Just as a followup if anyone is interested. I finally managed to get an AA Rep on the phone who could get me an answer--on either my fourth or fifth call, and with several other AAgents supposedly looking and going to call me back.

AA and RBS are currently renegotiating and as such the card is not open to new customers at the present time. The AAgent did recommend calling back in a couple of weeks as they may no more then, but she was not sure whether it would be coming back or not...