And one more bit of info...

The price had gone up for the seat I wanted while I was waiting for the initial transfer. It made the difference in fares pretty small so I decided to go for the higher level, which meant I'd need more points. On whim I instituted another transfer, figuring I'd probably have to pay to hold the fare.

I got the "your points transfer has been started" email, so I figured it was going to be another day or so, but then immediately got the success email.

So this time was instantaneous.

Don't know if it matters, but the first transfer was over 100K and this one was under 20K.