As suggested above, I called the AA number (see upthread - ultimately learned they were in Capetown, rumors suggesting JNB notwithstanding). They do answer "American Airlines" and seem to have a very competent, responsive staff.

I hadn't contacted AA in the U.S. to set anything up. I told the agent I wanted to book 4-continent first-class OneWorld Explorer trips for 3 pax; from his easy reponse it sounded like he did that every day. He took down my flights, probably verified availability, got our Aadvantage numbers, gave me the PNRs (two different routings) and said he'd call back in a few minutes.

That didn't happen but I didn't really expect that kind of response so forgave them. When I checked aa.com later, they did have the records, no pricing information, itinerary on hold until the travel date (4 months hence). I of course was anxious to ticket lest the last place on earth I could afford the tickets vanished.

I called the next day, got an agent who looked at the records and said 'no pricing yet, call later in the day'. Since their day is 9 hours ahead of mine (the biggest drawback of this interface, imo) I gave them another full day and called to learn that the rate desk still hadn't done its job. The agent said "I'll do it myself; call me in half an hour." Try getting that kind of service domestically. So I waited an hour, called, asked for him; he was on a call and the agent on the line asked if he could help. Yes, please. And sure enough the tickets had been priced.

The rest was routine c/c activity. The e-tickets appeared in my email within an hour or so, much sooner that I expect from AA domestically. And pricing was within USD50 of what I'd calculated. Billing was not in USD in my case - even aa.com shows the fare in rand (with a dollar sign in front, boy am I the big spender. Not a worry since my c/c would surely have collapsed under that kind of load if it hadn't been divided by 9.something.)

FWIW I was anxious to book and ticket and didn't have the trip anywhere near firmly arranged anyway so I booked a 5-segment trip pending a future very-modest change fee. That meant I could simply type the thing into ITA multi-city, click the flights I was planning to book, and presumably know exactly what the taxes and fuel fines were going to be. As noted the actuals were about $50 more. Plus a $40 booking fee; "is that okay?" asked the aagent. No, way too much to spend on an $8k ticket.