Been a while since I booked award travel using BE points, was pleasantly surprised by my experience today.

Several thousand points expire at the end of the calendar year, I have been waiting flights to CUN for May 2016, using BX1A awards, found T inventory that almost works, quickly put the flights on hold. To my pleasant surprise, the agent was willing to book the flight using the record locator of the itinerary on hold, pulling points from my account - only needed a credit card for taxes and fees. As the flights are on hold for 5 days, I decided to wait, check around for something better.

Is this now SOP? My understanding (and stated in the wiki) that T inventory does not necessarily qualify for BX1A. Am I just lucky, or has AA FINALLY simplified BE flight award redemption?