Originally Posted by BigLar

Background: I just started flying NW in April. I got about 8-10 segments under my belt, and another 8-10 booked. Asked them for a Silver comp. No dice. Oh well.

So, I applied the knowledge I've learned here, figured out the program, make some tricky runs, and got to Silver in June. Then, I added another string of runs, ending with a hurclean segment run a couple of weeks ago and made Gold. Whew!

As you can imagine, I'm also a frequent hotel stayer -- in fact, I'm platinum with Marriott and Diamond with Hilton. And, I work all the promos.

To help me work the promos, I enrolled my wife in Marriott Rewards. She's done OK, and just last week she got her 10 nights in (working a promo, of course) and became a Marriott Silver.

This morning, she gets a letter in the mail from Northwest. Because she's a new Marriott Silver, they are giving her a complementary NW Silver status. She isn't even a member of NW WorldPerks!

The status is good until Feb, 2006. Want more? OK. Just take two round trips between now and February, and the Silver is good until Feb. 2007.

Not enough? OK, how's this -- take five round trips between now and February, and she'll get Gold until Feb 2007!!!!!

All the trips have to be booked in P,F,J,C,Z,Y,S,B, or M. Not exactly the cheapies, but do-able none the less.

She knows what I've been going through to get status with NW. She just read the letter and laughed. I would have laughed, too, but my testicles hadn't unfrosted as yet.

Oh well -- we're going to Florida this coming weekend, so with her a Silver and me a Gold, maybe we'll get upgraded.

The sharpies among you may use this to their advantage. The critical elements are: the bankruptcy (naturally), just turning some level of elite with Marriott (it only takes 10 nights a year to make Marriott Silver, and maybe having no status with NW. However, when I logged on to get her card, there was a field to enter your WP number, so maybe just hitting status with Marriott is enough.

Have fun.