Originally Posted by nethak
I think the general opinion is that "it depends." I have personally always been dropped one level Plat->Gold in past years where I didn't qualify but I did fly 20k+ miles. The reason I say it depends is because I think I've seen other posters say that they were not given a soft landing and were dropped immediately to dirt.
It does depend. But, if you do receive a "soft landing" (as the term of arts is called), it will likely be after January 1st, closer to Feb. 28 when NW will reevaluate the number of elites they have in each tier.
There is no guarantee of being Gold.