dhflies

I purposely flew NW on a last minute trip to take advantage of the Refer-a-Friend mileage bonuses, only to be denied more than 4500 miles due to NWA.com refusing to let me do online checkin.

I figured although I was denied online check in for the first 1/2 of my trip, due to the less than 12 hour before flight booking (and of course got SSS'd) that I would at least be able to do so for the return.

Emails to NW Customer service refused to make exceptions for giving me the bonus miles for the outbound and claimed I shouldn't have problems for the return, so I am not counting on any sympathy for the return either -unless anyone has any suggestions?

Here's what we lose out on:

Online check in: 500 each way (for my own travel (1,000) and bonuses for referring my 2 travel partners (2,000))
Online check in: 1000 first time bonus (for each of us (1,000))
Refer-a-friend complete all 3 tasks (500 bonus for me plus 500 x 2 for referring my 2 travel partners (1,500))

plus, because our flights were booked in one reservation since it was a cybersaver package, my 2 kids lose out on the 500 online booking bonus (and I lost out on the 1,000 for the referral).

all in all, because of the NW T&C and sss flags, I lose out on between 4500 - 6500 in bonuses/refer a friend bonus miles and my kids each lose out on between 1500-3000 each.

Has anyone had any luck petitioning NW for the bonus miles in a situation like this??? While I had already somewhat accepted the fact I wouldn't get the online booking bonus for the referrals (and my kids wouldn't get them) or the 500 for each of them completing "all three tasks", I was counting on the online check in bonuses to give our wp totals a good boost.