I'm locking the AA so I can run all the dungeons for those levels more so than the quest zones especially at the lower levels. You get AA the first time you kill a boss and the gear upgrades make the dungeons worthwhile. As I get those teams higher I'll probably run multiple questing zones to avoid a lengthy AA grind at 90 but at this point I have no idea how close I'll be to 280 at 90 going this route.

My current team at 83 only has about 150 AA and that was without locking AA at any point and moving on as soon as I out leveled the current content. There isn't a cap to how much AA you can gain at a level only how much you can spend. According to the threads in EQ official forums it's apparently easier to grind AA at 90 rather than worry about locking but I could see that being extremely boring so I figure I'll lock from time to time until I'm tired of seeing the lower level content.

I'll be able to boost two teams to 280 at 90 using the CoE expansion item and I'm not sure I'll ever get a third team to 90 so all my planning may be for nothing but if the past has taught me anything it's that I'll need a class that I didn't level in the beginning so having decent AA numbers on alts probably isn't a bad thing.