All sorted!! Yay. Will have plenty of wine to drink upon my return. Called Monday morning and they re-credited my points immediately. (55 minutes on hold but did lots of filing). Were on site by lunch, and tickets booked for four of us on the AA flight to LAX on July 27.
Now that the drama is over, I want to say thanks again for the advice - the wine was brilliant. And in fact if I hadn't bought a bunch to start in an emotional frenzy and joined Epicure for triple points, I would have noticed that one six pack of nice shiraz for $120 with 7,000 bonus points is a really good deal. (For anyone reading).
Anyway many lessons learned - primarily of course about not losing track of things, expecting too much, etc. And off we go with passports and visas sorted. (I do have all 8 passport 6 month expiry and expiry dates in my iCalender for the next decade - just my tip and to show I am not a complete airhead.)
Thanks again!