I've had the Skymiles Gold Amex for many years, been a Skymiles members since 2010. All this time I've been thinking that purchases made on the Skymiles Gold Amex accrues towards the Delta MQD waiver. Through all of the SkyMiles links, they made it (and very deceptively so) look like the Skymiles Gold Amex does. Having spent $35K USD in calendar 2022, and $35K USD ytd in 2023, found out the hard way from Delta customer service today that this wasn't case.

Problem statement #1: does this forum find their advertising of the gold (and other amex cards) that doesn't qualify for MQD waiver, but make it look like it does, extremely misleading.

Problem statement #2: now that I have this ytd $35K USD balance on my gold amex, what is the best way to salvage this balance towards MQD waiver. I think I can "sign-up" for an eligible card (i.e. skymiles platinum) and the transactions would "transfer", but I have read in the forums (not via the Delta website) there's something about an "upgrade" v.s. a "net new" amex card sign-up, I'm unsure what the difference is.