Finally received a FULL refund from AA for the tickets. The whole experience took over 1 month, had to return 2 sets of incorrectly issued tickets, made over 20 phone calls, sent emails and faxes. I've never dealt with such an appalling service as the AA desk in Dublin (they found it really funny when they realised they'd re-routed us through Iraq and insisted we'd spelt our own names incorrectly!)

I've now booked my tickets through a travel agent. The tickets are not open dated, as they won't do that, but at least they're usable. I guess I've got more fun to come when I try to change my dates whilst travelling.