Just for those curious, the 50k bonus points post fast. I received the card on 1/18 and spent the $3k that day. I looked today and the charges went from pending to posted and I have 53,030 pts. Points seem to post as the charges post versus the more common statement closing date.

Also, it looks like if a first class fare flight is <$500 you can book that too. I do a lot of ORD-TPA to see my folks and AA/UA consistently have fares around $250 each way. I was able to pull those up and it prices at 25,000 points. The only issue I found is for AA/UA you have to select BUSINESS class, not first class.