That is probably the easiest and quickest way to assure yourself that your status will be recognized.

I do want to make a point about status appearing on AA.com and actually being recognized by other depts of AA. After my new EXP status appeared on AA.com about 2 months ago, I called the new number. Did the voice recognition thing and got transfered to a regular desk. I just let it go, thinking it was just a day or 2 after and besides the nice agent corrected the mistake on her own once she saw my status, and transferred me to EXP desk. I called again next day and maybe 1 or 2 more days after, at which point I got little mad and asked what's going on. It was explained to me that some of the computers don't recognize the status for another 4-5 days after. So without knowing when your return was, maybe it was just a day or two to soon.

Anyway, the above suggestion will take care of any problems.