Hi! In my experience it took something around 48h for it to be recognized by Iberia for free seat booking. The funny thing is it even took some time for AB itself to recognize I was gold...as I was status matched 2h before my departure the guy at check-in was quite puzzled why the computer would show him "classic"

Off topic question in case anyone knows: for the status match challenge, do the status miles earned by the AB CC count? that would be just perfect