This whole thing about the credit cards and status is a little strange eve if it comes very handy sometimes.

Like if someone on DL is Platinum anyways but can gift 25k EQM to lets say his wife/daughter in order to get her Silver and be at least a little protected that could be fine.

However if I buy a lounge membership then I intend to fly regulary on that airline so that I would most likely gain status anyways.

These days the airfares are so cheap that it's really worth to draw the value out of the other vacation factor: Hotels

The SPG AMEX is unbeatable because of the SPG points value. I hate AMEX though...