I flew 99 segments between mid January and the end of July. As of early December, I was still at 99. During that time, I had several flights cancelled between either DTW/LAN or DTW/FNT for mechanicals, weather, etc. In those cases, I just rented a car and drove. No big deal at the time, but now it became an issue. I contacted NW explaining all of this and asking for an exception to make me Plat, but was shot down in less than an hour. They said that they are making absolutely no exceptions at this time. So, realizing that I had a $300 bump voucher, the wife and I flew out to CA for a weekend. I used miles for her, the voucher for me. My ticket was $311 minus the voucher for a total of $11. The wife's ticket was $10. Both of us went to CA for $21 total, and I ended at 103 segments and Platinum again.
Of course, I just burned miles before the 3 tiered mileage redemption change, and booked 6 tickets to Maui in June for the wife and 4 kids. Grand total- $60 and 210K miles.