I've never been a big fan of challanges... I say just take the flights, and earn the MQMs and RDMs. I was offered a Silver challenge, and turned it down as it takes (IIRC) (4) B+ fares. That comes out to about 3x the cost of K per trip. So I can take (4) Bs, or (8) Ks, save 66% (no time to figure that percentage out), and get more RDMs in the process. Also, my understanding is, if you challenge to Silver, and want to make Gold... you still work with your original EQM. So say you have (4) Bs with 14,000 EQMs, you're now silver... yet you still need 50,000 EQMs for Gold, so you've made Silver early, yet still need another 36,000 EQMs for Gold.

To address the OP's statement, if you follow the rules you get the benefits. It sounds that you're upset that NW bent the rules in another pax's direction, and not in yours. The fact that the pax knew each other makes it more noticable (and difficult to bear).

Steve B.