Any recent data points on how long it's taking to get a response? I've got a family member that applied to match their SE status on Sept 16 and hasn't heard back yet and another that applied Sept 19 and also hasn't heard back.
If WS is offering a short time window of up to 8 weeks, the flights don't count towards the challenge until they've approved it, and they're taking up to 2 weeks to respond to status matches, that definitely puts a big dent into the promo period.