I just called NZ center for the first time. Was on hold for about 12 minutes, but finally got through. The accent was a bit strong and caught me off guard, but what was funny was when I told the rep where I wanted to go from, she automatically asked if I wanted to be on Etihad...thought that was funny, as CX seems to be the default option showing up for me on aa.com searches.

Anyways I put it on hold, and just wanted to say my first time calling international like this too, it only took about 15 minutes of my time.