Here is an additional data point regarding the timeline for the free weekend night on the Aspire card renewal, for those interested:
- Annual fee charged April 28th for my account statement closing April 28th
- Account balance paid on due date May 23rd
- Received e-mail June 1st to inform me that I received a free night reward. Received another e-mail the same day to inform me that my account statement closing May 29th was now available online.
- Received e-mail June 2nd titled "your reward has arrived" which included the reward ID. It did not take 8-14 weeks, it just took one day.

I called Honors the same day with the reward ID and the free night was bookable.

Therefore it looks like we can book the free weekend night approximately 1 month 5 days after the annual fee is charged to the card.