Complementary NW Silver Elite
 

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.

Hey BigLar. <Smirk>

At least through the end of the year, don't worry too much about what your wife is going to get "easily" that you had to work so hard for. I haven't followed your posts long enough to ascertain where you live, but my upgrades lately are thin. Last week as gold, I had LAX-DTW-DFW all clear at the 3 day window, DFW-MSP cleared before I checked in, and MSP-LAX (Wed mid-am) never cleared. On this coming Monday, I booked a trip specifically for the 2x EQM's. My LAX-DTW and DTW-MKE flights have not cleared yet. They may never clear. My MKE-LAX should clear, however. I know I live in a tough market for upgrades, but I was also thinking that the last half of the year is worse for guys like me. So the end of the year being the end of the year, your wife might be in for surprises. I've heard hub-FL flights are easier to clear than West Coast - hub flights.

Me too
 

I received the same letter but for what it is worth I am not a new Marriott Silver.

Same letter -- mine was tied into my status at Hilton Honors. Have no status with Marriott.

Me too...
 

...mine tied in to Starwood Gold.

Looks like it's gonna be a little tough sledding for u/g's the rest of the year -- lots of new Silvers out there!

Glad I went through the trouble of getting to Gold when I did.

For the record: I'm located in BUF, and my normal trip is BUF-DTW-MSP and back. U/g percentage ran about 40% as a SE, my Monday flight (BUF-MSP this week) cleared last night.

Well, uh, welcome to the fold, y'all. :)

Congrats on your SE!

What is your HHonors status? DH & I are HHonors gold & would LOVE to be NW silver again (he will probably make NW silver on his own by the end of the year -- I won't though). No letter yet in our mailbox though. Anyone have any ideas how to make this happen?

I run at ~50% as a silver. Next year will be gold, hope it gets better.

Something tells me with all the Silvers out there upgrading may be a little tough. Lucky you're a Gold.

Yeah, but will these people be using there status very much? Some of these people don't fly at all, and even if they do, they will be just looking to get their status extended.

Marriott Silver is complimentary when you get the Marriott Visa card. I've just cancelled the Visa, but I've had Hilton Diamond for 8 years and Holiday Inn Plat for 5. I didn't get any such offer, even though my average ticket for domestic travel on NW is around $1500 and I've flown them about a dozen times this year. Last week my domestic coach travel on NW was $2100. Up to last week I've been claiming the miles on DL to maintain my Gold status. Last week was for the 10,000 NW mileage bonus. Why not me??? Arggh. I think the reason I'm not being offered NW Silver is that I was once a complimentary NW Silver. :( I guess I will have to stay in coach.

I got the free NW Silver last year, I think from HHonors where I am Diamond. I am already Delta Silver, so it did not do much for me, but I used it to purchase a discounted WorldClubs membership and get the bonus miles. The WC card will get me into the DL and CO clubs, but also HP and AS clubs. It is also cheaper to renew the the DL Crown Room card.

My question is why is your testicles frozen? :D

Even though I don't fly NWA, I was offered a NW Silver from a promo from entering Wall Street Journal Safari Sweepstakes. I replied but was refused because I am Canadian. Close, but close only counts in manure fights.

Today, I received a letter comping my daughter to Silver until Dec 15. She used to be silver two years ago but had only one trip this year. No status in whatever other program, not as a 7 year old!

Last Year...
 

I got the same letter because I was Holiday Inn Gold. I signed up for it, and used it to U/G once, but sent all my miles to DL so it didn't really help me that much.

MR Gold and got the offer. I took them up on it even though I most likely will never use it. But you never know what trips come up. At least I'd have shot at being up front.

Man this is a nice promo...

Does anyone have the link to this? I got the mailing too, but can't find it anymore and unfortunately I am stuck flying NWA to MSP every now and than, til the end of the year.

Thanks in advance!

You did see that the post before yours is from September, 2005, right?

Ironic but its on again
 

Kind of ironic but I am currently participating in this promo now. Received my invite from HHonors DI status and took them up on it. Flying DCA-MKE on Wednesday and already confirmed upgrade to the front.

They must have had some success if they are doing the same list again this year.

Very nice, congratulations! Did you get the 5 trip to Gold challenge as well?

Got mine with spg gold

Mailed to me for last 3 yrs
 

Around Labor day, because of National Emerald club status. I'm usually 1/2-3/4 way to GE by then so no thanks. Not this year: less trvl, I didn't fly NW untill they quit that select choice BS on the elites, so I was at 19 segs/low teens mileage when I got this letter. Fall is always tough on me to plan a lot of flying and w/UA's dble eqm offering I'm focusing on keeping 1K status. So the nice thing about this promo is I don't have to get the 5 rndtrps in for GE this year I have UNTIL FEB 28 OF 2007 to qualify for 2007-Feb2008. In theory I can keep my GE status till 2-28-2007 and fly 5 rnd trips mclass and above on the 27-28 and voila! GE for 2007! Not that I would wait that long. Plus I have e-certs that will knock off $100 tikt. In fact I did one T-giving eve, ORD/DTW, about 4 hrs or so rnd trip. About 433$ with e-cert but it was B-class so 50% mileage bonus. With the GE status, 50% mileage, Supersize and 5000 miles rndtrip bonus offer, I recvd 8500 miles. I've seen some m-class or or B-class out of DTW for 370-400$ after figuring in e-cert discounts. I know a lot of people are figuring "2000$ for GE status and a lousy 7500 eqms? 4 runs to Europe wilkl give me the same and net me 40k plus for the same price! But I'm limited on time so can pull the trigger just this once on this offer and start fresh nxt year.