I would be interested to know why QF009 dealt with AA in MNL via their agent. I thought that in purchasing an XONEX you needed to deal with the airline flying the first sector of your trip. I have done two circle pacific trips our of Manila, the first with QF where I had to wire the money and it took forever to arrive, causing a few days of worry. But, arrive it did, then I had some hassles having the ticket issued as they needed proof that I was in the Philippines, and I wasn't near the ticket office. So a scanned copy of my passport page was provided, and that worked. All in all, a bit complex for my liking.

The second was with CX who accepted credit cards, and once they began to reply to my emails, which took a couple of weeks, the ticket was booked, paid for and issued without much trouble at all.

Keep us posted on progress...