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Big Spenders: Spend Your Way to Airline Elite Status

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    With the AMEX Platinum Delta Cards, You Can Spend Your Way to Elite Status!

    Update:  These offers are no longer available.  Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.

    BIG SPENDER SERIES:

    Airline Elite Status via Credit Card Spending

    Airline elite status is a great benefit if you travel frequently on paid tickets because it will help you save time at the airport and you will get additional miles for flights.  But I wouldn’t spend my way to airline elite status if I was an occasional traveler.

    You can earn – outright – all levels of Delta Medallion status via credit card spending and Silver elite status on Virgin Atlantic via credit card spending.

    For $280,000 in annual spending (less the 1st year because of the sign-up bonuses) you could earn top tier Delta Diamond status which puts you first for upgrades, gets you 125% more miles for paid flights, free lounge access, and the ability to gift Delta Gold elite status to anyone.

    Delta is the only US airline which lets you get top tier status via credit card spending.

    American Airlines, Southwest, US Airlines, Virgin America and Virgin Atlantic don’t let you earn elite status outright via credit card spending, but you can earn elite qualifying miles or points which could help you reach an elite status level.

    Note that the calculations below do NOT take into account the sign-on bonus – because you may already have these cards – but just the recurring benefit for regular big spending on the credit card.

    Earn Full Elite Status Via Credit Card Spending

    American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, US Air & Virgin America don’t let you earn elite status outright without flying, but you can earn elite qualifying miles  via credit card spending to perhaps get a bump to the next status level.

    Spend Your Way to Airline Elite Status – The Details

    1.   American Airlines

    Link:   Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ Mastercard®

    2.   Delta

    You can earn Delta’s top tier Diamond status just by spending on a credit card without entering a Delta plane.  I’m not sure why you’ll want Delta top tier status if you don’t fly with them, but you can use this method to accumulate elite miles which will count towards lifetime Delta status.

    Elite or Medallion miles earned via a Delta Reserve credit card can be transferred to anyone’s Skymiles account, so you can theoretically have someone else transfer elite qualifying miles to your account.

    You can earn 100,000 MQMs after spending $220,000 within a calendar year (30,000 MQMs each for the personal and business Delta Reserve, and 20,000 MQMs each for the personal and business Delta Platinum.  

    You would also earn 320,000 redeemable Delta miles each year (220,000 Delta miles at 1 mile per $1 spent & 100,000 bonus miles) after spending $220,000 (not including sign-up bonuses).

    And if you want to go for top-tier Diamond status on Delta you could have a friend or family member apply for the card and then add yourself as an authorized user and spend $60,000 on the Delta Reserve card.  Your friend or family member would then gift you 30,000 elite qualifying miles.

    This together with the 100,000 miles above will get you 130,000 MQMs which is 5,000 MQMs more than the 125,000 MQMs needed for Delta Diamond status!

    Delta Platinum Card:

    Link:   American Express Delta Platinum (Personal & Business)

    Delta Reserve Card:

    Link:   American Express Delta Reserve (Personal & Business)

    3.   Southwest Airlines

    Link:   Chase Southwest Airlines Premier (Personal)

    Link:   Chase Southwest Airlines Premier (Business)

    4.   US Airways

    Link:   Barclays US Airways (Personal)

    Link:   Barclays US Airways (Business)

    5.   Virgin America

    Link:   Barclay’s Virgin America Card

    6.   Virgin Atlantic

    Link:   Bank of America Virgin Atlantic

    Bottom Line:  Big Spenders can get top tier elite status on Delta and get extra elite miles for spending on credit cards.   Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.
    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)