I agree with most other posts here that you cannot expect the GA to pull people off five minutes before departure or to make any other changes, including substituting two of you for the two other folks who were seated at the last minute. At that point, it's a scramble to get the plane off and if they'd stopped it to accomodate you it could have let to lots more inconvenience for a lot more passengers. And in fairness to the AA folks who switched you to the NW flight, it could be that they did the best they could in even getting you the tight connection, especially since they were trying to help out five of you at once.

I don't think you said whether you ended up flying F all the way, including on the NW flight. If so, I don't think you can expect much from AA since stuff happens (including five hour delays) and you basically got your points worth from your award tix. But if you had to fly any legs in economy, then you should definitely push AA to reimurse the mileage award difference between F and Y for your entire trip.

In the future, if you are waiting on line after you first flight is delayed, you could try to call AA reservations to try to rebook you on an AA flight with decent connections. And if there's not time to do that before the AA desk at the airport gives you a questionable connection like you had, you could try calling AA reservations to see if there are better options available and then deal with the airport again if your phone inquiry turns out positive. I hope you never encounter anything like this again, though.