Actually, AA has CTOs in most of their international locations, and many of them are staffed with outstanding folk. Since AA took the bizarre and wrong-headed step of closing virtually all their domestic CTOs (even those in hub cities like DFW and ORD!), I have tried to have int'l ticket reissues done at these offshore CTOs, since taking them to the airpot for reissue frequently causes the ticket agents to freak-out. At smaller airports, I have inadvertantly been responsible for people missing flights as the lone agent spent 1+ hours trying to figure out how to reissue my ticket.

Good tip on the "PQRS" stuff. I didn't know this, and even after having the RTW desk set up my reissue, it took multiple attempts and multiple hours at different locations to get the ticket issued (sometimes, I would take mercy on the baffled agents and just take my problem to someone else at a different airport).