Elite status via credit card spend: AA vs Delta vs United vs Alaska vs JetBlue vs Frontier
American Airlines, Delta, United, and several other airlines each offer four tiers of elite status, and with each loyalty program, it’s possible to earn up to top tier status through credit card spend alone. I found it interesting to compare the programs side by side to see which requires the least spend. Note that I’m […] The post Elite status via credit card spend: AA vs Delta vs United vs Alaska vs JetBlue vs Frontier appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.
American Airlines, Delta, United, and several other airlines each offer four tiers of elite status, and with each loyalty program, it’s possible to earn up to top tier status through credit card spend alone. I found it interesting to compare the programs side by side to see which requires the least spend. Note that I’m not recommending this approach. Airline elite status isn’t valuable if you don’t fly the airline often, so most would do better earning status through a combination of flying and credit card spend (or other means which vary by program).
Elite Requirements
Here’s a summary of the requirements for achieving each level of elite status with each airline:
| American | Gold | Platinum | Platinum Pro | Executive Platinum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loyalty Points (LPs) Required | 40K | 75K | 125K | 200K |
| Delta | Silver | Gold | Platinum | Diamond |
| Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQDs) Required | 5K | 10K | 15K | 28K |
| United | Silver | Gold | Platinum | 1K |
| Premier Qualifying Points (PQP) Required | 6K | 12K | 18K | 28K |
| w/ Premier Qualifying Flights (PQF) | 5K PQP +15 PQF |
10K PQP +30 PQF |
15K PQP +45 PQF |
22K PQP +60 PQF |
| Alaska | MVP | MVP Gold | MVP Gold 75K | MVP Gold 100K |
| Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) Required | 20K | 40K | 75K | 100K |
| JetBlue | Mosaic 1 | Mosaic 2 | Mosaic 3 | Mosaic 4 |
| Tiles Required | 50 | 100 | 150 | 250 |
| Frontier | Silver | Gold | Platinum | Diamond |
| Elite Status Points (ESPs) Required | 10K | 20K | 50K | 100K |
Credit Cards
Elite earning rates and elite bonuses vary by credit card. Here’s a summary of the earning rates of relevant cards available in the United States:
| AA Cards | Elite Earnings for Spend | Elite Bonuses |
|---|---|---|
| Citi AAdvantage MileUp Card | 1 LP per $ | N/A |
| Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select | 1 LP per $ | N/A |
| CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum Select | 1 LP per $ | N/A |
| Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red | 1 LP per $ | N/A |
| Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Silver | 1 LP per $ | Up to 15,000 bonus Loyalty Points per status qualification period: Earn 5K bonus LPs at $20K spend, $40K spend, and $50K spend. |
| Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive | 1 LP per $ | Up to 20,000 bonus Loyalty Points: 10K after earning 50K LPs through all channels and another 10K after earning 90K LPs through all channels |
| Delta Cards | Elite Earnings for Spend | Elite Bonuses |
| Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card | 1 MQD per $20 | $2,500 MQDs per year |
| Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card | 1 MQD per $20 | $2,500 MQDs per year |
| Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card | 1 MQD per $10 | $2,500 MQDs per year |
| Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card | 1 MQD per $10 | $2,500 MQDs per year |
| United Cards | Elite Earnings for Spend | Elite Bonuses |
| The New United℠ Business Card | 1 PQP per $20 (max 4K PQP) |
N/A |
| The New United Quest℠ Card | 1 PQP per $20 (max 18K PQP) |
1,000 PQPs per year* |
| The New United Club℠ Card | 1 PQP per $15 (max 28K PQP) |
1,500 PQPs per year* |
| The New United Club℠ Business Card | 1 PQP per $15 (max 28K PQP) |
N/A |
| Alaska Cards | Elite Earnings for Spend | Elite Bonuses |
| Alaska Airlines Visa Signature | 1 EQM per $3 (max 30K EQMs) | N/A |
| Alaska Airlines Visa Business Card | 1 EQM per $3 (max 30K EQMs) | N/A |
| JetBlue Cards | Elite Earnings for Spend | Elite Bonuses |
| JetBlue Plus Mastercard | 1 Tile per $1K | N/A |
| JetBlue Business Card | 1 Tile per $1K | N/A |
| JetBlue Premier Mastercard | 1 Tile per $1K | N/A |
| Frontier Card | Elite Earnings for Spend | Elite Bonuses |
| Frontier Airlines World MasterCard® | 1 ESP per $1 | N/A |
Spend Required
In the following table I’ve documented the spend required to earn each level of status entirely through credit card spend. With Delta I assumed that all spend would be on a Delta Reserve card since the Reserve card earns twice as many MQDs per dollar as the SkyMiles Platinum card. Similarly, with United, I assumed that all spend would be on a Club card which earns 1 PQP per $15 (vs 1 PQP per $20 with other cards). With Alaska, I’ve projected the amount of spend that would be required if Alaska stops capping EQMs earned from spend (they currently limit you to 30K EQMs per year).
| American | Gold 40K LPs |
Platinum 75K LPs |
Platinum Pro 125K LPs |
Executive Platinum 200K LPs |
Annual Fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Most AA cards | $40K | $75K | $125K | $200K | Up to $99 |
| Aviator Silver1 | $35K | $60K | $110K | $185K | $195 |
| AA Exec2 | $40K | $65K | $105K | $180K | $595 |
| Silver & Exec3 | $35K | $50K | $90K | $165K | $790 |
| Delta | Silver 5K MQDs |
Gold 10K MQDs |
Platinum 15K MQDs |
Diamond 28K MQDs |
Annual Fees |
| Delta Reserve4 | $25K | $75K | $125K | $255K | $650 |
| w/ 2nd card | $0 | $50K | $100K | $230K | $1,000 |
| w/ 3rd card | $0 | $25K | $75K | $205K | $1,350 |
| w/ 4th card | $0 | $0 | $50K | $180K | $2,000 |
| United | Silver 6K PQP |
Gold 12K PQP |
Platinum 18k PQP |
1K 28K PQP |
Annual Fees |
| Club Business Card5 | $90K | $180K | $270K | $420K | $695 |
| Club Card6 | $67.5K | $157.5K | $247.5K | $397.5K | $695 |
| w/ Quest Card | $52.5K | $142.5K | $232.5K | $382.5K | $1,045 |
| Alaska | MVP 20K EQMs |
MVP Gold 40K EQMs |
MVP Gold 75K 75K EQMs |
MVP Gold 100K 100K EQMs |
Annual Fees |
| Consumer or Biz card | $60K | $120K7 | $225K7 | $300K7 | $95 |
| JetBlue | Mosaic 1 50 Tiles |
Mosaic 2 100 Tiles |
Mosaic 3 150 Tiles |
Mosaic 4 250 Tiles |
Annual Fees |
| Plus or Business Card | $50K | $100K | $150K | $250K | $99 |
| Frontier | Silver 10K ESPs |
Gold 20K ESPs |
Platinum 50K ESPs |
Diamond 100K ESPs |
Annual Fees |
| Frontier card | $10K | $20K | $50K | $100K | $99 |
2) The AA Executive Card offers 10K bonus LPs after earning 50K LPs through all channels and another 10K after earning 90K LPs through all channels
3) Assumes that the first $50K spend is with the Aviator Silver card in order to earn each of its LP bonuses
4) The Delta Reserve and Delta Reserve Business cards earn twice as many MQDs per dollar as their SkyMiles Platinum counterparts so I assumed that all spend is on Delta Reserve cards. Each card that you have, regardless of whether you put spend on it, gives you a $2,500 MQD Headstart.
5) The Club Business and consumer Club Cards offer 1 PQP per $15 which is better than 1 per $20 offered with the United Quest and United Business cards. Therefore I assumed that all spend is put on Club cards.
6) The consumer United Club card offers a 1.5K PQP head start each year in which your card has been open at least since 12/31 of the prior year. Similarly the Quest card offers an annual 1K PQP head start. Simply having these cards gets you closer to elite status.
7) This number is shown for comparative purposes only. Alaska currently limits cardholders to earning 30K EQMs per year through credit card spend.
Analysis
The amount of spend required to earn United elite status is crazy compared to AA or Delta. If you’re interested in United elite status, I strongly advise looking to earn it through flying rather than spend.
The same is true for Alaska: the credit card spend required for status is almost as bad as with United. Currently, though, Alaska only allows spending to first tier status anyway.
If you don’t mind spending a lot in annual fees, then Delta is the way to go for earning any elite tier short of top-tier Diamond status. By paying four annual fees (for a total of $2,000 per year) it’s possible to get all the way to second tier (Gold) status without any spend at all! And you can achieve third tier (Platinum) status with only $50K spend. AA would require almost double that amount of spend for its 3rd tier (Platinum Pro) status. Even with all four Delta cards, though, AA (with two cards) requires less spend to get to top tier status.
If you want to spend less in annual fees, then AA is clearly the way to go among the major contenders. Just to get started with earning status through Delta credit card spend, you really need a $650 Delta Reserve card. Meanwhile, even the no-annual-fee AA MileUp card earns 1 Loyalty Point per dollar. And if you want all possible credit card elite boosts with AA, you can get them all for a grand total of $790 in annual fees. That’s only $140 more than the annual fee for a single Delta Reserve card!
Elite status earned with AA, Alaska, Delta, and United automatically gives you airline alliance status (oneworld status with AA or Alaska; SkyTeam status with Delta; and Star Alliance status with United). JetBlue and Frontier aren’t part of major airline alliances and so they don’t offer similar benefits. That said, if you fly either airline often, status may be worth pursuing…
Spending your way to JetBlue status isn’t nearly as expensive as with United, but it isn’t cheap. Each tier requires 20% to 33% more spend than with AA’s corresponding elite tier. If AA and JetBlue ever resume their partnership, it may actually make sense for JetBlue frequent fliers to seek AA status rather than JetBlue status.
Not surprisingly, Frontier elite status is the cheapest to earn through spend… by far. And yet… Frontier status may be a lot more interesting than you’d guess. Platinum status (which you can get with $50K spend) gives you free checked and carry-on bags, pet-fee waivers (which can be huge for those who travel with pets!), free upgrades (don’t forget that first class is coming late 2025), and a Companion Pass with unlimited companion travel coming mid 2025.
Conclusion
Most people will find that AA has the best balance of elite earnings for spend, elite benefits, and relatively low credit card annual fees. Those who are frequent Delta fliers, though, may find that high annual fees are worth paying in order to get annual companion tickets, club lounge access, etc. If so, it’s pretty remarkable that, without any spend, you can get first tier Silver status with two cards, and second tier Gold status with four cards!
United fliers? They’re out of luck. The amount of spend required to attain United elite status is crazy high compared to AA and Delta. The situation is almost as bad for Alaska fliers. Alaska requires high spend to get to their lowest elite tier and they don’t currently let you exclusively spend your way to status with credit cards beyond that. JetBlue fliers will find that spending to status isn’t as bad as with United or Alaska, but it still costs about 25% more than with AA.
Among the contenders here, the cheapest high level status available through credit card spend alone is with Frontier where you can earn Platinum status along with unlimited companion travel for only $50,000 in spend. If Frontier had a bigger route network out of Detroit (my home airport), I’d be interested.
The post Elite status via credit card spend: AA vs Delta vs United vs Alaska vs JetBlue vs Frontier appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.
