Just a couple of ideas. Confirm the low fare availability in both directions. From my experience it is 25,000 or 40,000 so 32,500 makes it seem like you might be paying low one way and mid the other. You can see that by using the calendar to verify the availability.

As a general rule I try not to assume that the people I am working with think the same way I do, or are looking at things the same way I am. Not to belittle her or her job but she is a ticket agent for an airline, and even that is a difficult job with many of the changes and even the recent rule changes. Sometimes suggestions work. As you were able to suggest to her that the 25,000 award was available... so I am not sure why you didn't stop when you got what you wanted. She said "force it" but why should you care what words she uses to get you what you want? Anyway you certainly could have suggested further that she could hold it for you and maybe she could "force" that too.

In general, when I get what I want, I stop asking for it. It's like the old salesman's rule - once you've made the sale, stop selling.

If you aren't sure you are going to take the ticket at 25,000 and you just wanted the agent to make an Award Reservation, I must say this appears slightly abusive of the system. You were already holding one reservation that was about to expire, then you found a better deal but you didn't want to book it you wanted to hold it for another 72 hours?

Personally I think this kind of behavior is the reason why they raised the change fee for Award seats, and it is also the reason why it is so hard to find low availability unless you check early and often. Too many people putting stuff on hold that they aren't sure they are going to take.

Just my $0.02