You can earn airline elite status without flying all the time — here's how

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Airline elite status is a great way to reduce the fees you pay and improve your flying experience. Perks range from waived checked bag fees to airport lounges access, early boarding and free upgrades. Traditionally, the way to earn status is by flying a lot with a specific airline and its partners. However, that's not the only way.

Most of the major airlines offer a path to elite status without flying by opening and using a co-branded airline credit card. A co-branded credit card isn't always the most cost-effective way to earn elite status but at the very least, it can give you a boost on your way to earning perks with your preferred airline. Some airlines also let you make progress toward earning elite status through other activities, like shopping online and dining out.

CNBC Select has the details on how to earn airline status without even stepping foot on an airplane, which mostly revolves around finding the right travel credit card.

American Airlines offers four tiers of elite status, plus an unpublished invitation-only level. Depending on the status level, perks can include free checked bags, priority check-in, airport lounge access and upgrades, which even apply to award flights and flights operated by Alaska Airlines. The program offers many ways to earn elite status beyond just flying and credit card spending.

You earn American Airlines status by accumulating Loyalty Points, and you earn one Loyalty Point for every eligible AAdvantage mile you earn. These are the current status requirements:

• AAdvantage Gold: 40,000 Loyalty Points
• AAdvantage Platinum: 75,000 Loyalty Points
• AAdvantage Platinum Pro: 125,000 Loyalty Points
• AAdvantage Executive Platinum: 200,000 Loyalty Points

When you make purchases with an American Airlines credit card, such as the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard® or AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard®, you'll earn one Loyalty Point per dollar. You don't earn Loyalty Points from any bonus spending categories or the cards' intro bonuses.

You can also earn Loyalty Points and miles when you shop with an eligible American Airlines partner. This includes transactions you make through the American Airlines shopping portal and with cards linked to AAdvantage SimplyMiles as well as rental cars, hotels and cruises you book through American Airlines and its partners. You can also earn Loyalty Points through the AAdvantage Dining program, completing Miles for Opinions surveys and more.

Delta has revamped its elite status program for 2024. Now, you earn status solely based on how many Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs) you earn in a year. The tier requirements are as follows:

• Silver Medallion: 5,000 MQDs
• Gold Medallion: 10,000 MQDs
• Platinum Medallion: 15,000 MQDs
• Diamond Medallion: 28,000 MQDs

Delta Medallion elite status members can take advantage of benefits such as seat upgrades, free checked bags, priority boarding and Choice Benefits (like upgrade certificates and Sky Club® memberships and travel vouchers) at the higher levels.

Delta credit cardholders earn $1 MQD for every $20 spent on the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card or Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card. That rate improves to $1 MQD per $10 spent on the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card or Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card.

As of Feb. 1, 2024, SkyMiles Platinum, Platinum Business, Reserve and Reserve Business cardholders also receive a 2,500 MQD boost each Medallion Qualification Year and get closer to Status with MQD Headstart. This MQD boost is per card, so you can stack the boosts if you have multiple cards that earn the bonus. For example, if you have the Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business card and the Delta SkyMiles Reserve card, you will earn a 5,000-MQD bonus.

If you wanted to earn Delta status exclusively through credit card spending and not spending on Delta flights, you could do so by spending $50,000 to a whopping $510,000 on either version of the SkyMiles Platinum card or $25,000 to $255,000 on either of the Reserve credit cards. Put another way, the Delta credit cards can help provide a boost toward earning status, but would be costly if you relied solely on them to qualify for status.

United MileagePlus Premier status comes with benefits such as complimentary checked bags, bonus miles on airfare, lounge access on eligible itineraries, seat upgrades and more. You qualify for status by earning Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs) or a combination of a lower PQP threshold and a certain number of Premier Qualifying Flights (PQF).

United's status tier requirements are:

• Premier Silver: 12 PQF and 4,000 PQP or 5,000 PQPs
• Premier Gold: 24 PQF and 8,000 PQP or 10,000 PQPs
• Premier Platinum: 36 PQF and 12,000 PQP or 15,000 PQPs
• Premier 1K: 54 PQF and 18,000 PQP or 24,000 PQPs

You can earn PQPs by spending on many United Airlines credit cards, but how many PQPs you can earn per card varies. All United card earns 25 PQPs per $500 you spend on the card, and each card has an annual cap on how many PQPs you can earn. On the low end, you can earn up to 1,000 PQPs per calendar year with cards such as the United℠ Explorer Card and United℠ Business Card. United cards with higher annual fees tend to have increased annual PQP caps. For example, the United Quest℠ Card earns up to 6,000 PQPs per calendar year and the United Club℠ Infinite Card allows you to earn up to 10,000 PQPs per calendar year. If you hold multiple cards, you could stack PQPs you earn across the cards.

Southwest has a simple elite status program with two tiers, which you can earn without flying by accumulating tier qualifying points (TQPs):

• A-List: 35,000 TQPs or 20 flights
• A-List Preferred: 70,000 TQPs or 40 flights

A-List members receive benefits such as priority boarding and bonus points on paid flights.

Outside of flying with Southwest, you can earn TQPs by making qualifying purchases with certain Southwest credit cards. The Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card, Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card, Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card and
Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card all earn 1,500 TQP for every $5,000 spent on the card. You can earn an unlimited number of TQPs through credit card spending.

Southwest also offers its popular Companion Pass, which is essentially an unlimited two-for-one flight pass for any paid and award tickets (minus taxes and fees). The Companion Pass can be earned by accumulating 135,000 Companion Pass qualifying points or 100 flights.

All co-branded Southwest cards also automatically provide 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points each calendar year. Plus, the points earned from the Southwest card welcome bonuses and card spending count toward Companion Pass qualification.

While we don't necessarily recommend doing so, it is possible to earn both A-List status and the Companion Pass without ever stepping foot on a plane by spending $135,000 on any of the cards listed above.

Alaska Airlines elite members earn bonus miles on flights, free checked bags, upgrades and more. Alaska has simplified its MVP status tiers and now you can qualify based solely on the number of elite-qualifying miles (EQMs) you earn.

The status tiers are as follows:

• MVP: 20,000 EQMs
• MVP Gold: 40,000 EQMs
• MVP Gold 75k: 75,000 EQMs
• MVP Gold 100K: 100,000 EQMs

For every $10,000 you spend on an Alaska Airlines card, you'll get 4,000 EQMs. Purchases across multiple cards are combined to qualify for the EQMs and you can only earn a maximum of 20,000 EQMs combined across all cards each year, including the Alaska Airlines Visa® Business credit card and Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card. You can only qualify for the Basic MVP status based on credit card spending alone, but an Alaska Airlines card is a great way to give you a head start on earning higher status levels.

JetBlue Mosaic elite status is broken down into four tiers, which you progress through by earning tiles:

• Mosaic 1: 50 tiles
• Mosaic 2: 100 tiles
• Mosaic 3: 150 tiles
• Mosaic 4: 250 tiles

Entry-level Mosaic 1 status grants you two free checked bags (first bag for you and a companion), up to three free drinks per flight (beer, wine, liquor) and priority boarding. Higher tiers unlock additional perks, like Mint upgrade certificates and pet fee waivers.

When you're not flying, you'll earn one tile per $100 spent on JetBlue vacation packages and one tile per $1,000 spent on any JetBlue credit card, including the JetBlue Card, JetBlue Plus Card, and JetBlue Business Card. This means you can reach basic Mosaic 1 status with $50,000 in card spending in a year or top-tier status after spending $250,000 on your JetBlue cards in a year.

Spirit has two elite status levels, which you achieve by earning Status Qualifying Points (SQPs). Free Spirit status helps take the edge off Spirit's many fees. It grants a waiver of the redemption fee and overweight checked bag fee for Silver members or higher, and Gold-tier members get free checked and carry-on bags.

You'll earn Free Spirit status by earning the following SQPs:

• Free Spirit Silver: 2,000 SQPs
• Free Spirit Gold: 5,000 SQPs

Free Spirit® Travel More World Elite Mastercard® members earn one SQP for every $10 they spend on the card. There is no limit to how many SQPs you can earn through credit card spending. You can reach Free Spirit Silver status solely by spending $20,000 on your card in a year and Free Spirit Gold status after spending $50,000 in a year.

Status with a low-cost carrier such as Frontier can be especially rewarding because it helps you save on many fees. Even basic Silver status grants you no change or cancellation fees (at least seven days from departure), a standard seat when you book and priority booking.

To earn Frontier status, you'll need to earn a certain amount of Qualifying Miles (QMs):

• Elite Silver: 10,000 QMs
• Elite Gold: 20,000 QMs
• Elite Platinum: 50,000 QMs
• Elite Diamond: 100,000 QMs

You'll start off earning one Qualifying Mile for every dollar you spend on the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard®. Once you hit $20,000 in purchases within a calendar year, you'll earn two QMs per dollar spent for the rest of that year. With $60,000 in card purchases in a year, you'd qualify for Frontier's top-tier Diamond status.

Airline elite status can be incredibly valuable, but it's not always easy to earn. Even if you're not a frequent flyer, you may be able to fast-track your way to status with an airline credit card. In fact, there are opportunities to earn elite status credit without any flying at all.

However, we only recommend using these methods if you find yourself just short of your desired status tier. If you aren't flying enough to earn the status organically you won't get as much value out of it. Keep in mind that you can automatically get many elite-like perks like free checked bags and lounge access just by having certain rewards cards.

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For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, click here.  

For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card, click here.  

For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, click here.  

For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card, click here.