Here's a situation of a good deed gone bad:

My gf's dad started flying this past May and has taken 3 R/T flights since then. Thanks to FT, we are all savvy with the latest NW promotions and all so my gf and I started registering him for promotions that would be useful to him (with his knowledge of course). Now, we signed him up for his WP account towards the end of May (right before his first flight). At that time, Northwest had a promotion where if you were a new WP member, you would get 1,000 miles for your first flight and 6,000 for your second flight. Combine that with FFF and flight miles, he was potentially sitting on a nice 25,000 miles after 3 trips (and very happy with the whole Frequent Flyer system, loyalty to one airline, etc).

However, after taking all three flights, we noticed that the very first flight never posted. We called Northwest before his flight and were told that "His WP number was in the reservation". After a few weeks, we called again and got the same response. Finally two months after the flight we persisted with the issue and after some digging by a helpful agent found that the miles were actually posted to another account under his name that was opened in April (at the time of the reservation of the first flight). We were told that it was no big deal and they would simply merge the two accounts together. We were very confused as to how this "second" account got generated but were assured it wouldn't affect anything on his existing account.

Two days later, once the accounts merge, we find that the 7,000 first flight bonus disappeared! On calling, we find that after merging they took the "open" date as the earlier of the two accounts which was in April and therefore he wasn't eligible for the first flight bonus as those accounts had to be opened after May 1st!

Now, frustrating as this is... we confirmed that he did NOT open any accounts in April and spoke to Northwest regarding this. The agents now only see the open date as April and don't really want to discuss much with us as they say that since it is not our account, we may not know everything about when it was opened (even though we opened it and have the confirmation e-mail). In the end, we were told to write a letter with a proof of that e-mail and maybe something could be done.

We have since found out that his sister in-law who did the bookings may have decided to open a WP account for him when she booked the tickets in April. And since she is not a FT'er she wouldn't know that had she just waited another 10 days, my gf's dad would have gotten an extra 7,000 miles for doing nothing.

However, since the account was open without his knowledge (even in good faith), should he not get the bonus miles for an account which was open during the promotional period with his knowledge??

So I am trying to figure out how to write to NW:

1. We have no idea what this "other" account is.
2. "Other" account may have been opened without account holder's knowledge.
3. Any other ideas?? (Great Potential New Customer, already spent over $1000 on his first three flights in 3 months, etc. will continue to fly more.. don't disappoint new customer, etc)

What does everyone think?