The irony is the the revised program offers fewer incentives to spend on a co-branded AmEx since the spend requirements for higher status get pretty high. Under the old system you had a) status boosts awarded in 25k/30K chunks and b) rollover MQMs. So if it looked like you were going to be 5K MQMs short for status via flights, you have to ‘overspend to get those 10K/15K MQMs But that as okay because you’d then get a 5K/10K MQM start on the next qualification year. Under the latest program rules revision, you can just stop right when you hit your number for the next status level rather than having to keep going many thousands of dollars more on the card to hit the status boost.

I figure I’ll keep the SkyMiles Platinum for now and put just enough on it to hit GM in 2025 and SM in 2026 (I feel like even a little status is better than no status). And to make that happen, I only have to put maybe a third of the spend on the card that I’ve done this year, with a lot of that on bonus categories- I find the hotel bonus to be useful for my travel needs when I’m not staying in a Hilton (where I have a co-branded card) and the grocery bonus is also useful to me. The rest of my annual credit card spend will go elsewhere- I’m still kicking around scenarios for that.