general public areas. In a US club, I would expect to find USA Today, the local newspaper of the city where the club is located, WSJ, and FT.
I’ll compare the CVG club to DTW, for example. DTW usually has the above newspapers available, but since DL took over, they seem to be purchasing less quantities because if you arrive late morning/early afternoon it can sometimes be slim pickings. At CVG, the situation is really bad – I think they must buy a couple USA Today and New York Times – probably 5 of each – for the whole day. Since DL acquired NW, I haven’t seen the local Enquirer in the CVG club for some time (and very rarely USA Today. If they have anything left, it tends to be New York Times). I haven’t been through ATL in a while but I also remember it being a challenge to find a newspaper. The old NW clubs seem more likely to have reading material available.
February 3rd, 2011 at 12:00 am
I had a chance to visit the MSP main sky club today. The look and feel of the lounge was nice and relaxing and reminded me of the NRT sky club. I use the MSP Sky Club for business travel and missed the private work spaces. The main disappointment for me was to have to use the bartender for a quick cocktail. I waited for some time today for service and finally decided to take a coffee from the machine. Now even soft drinks need to be requested from the bartender. The clearly displayed jar for tips, means I am now I have to pay (tips) for a beer that should have come for free because of my paid membership. I would have preferred that Delta would have increased the membership rather than try to cut alcohol costs by making it so time consuming for members that people will just not use the service. I am not at all happy about this. Unfortunately MSP is my home base and I just renewed my membership for 3 years.
February 4th, 2011 at 1:19 am
I visited the new. Sky Club in the main terminal of MSP tonighjt. It was bright, fresh, and nice. I was was surprised and disappointed that I could not serve myself to a Diet Coke. It was more disapointing to see how the bartenders had scattered dollar bills strategically across the bar. It was cheesey attempt to pander for tips. I don’t like this at all and it sounds like I am not the only one. This is a private club and should not be expected to pay tips. Really.
February 7th, 2011 at 1:20 pm
I just flew through MSP last week on the outbound and inbound itinerary. I do like the eye-appealing design of the new club, but dislike the ‘soft drinks now behind the bar’ approach. At least the club in MSP concourse C still retains the old NWA setup. Although I saw the tip jars out there, I didn’t feel like the bartender was dissatisfied because I didn’t tip him for a diet Coke. But it was a pain in the butt to wait in line.
May I offer a suggestion: if you don’t want to restore the soda fountain-on-demand service, at least put a small fridge out there with soft drinks in cans. Better yet, Delta could appear to be cutting edge and different by striking another marketing deal with Coke to put their new “Freestyle” machine in the SkyClub (you can get like 100 different flavors with one machine). See http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/presscenter/nr_20090428_freestyle.html for more info. Seems like a natural fit for two companies based in Atlanta.
February 21st, 2011 at 12:07 pm
Could you please revise your blog post to reflect that the PHL club did not open as promised and that Delta has no firm idea when it will open?
February 5th, 2012 at 9:32 am
I’m not sure where to send this feedback…but often I purchase a discounted sky club pass from the self check in kiosks. The problem is….I’ve purchased a ticket several times only to find out that there isn’t a skyclub in the airport. And the stopover I’m heading to has one but sometimes my layovers are short.
I think the kiosks should indicate which airports on my route have a skyclub. That little extra prompt would’ve saved me countless calls to customer support and saved all of our time.
I’d appreciate it and safe travels to all. I would’ve sent this straight to delta but they never returned my comment that time. And the process now requires me to put a location, date of incident etc. I feel like I just want to blog it