Thank you for the helpful responses!

Giving a electronic certificate in is not really possible (nothing to give other than a printout of it from nwa.com.. that says must be ticketed (redeemed) by February 28th - and by the time I fly it'll be well past that date and too late to reticket using it!), so that is why I want to ensure that it is properly reticketed now.

But then if even reticketed they may ask for something at the airport... ? Really? I thought the whole point to get reticketed was to be able to do OLCI (no OLCI if not properly reticketed and they expect some non-existant paper certificate in case of NW electronic PU503s) and just walk straight to the gate (I never check any bags for business travel).