I'd just take your AA card into the office and try it. Worst case is you loose 10 minutes and they say no. I got mine with my UA card, but that's an advertised benefit from UA.
If you really want HK e-channel and they deny your AA card, then just status match over to an airline that you don't care about loosing your once in a lifetime match. There are a few outside of North America that will match. NZ and TK come to mind, may be others too.
Also used to be available if you had 3 air entries into HK in a 12 month period, not sure if that still applies.