After ripping them on here, I submitted a request on Sunday night, got the “we’ve received your request” email on Weds and got confirmation the flights are being held for payment of taxes this morning.

andymcdonnell not sure on that basis what happened in your case? When you said you emailed in, did you use the web form on the Aer Credit Card site? This now has blackout dates and I think non-available flights filtered out for the first time (certainly new since last year), which makes the process a bit easier.