From Delta Silver to Platinum in 60 days...via the Amex Skymiles Reserve Card - Part One
The title says it all: my plan is to take myself from Silver Medallion to Platinum Medallion in 60 days, via credit card purchases and the purchase of 10,000 MQMs.
How it all got started:
I've been a Delta guy for years now, but I gave that up last year in favor of United's Global Services, which is probably the best domestic status tier out there -- yes, I am usually willing to put up with spotty wifi and dated interiors for some of the amazing perks that UA GS brings. Back in the day the combination of Delta and FlyingBlue on American Express Membership Rewards meant solid domestic and US-EU award availability. I used to be DL PM, and lately I've been missing the flexibility I had with award bookings, and given their recent push to open more Asia routes out of Seattle, I find myself wanting that status back. I still ended up on enough DL flights to get 46,004 MQMs last year, which equates to 21,004 rollover MQMS -- a great start.Enter the Amex SkyMiles Reserve Card:
I generally prefer not to use airline-specific credit cards because you're really locked into using your hard-earned points on that single airline. However, I think that the Skymiles Reserve card is great and worthy of $60k of my spend for three reasons:- 10k bonus miles and 10k MQMs on signup (as of this posting). The United Explorer card gets you 30k miles, but zero EQMs.
- Every $30k in spend gets you 15k MQMs. Spend $60 and you get a total of 30k MQMs, which is automatic Silver Medallion Status (Medallion Qualification Dollars requirement is waived after $25k of spend).
- Skyclub access. Sure, Delta just watered down their membership levels, but also announced upgraded services, so this is a nice perk if you don't already have Amex Platinum/Centurion, or Priority Pass.