I am Platinum and the last two award reservations I have booked have been via nwa.com with my 2,000 mile discount certificate. I booked them less than 3 days prior to departure and called NW as I was booking them and confirmed my upgrades instantly; one segment wasn't available on both segments so I was waitlisted. The airport has on their elite sheet that award tickets should be upgraded but CO award tickets shouldn't. On a side note, I took an award trip in Dec MEM-SEA via DTW both ways on one of the award tickets and they credited me actual flight miles for the free tickets
I am sure they will catch the miles being award on an W/A ticket when they audit but till then I am quiet.