Obsidian Nightwing Replacing X-53 Touring Rocket As Recruit-a-Friend Reward

I got an email from Blizzard today notifying me that they are removing the X-53 Touring Rocket as a reward for the Recruit-a-Friend program. Read on past the jump for the new mount and more.
The News

No this was not a spam email even though you would be right to be suspicious. I did have an unclaimed reward and have since claimed it. If you get a similar email be sure not to click on any links in it but rather log into your battle.net account seperately. You can never be too careful.

Here is the relevant text from the email. 

Greetings,

Beginning 2012-17-07, we will be offering a new in-game reward, Obsidian Nightwing, to veteran World of Warcraft players who fulfill the requirements of the Recruit a Friend program. According to our records, you have earned the current reward, the X-53 Touring Rocket, but have not yet claimed it.

Your reward will only be available for 5 more days, so we encourage you to claim it now. It will no longer be possible to claim the X-53 Touring Rocket as of 2012-17-07.

Now what wasn't made as clear to me was whether my X-53 Touring Rocket reward would turn into a Obsidian Nightwing or whether I would simply lose the reward altogether. (They do convert. See Update below.)

Thinking back I might have been better to risk it to see if my X-53 Touring Rocket would turn into an Obsidian Nightwing but it's too late for that now.

New Hotness

So what is the Obsidian Nightwing? Well I did a little digging and found this Obsidian Nightwing page on the MoP Beta version of WoWhead.

Here is the flavor text for the mount:

Transforms you into an Obsidian Nightwing, allowing you to fly very fast and carry an ally on your back.  This is a flying mount.

Doing a bit more digging I came across this post on the MMO Champion forums with a possible image of the Obsidian Nightwing which looks like it might be a cross between the new Mists of Pandaria Jewelcrafting mount the Jeweled Onyx Panther and the Winged Guardian Blizzard Store mount. Pretty cool!

Image Source: Kluddesu via MMO-Champion Forums

Limited Time Offer!

I'm not sure this change will have any effect on the in-game economy but if you're a mount collector and have been wanting the X-53 Touring Rocket you have around 5 days to do the Recruit-a-Friend and have them attach a 60-day Game Time card onto the account so you can claim the mount ASAP.

UPDATE 1: I read in a blue post last night that unclaimed Rockets will turn into the new Obsidian Nightwings as long as they are not claimed before the Nightwings become available.

UPDATE 2: I received an "updated" email today with more clarification about the mount changing into the cat mount if not claimed. I'm calling Blizzard tech support now to try to get my mount switched to "unclaimed" due to the bad wording of the first email. I'd much rather have the Obsidian Nightwing than a second Rocket.

Second email below. (Emphasis added.)

Greetings,

Unfortunately the previous version of this mail was sent out with some errors and for that we deeply apologize. Please disregard that mail and continue reading for information regarding the upcoming changes to our Recruit A Friend service.

Beginning July 16, 2012, we will be offering a new in-game reward, Obsidian Nightwing, to veteran World of Warcraft players who fulfill the requirements of the Recruit a Friend program. According to our records, you have earned the current reward, the X-53 Touring Rocket, but have not yet claimed it.

The X-53 Touring Rocket will only be available for 4 more days, so we encourage you to claim it now if you desire to do so. After July 16, 2012, claiming a Recruit-a-Friend reward will instead give you the Obsidian Nightwing mount.

UPDATE 3: I called Blizzard customer support and explained my situation (first email said I'd lose the mount, claimed it even though I had it already). The customer support representative let me know that they had no way of "unclaiming"/reverting my RAF reward but that what I might try is to wait until after the new mount is out and put in an in-game ticket explaining my situation and see if they can switch my Rocket mount (which is sitting in my Hunter's bank) out for the new Obsidian Nightwing.

They also said that they added a note to my account that I had called and explained the situation to them before the mount had went live just to be sure it didn't look like I was trying to "pull one over" on them.

I guess that is what I'll do. After July 16 I'll put in an in-game ticket and try to have my (2nd) Rocket mount exchanged for a Obsidian Nightwing (which is what I really want any way).

*fingers crossed*

UPDATE 4: This story has a happy ending. The in-game GMs added my name to a list and GMs eventually removed my Rocket item and mailed me an Obsidian Nightwing! Yay for great customer support!

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