It’s never a bad thing to see a good policy expanded, such as the SkyTeam domestic lounge policy implemented earlier in 2025.

Domestic SkyTeam lounge access

There are three major airline alliances: oneworld, SkyTeam, and Star Alliance. Up until 2025, SkyTeam did not make domestic lounge access available to elite members but it was a common feature of the other two alliances. However, in 2025, things changed.

SkyTeam Elite Plus members could now be granted access to certain SkyTeam-affiliated lounges. This applied for all SkyTeam Elite Plus members except:

• Delta Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and 360° members will not receive SkyTeam lounge access on domestic itineraries within the United States.
• Aerolineas Argentinas SkyTeam Elite Plus members will not receive SkyTeam lounge access on domestic itineraries anywhere.

The catch we called out from the prior announcement was that the list of eligible lounges was set to change over time. That brings us to this week…

The latest press release

On October 6, 2025, SkyTeam announced an update related to their domestic lounge access policy.

Since 1 April 2025, SkyTeam Elite Plus customers have enjoyed the added benefit of lounge access when traveling on domestic flights. This benefit is available at select lounges of Aeromexico, Air France, China Eastern, Garuda Indonesia, Kenya Airways, KLM, Korean Air, SAS, Saudia, Vietnam Airlines and Xiamen Airlines.

From Monterey, Mexico to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to Denpasar-Bali, Indonesia, more than 70 lounges are now accessible to Elite Plus travelers on domestic itineraries–offering increased flexibility and enhancing comfort for SkyTeam’s most loyal customers.

…SkyTeam and its members plan to extend domestic lounge access to more locations in the future and remain committed to further enhancing the airport experience for loyal customers.

The key takeaways are the further expansion of the list of eligible lounges and the promise of more. Initially, the list included 34 lounges but it more than doubles to “more than 70”.

At this point, why not add them all?

It’s certainly a great thing that the list expanded to include a lot of lounges. However, the question should now become: why even maintain a list? Nothing is more confusing for customers than having a robust list of inclusions that doesn’t include everything. I don’t like having to check a list to see if it’s eligible.

Let’s look at the Air France list of business class lounges, as an example. Crossed out lounges are those that are included in the list of domestic lounges.

• CDG Terminal 2E, Halls K, L, and M (cute that it spells out ‘KLM’, their partner)
• CDG Terminal 2F and 2G
• Paris Orly 2
• Paris Orly 3
• Bordeaux
• Lyon
• Marseille
• Montpellier
• Mulhouse-Basel
• Nice
• Toulouse
• Cayenne
• Fort-de-France
• Pointe-à-Pitre
• Saint-Denis (La Réunion)
• Frankfurt
• Geneva
• Munich
• Bangkok
• Boston
• Douala
• Houston
• Lagos
• Los Angeles
• Montreal
• New York JFK
• San Francisco
• Washington IAD

However, it’s important to note that there are quite a few lounges that are in international terminals where it would not be possible for domestic passengers to access them. Thus, the list of lounges is actually far more complete than it initially appears (all the lounges in Paris that could be added have been added).

So why not just make all lounges available at this point to avoid confusion? They could still exclude lounges run by certain airlines (like Delta Sky Clubs), but that feels like an easier methodology than what they have in place now.

How do you take advantage of the rules?

One last parting thought is how to take advantage of the SkyTeam Elite Plus access rules? If you currently don’t hold SkyTeam Elite Plus status, consider a status match or earning it the hard way. This is also true for anyone living in the United States who wants to access non-Delta lounges domestically but needs non-Delta status to do so. We’ve listed out the potential options in our prior article and they largely hold true today.

Suggested reading:

• Review: Air France Business Class Lounge CDG Terminal 2E Hall K
• Why I Always Check a Bag with Delta
• Making Memories on the Plane with Delta Trading Cards