Originally Posted by
Sez_Who
Fortunately, MQM balance has nothing to do with placement so this helps seg fliers. OTOH, someone who reaches GM because they max out on the AmEx DL Plat and Reserve cards (earning 50K MQM's) is sitting right next to you in status while possibly flying zero segs. Actually they may be a shade above because Reserve is one of the tiebreakers.
Not sure what you mean about hotels. Generally, you can qualify for hotel status based on either number of nights or stays, and some let you achieve status based on a points system. Sounds similar to airlines to me, no?
It might have been a reference to the fact that one can qualify for SPG Plat with 25 stays or 50 nights, but anyone doing it with less than 50 nights is now a PlatMinus fourth class Plat.