Originally Posted by
bhrubin
None of the major airlines even allow a spending waiver for their top tier status via credit card, either.
As noted above, this is incorrect. Not just for Delta. Also, for American status (at any level), 25k of CC spend gives you 3k EQD, and 50k CC spend gives you 6k EQD. Since you only need 6k EQD for Platinum and 12k EQD for Executive Platinum, the CC spend provides a significant boost for elite qualification (effectively a 50% waiver for top-tier EXP status).
I hope there is some type of waiver or counting towards the 20k spend. That would certainly encourage me to get/keep the cobranded CCs and spend significantly on them.