Here is the text of my "silver elite" email:
Thank you for choosing Northwest Airlines. Although you did not reach our published qualification thresholds for the Silver Elite tier, your travel in 2006 made you one of our top customers. As such, we would like to present you with Silver Elite status for the 2007 program year, which runs March 1, 2007 through February 29, 2008. Travel 25,000 Elite Qualifying Miles or 30 Elite Qualifying Segments between January 1 and December 31, 2007 to ensure retention of your Silver Elite status for 2008.

I flew less than 25k on paid tickets last year...Will be platinum next month again. I feel important to be "one of our top customers"