Yes, I too as WP have had many manual requests approved (&rejected). I have seen a booking in my profile that is either waiting for confirmation or similar status. Once the request is approved. it will be ticketed. From memory, I got an email that the request was approved manually and I needed to give QF a call to finish the booking (do the payment, etc). I didn't call them, instead, finished the booking online.
Edit : Found the thread I raised re this earlier.
Dear fellow AFF'ers, I've got a question - I've got to take a flight, SYD-MEL on 1st Feb and was planning on using the QFF Platinum perk (or convenience or favor ?) to request for 1 classic reward seat to be released. Cabin : Y Date of Request : 25/01 Date of Travel : 01/02 Time of flight...
www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au
I didn't update the outcome. The outcome was the request was manually approved.