Becuase my ticket was issued by AA on miles, and one segment is on Dragonair, that the e-ticket functionality between AA's system and Cathy's doesn't work; (i.e., it doesn't come back to AA from Cathay with a valid e-ticket number), I have to go to the AA desk to get a paper ticket.

Ran this through to this conclusion twice with two separate helpful agents. So now I head to the airport a couple of hours even earlie in case there is a major snafu and I need a while to sort it out.

I think I'm ok because I can see my flight as "confirmed" on Cathay's web site.