Originally Posted by Often1

He should pick up the phone, call AA and ask that the ticket be pushed through. If his account is locked, he will be told so. At that point, I would simply ask the agent to cancel the reservation and then end the call. He may then book whatever he wants.

There seems to be an aversion on FT to being direct. But, there is no evidence that AA punishes customers for having asked, e.g. "we were going to reinstate your account but because you called, we're terminating it."