Being brand new to the card, I can't dispute how it works in practice. What I will say is:

• The way you say it works is inconsistent with how these bonuses generally work - the goal is to incentivize cardholders to spend money on the co-branded card, rather than simply to travel with the airline
• Nowhere is there clear language on how the accelerator works
  • The FB T&C don't say anything about miles earning other than very general mechanics, and certainly nothing specific to the Brim co-branded card
  • The Brim card agreement contains no reference to the accelerator at all
    • It does provide a link to a document supposedly on the AF website (https://www.flyingblue.ca/kamino/policies/en/ca) that doesn't work; I presume that's just the general FB T&C
  • The card micro-site contains a couple of references that are somewhat vague and contradictory
    • "Flying Blue members earn extra 5 Miles per (Є1) Euro spent on Air France and KLM flight tickets"
      • This isn't clear. It sounds like a customary spend-on-card bonus, although it's not itemized in the list of earning rates for card spending (up to 30 miles per $ with partners - is AF/KL one of those?, 2 miles per $ at restaurants/bars, 1 mile per $ everywhere else)
    • "The additional 5 Miles from the accelerator are only earned on charges related to the member’s Flying Blue number. Terms and conditions apply [this just links to the FB T&C]. You earn Miles for every € you spend on Air France and KLM-marketed flights, excluding government-imposed taxes and fees."
      • Whatever this is, it's worded poorly. It can certainly be read the way you say it works (there's nothing that explicitly says this is only for purchases on the card), but it could also apply only to spending on the card (otherwise why use the word "charges", which implies purchases charged to a credit card, as opposed to "spend", which is how FB describes it on their website?)
    • In the FAQ, it says "Cardmembers will earn an extra 5 Miles per € spent on Air France and KLM tickets purchased online"
      • Well, that's pretty different. The first bit of text I quoted suggested it would apply to all AF/KL-marketed flights, which could be purchased from AF/KL on the phone rather than online. And what if I take a KL-marketed flight on a ticket issued by DL? This definitely doesn't align with how you've said it works

In contrast, here's how the AC and WS co-branded cards describe their airline bonuses:

• CIBC Aeroplan cards:
  • Marketing text: "Higher earn rate1 for eligible Air Canada purchases", "Earn more points with a higher multiplier for eligible purchases you make directly with Air Canada, including Air Canada Vacations."
  • T&C (VIP card): "Aeroplan points will be earned on purchases less returns, and not on cash advances, interest, fees, balance transfers, payments or Convenience Cheques. [...] Earn bonus rate of 2 Aeroplan points on each $1.00 in purchases (net of and/or less returns) made directly from Air Canada, for products and services completed online at aircanada.com, in-person at an Air Canada customer service counter at the airport or aboard an Air Canada flight and Air Canada Vacations packages."
• RBC WS WE card:
  • Marketing text: "2% back in WestJet dollars on WestJet flights or WestJet Vacations packages using your card"
  • T&C: "You will earn 1.5% back in WestJet dollars on your everyday purchases and 2.0% back in WestJet dollars when you purchase WestJet flights or WestJet Vacations packages. The additional 0.5% back in WestJet dollars is calculated separately and is in addition to the WestJet dollars you earn on everyday purchases; however it may not be accrued under certain circumstances. In order to receive the additional 0.5% in WestJet dollars, WestJet or WestJet Vacations must appear as the merchant on your credit card statement"

That type of language is pretty standard across co-branded cards. The airline wants to push people off of paying with other cards that might cost it 2% or more, net, while the co-brand agreement will significantly reduce the airline's effective cost through a rebate or profit-sharing. Awarding the bonus on all flights credited to the loyalty program offers no incentive to spend money on the co-branded card - just like you're doing (or not doing)

Again, I believe you about how this currently works - you have real-world experience, I don't. But it does seem incongruous given how these co-brand bonuses tend to work, and there's no language that clearly describes how it should work. I would not be surprised if how it's currently implemented is not how AF/KL intended it to work and they took steps to correct it.

I wondered whether that was the case, and I did make a purchase the other day, but the FAQ doesn't say anything about needing to make a purchase. To be fair, it also doesn't specify that the 5-7 days is after approval or anything else, but absent language clarifying that it's from the first purchase, first statement, or something else, I think it's reasonable to expect that means 5-7 days from card issuance. We'll see in a few days whether it posts.

It's pretty expensive to run a call centre, especially when you don't have scale. It's not surprising that a small company like Brim would outsource it.

I can't speak to who Brim is currently using to produce their cards. What I can say is that it's somewhat more complicated than one might think. The card (the plastic itself) and the chip are actually separate components. Brim is likely purchasing each of those components from different companies, and then a third one is likely assembling the cards, printing the numbers, etc (the cards are produced as "blanks" that have the logo, fine print, etc, but with the embossing/number printing done later). There may then be another company producing the packaging and handling the mailing*. It's possible a backlog or issue at any of these companies could be impacting Brim's ability to deliver cards. It's also not something they can easily correct overnight - if the company that turns out the finished cards has an issue, Brim would need to first contract an alternative supplier, then get its stock of blanks and chips to the new supplier, and deal with any design/configuration/etc issues to make sure the cards are being produced correctly. This could take significant time and be very expensive, and it might not actually save any time vs waiting on the original provider to get its issues sorted out.

* When I was in the credit card industry, this wasn't my end of the business. It's possible the company that turned out the final cards would handle the mail-out. I think when we did simple ones (plain white envelope, card stuck to a normal piece of paper kind of thing), they did. But we produced fancier packaging for one of our cards, and I'm pretty sure that came from a different company. It's also possible that the same company that produced the blanks assembles the final cards. Or is capable of doing so and we had just purchased them elsewhere. But I do remember for sure that we had a huge inventory of card blanks sitting in the warehouse where they were assembled, because it's not a print-on-demand kind of thing. The finished cards also got shipped in bulk from the factory in the US to somewhere in Canada where they were mailed out to individual consumers. I forget whether the card manufacturer handled that internally or we had yet another company that did that. Like I said, it's complicated!

I wouldn't hold my breath. The Canadian market sucks on FX fees. Also, when we had the old Chase Marriott card, its "no FX fee" was actually a 0.75% FX fee