Originally Posted by
sethb
Year 1
Enough MQDs for Silver.
Amex spend $25,500 (just enough for waiver)
130,000 MQMs.
You make Diamond.
Year 2
Early in the year, refund $1,000 on Amex. Retroactively, you only made Silver last year.
You now have 105,000 rollover MQMs.
Earn 21,000 MQMs and spend $26,000 on a different Delta Amex (for the waiver).
Result: two+ years of Diamond for 151,000 MQMs total.
In this plan you would actually have 95,000 rollover MQMs. At least in theory, when you drop below $25,000 on the AmEx you would lose not only the waiver, but also 10,000 bonus MQMs that you get with $25,000 spend.