On the first Friday in April I had an award trip cancelled (DCA-DTW-AMS-VIE) because my first segment was running an hour late. I would have misconnected in DTW. The gate agents could not find another routing to VIE for me within 24 hours. I called the Platinum/Gold line when I got home from the airport and was assured my miles would be redeposited. A month later I received an email from NWA saying roughly, "Thank you for contacting our refunds department. It may take a couple of cycles for the redeposit of miles to show up in your account."
What are a couple of cycles? I guess they mean a couple of months.