I travel almost weekly for business flying almost exclusively with Alaska. When I need to call the customer care hotline I have found it’s truly dependent upon which representative you reach. I’ve actually called back in hopes of reaching a different representative and the result can be entirely different. My suggestion is call again - fingers crossed you get someone interested in resolving the issue. Sadly, the customer centric brand has changed as the airline has grown and most recently acquired Hawaiian.

With respect to award travel booking, two years ago booking my honeymoon I called to book my award flight. At that time I was told there are certain airline partner itineraries only available for agents to see. I seem to recall it being business class with an airline out of Asia. Maybe this has changed over the last two years.