I'm not sure what NW's current comp practices are, but with mid-tier status on both AA and US, I'd think you'd have as good a chance as anyone of a gold comp on NW if you fax in a polite letter along with your statements from those two airlines showing miles accrued and status for 2004. Hopefully they won't make you play the "fly __ flights in high fare classes" challenge game.

NW golds and plats get a certain number of paper certs good for AS upgrades each year. I'm not exactly sure how they work, though, since I've never had occasion to fly AS, but my guess is they're not good for confirmed-in-advance upgrades (except maybe on full fare flights).