Originally Posted by hhdl

Delta has offered every published status with just card spend for years (and clearly not by oversight: the Reserve status boosts topping out 5k MQM shy at less than 10k of spend to the Diamond waiver is very convenient for DL and Amex), and arguably AA is only giving EXP/PPro-lite status while DL credit card Diamond is full status.

If you consider DM and EXP to be equivalent value, the implied monetary value of 4 GUCs is $650 (DL requires $265k of card spend for DM, AA requires $200k card spend... Assuming that most of that is non-bonus and that there's about a 100 basis point difference taking miles instead of cash back, that extra $65k is about $650 foregone).