Hello, hopefully you will got approved next week! I have the same situation as you. I have a flight on 24th Dec, so I sent Ottawa an email to ask for faster processing. That is the email they replied me:
Should there be an extenuating circumstance (such as a death in the family or medical emergency) for which you can provide evidence, we will do our best to expedite the processing in our office based on the claim. Please be advised that we will not consider requests that are not of an extenuating circumstance, such as vacation or pre-arranged flights.
SO apparently they do not fasten the process due to pre-arranged flights anymore unless you have emergency situation. Hope this can help you.