I was calling Aeroplan to change a booking, and asked the agent afterwards if she knew if the new terms applied only to the extension (flights occurring after April 30, before Sept. 30) or to all flights, including those in the original window. She had no idea, so transferred me to someone who might know. It was not an "I DemAnD tO TaLK to YoUR SUpERvisOR" kind of situation.
Turns out, their internal documentation still says "6-8 weeks from date of departure." Sounds like anything that occurs within the original window, or at least before they changed the terms, will still follow the "from date of departure" rule; anything that falls under the Europe extension to Sept. 30 will follow the "from end of offer period" rule (they may still try to get it out faster, but have no obligation to).
I'm not sure if I agree with the "as soon as they can, they will" position you have though. Of course most of their issues are IT-related, but after all of my AC experiences... I can't believe that there aren't at least a few malicious executives in that company who would change the rules after the promo starts just to save a buck, and delaying early recognition for 5 - 6 months for everyone who would get a status level up from this promo will most certainly save them a lot of money. Remember that this is the company that ripped up the CTA protection regulations to screw us out of cash refunds for the countless flights they canceled over the last few years; if they'll ignore government regulations to save some money, they'll definitely sneakily modify T&Cs and delay promotion credits to save some money.
Regarding the video call that @
Bindy Johal mentioned that I think you're alluding to; anyone have a link for that?