About a year ago, I booked a flight in anticipation of the miles coming into my account. AA ticketed (it showed up as 'Ticketed' on AA.com), but did not issue (by e-mail), the ticket. Basically, they gave me a 10k miles 'overdraft' for a couple of weeks; my account showed -10k miles, as they withdrew the 65k miles in there (I needed 75k for a BA LHR - Africa award). When the 10k miles came into my account, the balance went to 0, and the ticket was 'Issued' to me by e-mail.

I was PLAT at the time (not sure of your status), if that counts for anything.

Good luck!