A cautionary tale for anyone hoping for flexibility on Early Recognition (although I'm sure this won't come as a surprise to many).

Back story: first year as a frequent flyer on AC, hit P25 back in July, and set up flights to hit 35 AQS on October 27 (leaving a 4 day buffer for the flight to clear for Early Recognition; AQD spend more than double the required). Booked some extra flights on the assumption of having the status (whoops) including a flight in December where I needed the extra checked bag.

Late October my family suffers an unexpected bereavement and I have to shuffle things around. The October 27 flight gets pushed to November 3, but I book new flights for the funeral which get me to 35 AQS on October 30. I wondered if this would mess with Early Recognition, but figured/hoped they'd be flexible as the flight was before October 31 and even if it didn't post before the 31st surely they'd be sympathetic given that this only changed because a loved one passed away (whoops again).

Early November my status hasn't changed so I reach out to AC. They tell me I should 'normally' have the status by December, and to follow-up on November 20 if not. November 20 rolls around and no change, so I follow up. This time I'm told there can be no exceptions and I'm out of luck. Thanks to that two week delay I'm now unable to make arrangements around this issue so I'm just going to have to swallow the baggage fees. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, a couple hundred bucks and the status is hardly amazing in terms of perks (although I was looking forward to the lounge access - I have some pretty severe mobility issues and AC lounge staff seem to be exceptional when it comes to handling customers with disabilities), but I was nevertheless a little surprised by how inflexible they've been.

TL;DR: there are no exceptions