I can address part of your inquiry.
I just reserved first class AAward travel DFW/BKK for October 2006. I had to adjust my outbound by a day to get the first class, as opposed to coach. By the way, Cathay was not available (coach or first), so going AA to NRT, then Japan Air to/from BKK.

I had booked a reservation on AA.com, put it on hold, and called AA to change it to an AAward reservation. The agent was very pleased that she already had a record locator in the system, stating "I wish everybody would do that"!!