The 250 bonus is just for booking flights. This used to be the 500 mile online. But now they do it a little different.
I'm not sure I agree (not that I have any authority
) with the premise that the flight can't have posted yet. If I was writing the computer code, then It would just be take the Start Date (which can only be 1 or 15), then add up the qpoints from that date, everytime a flight posts until the sum = 5000.
But of course it could have been done several other ways; and not like its easy for us to expirement with it.
I would also be curious what your Feb Statement showed for Points. What your March Statement showed for points, and what your Current earnings shows. So far I've been able to figure out how my points were actually earned by using our AA spreadsheet and looking for the difference and then finding the flight or occasionally flights that add up to that difference if I change the fare class from .5 to 1.