As seems to be the case with many new AA guidelines, FT readers seemingly know more than many AA agents.
This sadly isn't all that unusual in many businesses (if people don't read emails or don't take/comprehend training, they don't know)... but you'd think those in a customer service capacity would be trained on things like this.
The good news for AA is that a small % of their passengers are FT members, so they can do things which are against the AA policies and most people won't have a clue.