It was 9-5 DFW time. And was one of the experienced agents.
E-ticket.

To follow up, I had no problems when checking in at Sydney.
I have been travelling on this ticket for the last month or so, and have made many date/time changes, mainly thru the DFW office. Have had no problems since, but they have always had to reissue the ticket- no fee, of course. I would always get an email a couple of hours later with the new ticket details.

The only problem I had was yesterday, when I was at LHR and EF advised me that my preferred flights had become available for MIA-JFK for the next day. It was very early in London, so both the DFW, Dublin, CPT & Australian offices were closed, leaving only Tokyo that I could think of it. They were very helpful in changing the flights, but when I arrived 10 hrs later in MIA, and hadn't received an email with the new tickets, I thought I would check at the ticketing desk. And, while Tokyo had changed the reservation, they hadn't known to reissue the ticket, so it was good that I had checked at AA ticketing...

Moral is to use Dallas office or another of the bigger offices, and to make sure that you get the email...