Both my partner and I are Elite and hold our own individual AMEX and ANZ credit cards. Mrs adsho43 has been Elite for years now through her own personal and work travel. I am Elite as of last year but usually Gold, this was achieved through an increase in travel last year but I'm unlikely to retain Elite. I will easily maintain Gold each year, of which the Gold benefits suit me just fine. As long as my partner retains Elite she can gift me upgrades, even if we're flying separately. So if you really wanted the SPs you could get supplementary cards for your family and get the points from their spending to your account. I haven't done this personally but a browse on the AMEX website states it's linked to the primary account, so I'm assuming you will get the points. I could be wrong though and the supplementary card holder gets the points to their own Airpoints account.