The fact that the AA ticket is award will make NW reluctant to take you. That's because they can turn in your AA ticket for the actual fare when it's a revenue ticket, but NW would get nothing if it's an AA award ticket.

Separately, the flights posted to my NW account 2 days after, but with the dreaded Q. Now that it's been a week, I'll call the plat line and try to clear it up (I kept the BPs, and I know the original AA ticket number, so hopefully that will suffice).