Thanks, guys and girls,

I appreciate the feedback very much. The TA I picked to ticket this unfortunately seems a bit uncomfortable doing battle with the airline, but with all your reinforcement I sent her back to face the dragon one more time. If she gets scorched again I'll call cX (or AA, as suggested) myself. Having booked everything with CX, can I simply give AA the CX pnr and tell them to price and ticket? Doesn't seem like that would happen.

john