Sounds to me like an AA booking that hasn't actually been ticketed yet. When you book an AA or OneWorld award, it can take up to a week before the flights are actually ticketed. During that week, you can access and confirm your reservation online, and it will say confirmed, but it's really not. Assuming that's the case, the points will come out once it's officially ticketed.

If your 'friend' has already made it past that point, then who knows, maybe you got lucky!