I believe the answer lies with whether or not AA has reissued your ticket with the VIP. In all of my recent (advance clearing) VIP usages, upon clearing AA reissued the ticket into the new class and a new e-ticket # was issued. If this is the case, the partner will have no problem checking you in.

If this is not the case, then my guess would be that they will not be able to check you in, hence the "lots of typing" requirement.