I think I’ve figured out the time schedule to transfer Starwood points to NWA. Here’s my experience. I called to transfer 72,508 SW points to my NW account on Saturday morning. Including the bonus miles, the transfer exceeded the 79,000 mile/per day limit on transfers to NW. So the agent broke the transfer into two parts. He transferred 60,000 SW points to NW that morning and promised to transfer the remaining points (12,508) early the next morning (Sunday) at 6:30 am. Anyway, I checked the account around noon the next day, and saw that the points had not been transferred. I called again and had the points transferred. The first group of points posted to NW only 3 days later, on Tuesday about 7:30pm Eastern time. The second group, however, didn’t post until the following Tuesday at about 8pm or so (9 days). As far as I can figure, Starwood must make the transfer to NW at the end of the week (Saturday night). The miles are then posted on the following Tuesday.

Hope this helps someone.