Last Sunday I set up a new account per the instructions here and it came up as Gold. I attempted to merge it into my current account (Silver) but nothing happened. This morning I called the regular Honors customer support line and was told that it had not merged. I asked the rep he could merge it for me and he did. I also asked if the bonus point deal was in place in my newly merged account, and he told me it was.
So, I created a new Gold account with ACAQ and had it merged into my existing Silver account. My existing account is now Gold (it updated on the HHonors page right away) and set up for the bonus points. The rep did the merging for me and never questioned it.
FWIW
DLM