Even with the waiver for the dollars, you still need to hit the miles or segments requirement. With enough spend, you can get 30K medallion-qualifying miles via the Amex Delta Reserve , and I want to say that some years, there's a third MQM bonus offer that appears after you hit the first two MQM bonuses from card spend. But you still need to get a bunch of miles from actually flying to hit Diamond beyond what that card offers.