Tried AA again except that I asked him the issue right away so as to not waste any time and he responded in the exact same way.

Called QF and after much teeth pulling (she didn't know anything - and suspected my itinerary as a whole wouldn't be approved but she couldn't explain why) got her to send the itin to the rate desk and should hear back by tue. Had to convince her that BMED and Comair were allowed, that you could open date tickets -- she just stopped questioning me after a while and just kept saying she didn't think it would go through but would put it on anyway (although ironically one of the few things she didn't make a fuss about was the MRU//NBO land sector).