So, I'm PM on Delta and thought I would try out AA since the fares were a lot lower on several flights I was taking. I called the number to sign up for the Platinum challenge and they immediately granted me complimentary Gold status and set the challenge start date for Sep 12. The Gold was supposed to be for the duration of the challenge but it seems to have started already. It doesn't really matter since I don't have any flights before Sep 12. Also, the agent never asked for any type of verification of my Delta status (even though I offered), which seemed odd. She did immediately ask for payment, though She was EXTREMELY friendly though, perhaps one of the friendliest phone reps I have talked to in a long time, close to or maybe even on par with the Platinum Desk phone reps at DL (for PMs only) even though this was just the public line. Definitely a pleasant start to the experience.

My main questions regard purchasing flights for this challenge. It seems like I mostly would like to purchase flights with booking code "V", since that is the lowest fare that earns 1EQP/Mile. However, it seems like pulling teeth every time I try to pay AA more than the lowest available fare for the ticket. What I've been doing is putting the lowest fare on hold and then calling reservations and asking them to change the fare class to "V" without purchasing the flight. This usually seems to take 10 or 15 minutes on the phone, and for at least one of these I wasn't able to buy it on the website later (it showed a price of $0) and I had to call back several times to find a phone agent who would waive the ticketing fee. Is there a better way to do this?

I was told that if I purchase the ticket and then try to change the fare later, they will charge me the full change fee even though I simply want to change the fare class and keep the exact same flights.

Also, using expertflyer I've noticed a lot of flights where G and W are available but not V. I don't understand this, as G appears to be a deep discount/0.5EQP fare. Why would this be available, but V not be? ExpertFlyer seems to show the fares out of order too (the order I see is HKMLWGSVNQO while the AA website shows HKMLWV (1EQP) GQNOS (0.5EQP).

TL;DR