In this post I’ve compared the requirements for earning elite status among the big three: AA, Delta, and United. In recent years, all three have simplified their programs to make it possible to earn elite status through a single metric. And all three make it possible to earn status through credit card spend. United confuses things by also considering a second metric (segments flown), but if we ignore that complexity, we can compare the three programs head to head. Which program offers the easiest path to status? Which is worst? The answers to these questions may surprise you (they surprised me!).
Overview
All three Airline elite programs used to award elite status based on distance flown. Now, as of Jan 2024, all three award elite status based primarily on how much money you spend with the airline. Delta is the most overt with this. Their elite metric, MQDs, stands for “Medallion Qualifying Dollars” and, other than a few exceptions, it is a direct measurement of how much each person spends on Delta flights. United’s system is similar but they chose to obfuscate a bit by calling their metric PQPs (Premier Qualifying Points) even though PQPs are really dollars spent flying United. United confuses things further by letting you earn status with a combination of PQPs and PQFs (Premier Qualifying Flights), but otherwise Delta and United have comparable elite metrics. American Airline’s system is very different. With AA, the amount you spend on AA awards loyalty indirectly. With AA, other than a few exceptions, anytime you earn redeemable miles, you also earn the same number of Loyalty Points. And since AA awards redeemable miles based on the amount paid for a flight, they also award Loyalty Points based on the amount paid. But, unlike Delta and United, there is not a one to one correspondence between the amount paid on AA flights and Loyalty points earned. This makes it difficult for people to compare elite requirements across programs. That’s where this post comes in…
How to earn status with American Airlines
AA awards status based on Loyalty Points earned within the status qualification period (March-Feb). In most cases, when you earn AA redeemable miles, you also earn the same number of Loyalty Points. This is very different from Delta and United because it includes earning points from AAdvantage e-Shopping, Simply Miles, and more. Some examples of where you do not earn Loyalty Points when earning redeemable miles are:
- With credit card spend, you only earn one Loyalty Point per dollar spent even when the credit card offers more miles per dollar. Additionally, miles earned from welcome bonuses and other bonuses, do not earn Loyalty Points.
- With portal rewards, you do earn Loyalty Points at the same rate as you earn miles, except that you do not earn Loyalty Points for portal-wide bonuses. For example, if a store offers 10 miles per dollar for purchases, you will also earn 10 Loyalty Points per dollar. However, if the portal is offering, for example, 1,000 bonus miles, portal-wide, after a certain amount of spend, you will not earn 1,000 Loyalty Points from that promotion.
- Bask Bank does not offer Loyalty Points for miles earned from banking.
How to earn status with Delta Airlines
Delta’s elite earnings are pretty straightforward. You will earn one MQD for each dollar spent for Delta Flights and Delta Vacations. With credit cards you’ll earn either 1 MQD per $10 spent (Delta Reserve) or 1 MQD per $20 spent (Delta Platinum).
Delta also awards MQDs on award flights when flying Delta. You’ll earn 1 MQD for each 100 SkyMiles spent on your award flight.
Other ways to earn MQDs:
- Delta Reserve and Delta Platinum cards offer an annual $2,500 MQD Headstart per card. It’s theoretically possible to have both the consumer and business version of each for a total of four $2,500 MQD Headstarts. In other words, you could start each year with up to $10,000 MQDs.
- Delta runs promotions periodically to award MQDs for booking hotels or car rentals through their site, or for making purchases at a Delta store, etc.
- When you earn Platinum Medallion status and again when you earn Diamond Medallion status, you can pick a 1,000 MQDs or 2,000 MQDs Accelerator.
How to earn status with United Airlines
Compared to AA and Delta, United stands alone as having the most convoluted elite system. At a high level, though, it seems simple. Just like Delta, you can earn status entirely with dollars (PQPs) spent on United flights. Except that you do have to fly a minimum of 4 segments on United or United Express to qualify at all. If you fly many segments (also known as PQFs), you can qualify for status with fewer dollars (PQPs).
United award flights earn both qualifying dollars (PQPs) and segments (PQFs). For the first, PQPs, United gives you 1 PQP for each 100 miles redeemed. That’s the exact same equation that Delta uses for MQD earnings on award flights.
With credit card spend, you can earn 25 PQP for every $500 in card spend. Compared to AA and Delta (at least, with the Delta Reserve card), that’s pathetic (with the Delta Reserve card, for example, you would earn 50 MQDs for every $500 in spend). And to make it worse, there are caps to how many PQPs can be earned with each card (the no-longer-available United Presidential Plus Card and United Presidential Plus Business Card are exceptions with no caps). Clearly United is less interested than AA or Delta in awarding elite status to heavy credit card spenders.
Caps on earning PQPs with United credit cards:
- United Explorer Card: Up to 1,000 PQP in a calendar year
- United Quest Card: Up to 6,000 PQP in a calendar year
- United Club Infinite Card: Up to 10,000 PQP in a calendar year
Details about other United cards can be found here.
Elite status through flying
In this section you’ll find a comparison of the cost to achieve elite status through paid flights with each airline. For comparative purposes, this assumes that you’re not earning elite qualifying points through other means such as credit card spend, award flights (which is possible with Delta and United), car rentals, etc.
With Delta and United, the amount of spend required to achieve each level of status is straightforward since their requirements are directly based on the amount spent. With AA, it’s more complicated. AA awards more miles based on your elite status level when you fly. Therefore, the amount of spend required to reach or renew a level of status differs based on your status when you fly. In other words, elite earnings accelerate as you reach higher and higher levels of status and renewing high level status through paid flights is easier than getting it in the first place.
AA awards miles and Loyalty Points for paid flights, as follows:
- Base Member: 5 miles per dollar
- AAdvantage Gold: 7 miles per dollar
- AAdvantage Platinum: 8 miles per dollar
- AAdvantage Platinum Pro: 9 miles per dollar
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum: 11 miles per dollar
The following table assumes that all elite earnings are from flight spend. This is a necessary simplification in order to compare programs. In the real world, I believe that most people will earn status through a combination of flight spend, credit card spend, and other opportunities. Further, for American Airlines status, I made the simplifying assumption that once you reach a level of status, all further flight spend will earn points based on that level of status. In the real world, it is unlikely to be that clear cut since you’ll have some spend that overflows into the next level of status earning before your status changes.
| Airline | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA | Gold: 40K LPs | Platinum: 75K LPs | Plat Pro: 125K LPs | Exec Plat: 200K LPs |
| Fresh start1 | $8,000 | $13,000 | $19,250 | $27,583 |
| Renew status2 | $5,714 | $9,375 | $13,889 | $18,182 |
| Delta | Silver: $5K | Gold: $10K | Platinum: $15K | Diamond: $28K |
| w/ one card3 | $2.5K | $7.5K | $12.5K | 25.5K |
| w/ two cards3 | $0 | $5K | $10K | 23K |
| United | Silver: $5K4 | Gold: $10K4 | Platinum: $15K4 | 1K: $24K4 |
| w/ PQFs | $4K +12 PQF |
$8K +24 PQF |
$12K +36 PQF |
$18K +54 PQF |
1) Assumes starting with no AA status. LPs earned per dollar increase w/ each status level gained.
2) Assumes renewing the same level of AA status that was earned the previous year.
3) Those with a Delta Platinum or Delta Reserve card get a $2,500 MQD Headstart per card.
4) Requires a minimum of 4 segments flown on United regardless of the # of PQPs earned.
For the first three tiers of elite status, Delta status requires the least flight spend as long as you hold at least one Delta Platinum or Delta Reserve credit card. And if you have two cards, Delta requires far less spend. In fact, with two cards, you’ll have Silver status without any spend at all! For those without a Delta Platinum or Reserve card, though, United offers the cheapest path to status.
For top tier status, the picture is different. Here Delta requires the most flight spend and even after accounting for credit card Headstarts, Delta isn’t any cheaper than United. The best option at the top-tier is American Airlines for renewing status. Renewing AA top tier status requires only $18,182 in AA spend. United matches that, but only if you also fly 54 segments.
Note that the above analysis does not take into account the possibility that the AA flyer has the AA Executive card which offers 10K bonus Loyalty Points after earning 50K Loyalty points and another 10K bonus Loyalty Points after earning 90K Loyalty Points.
Elite status through credit card spend
The following table shows the amount of credit card spend required to reach each elite status level. This analysis assumes that status is earned 100% through credit card spend. Note that United caps the number of PQPs can be earned with each credit card. It’s not really possible to earn top tier United status through spend unless you have the no-longer-available United Presidential Plus Card or the United Presidential Plus Business Card since those cards have no caps.
| Airline | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA | Gold | Platinum | Plat Pro | Exec Plat |
| 1 LP / $ | $40K | $75K | $125K | $200K |
| w/ Aviator Silver1 | $35K | $60K | $110K | $185K |
| w/ AA Exec2 | $40K | $65K | $105K | $180K |
| w/ Both Cards3 | $35K | $50K | $90K | $165K |
| Delta | Silver | Gold | Platinum | Diamond |
| w/ one card4 | $25K | $75K | $125K | $255K |
| w/ two cards5 | $0 | $50K | $100K | $230K |
| United | Silver | Gold | Platinum | 1K |
| 25 PQP for every $5006 | $100K | $200K | $300K | $480K |
1) Aviator Silver card offers 5K bonus points at $20K spend, $40K spend, and $50K spend
2) The AAdvantage Executive card offers 10K bonus Loyalty Points after earning 50K Loyalty points and another 10K bonus Loyalty Points after earning 90K Loyalty Points.
3) Assumes putting all spend on the Aviator Silver card. The AA Executive card offers bonus Loyalty Points even if you do not put any spend on that card.
4) The Delta Reserve card earns 1 MQD per $10. To estimate spend for the Delta Platinum card, double the numbers shown.
5) Each Delta Platinum or Reserve card offers another $2,500 MQD Headstart. The numbers shown assume that all spend is put on a Delta Reserve card.
6) United has limits on how many PQP can be earned with each card. Additionally, United requires a minimum of 4 segments flown on United regardless of the # of PQPs earned.
For those interested in earning elite status entirely through credit card spend, Delta is best for Tier 1 status and AA is best for earning top tier status. Delta and AA are roughly the same for earning Tier 2 or Tier 3 status.
It’s interesting to see how poorly United fares here. If you’re interested in earning status through credit card spend, the amount of spend required is staggering. To make matters worse, unless you have the no-longer-available United Presidential Plus Card, or its business twin, you would need to juggle three different United cards to get to Platinum status through spend. And you’d have to fly four United segments per year too.
A note about earning AA status through spend: This analysis did not include the many additional ways you can earn AA Loyalty Points beyond credit card spend. For example, if you often shop online, you could easily earn huge numbers of Loyalty points by shopping through the AA portal. Similarly, if you link your Mastercard to Simply Miles, you may be able to earn additional Loyalty Points through spend at select merchants.
Conclusion
Several clear patterns emerged from the analyses presented above:
- Delta is the best for achieving low-tier status as long as you have a credit card. Thanks to Delta’s MQD Headstarts that you get by simply having a Delta Platinum or Delta Reserve card, Delta makes it very easy to earn Tier 1 status. In fact, with two credit cards, you’ll start off with Delta Silver status without even stepping on a plane or spending anything on your card.
- Delta is the best overall option for earning mid-tier status. United is a good alternative for earning through flying alone, but it’s a terrible choice for earning through card spend. AA is the opposite: it’s a great choice for earning mid-tier status through credit card spend, but it’s not a good choice for earning through flying alone. Delta is a competitive choice for earning mid-tier status in either way: through flying or through spend.
- AA is the best overall option for earning top-tier status. AA offers the cheapest path, by far, to earning top tier status through credit card spend alone. Additionally, while they’re not very competitive when trying to earn top-tier status entirely through flying, they’re arguably the best for renewing top tier status entirely through flying.
- United is a good choice for earning through flying, but a bad choice for earning through spend. United was a close second place across the board when it came to earning elite status through flying alone. On the other hand, United was a distant third across the board for earning status through credit card spend.
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