Maybe the challenge counters run differently? I guess they need a separate counter for that so it's possible they coded the two slightly differently? I guess one way to find out would be to call AA and ask them how many YTD q-points they think I have. But there's definitely something strange going on. The 10,117 I see online is definitely correct (I had 0 q-points for the year before the challenge) if you get min 500 q-points/segment. And the 9,717 number she quoted me is correct if you get 300 q-points/segment min on IB.

UPDATE: just called AA. The rep confirms that she sees I have 10,117 q-points for the year and accrued 9717 q-points on the challenge. She is equally befuddled.