There must be two different American Airlines. Or maybe I always arrive when a janitor or someone chooses to play dress-up and puts on a uniform and stands at the counter pretending to be an agent, when in fact their skill is with a mop.

AA almost never can "see" particulars of my paper tickets, no matter who's issued them, so it's always "take them to the airport" where the befuddled agent typically spends two hours on the phone back and forth between the rate desk and the atw desk.

The one time the atw desk "set me up" no one thought about the detail that the tax calc line had to be printable within the little box. I guess the agent could have opted to hand-write but instead fooled around for half an hour editing the line so it was illegible but fit(and earned me some charges on departures downline).

The only bright side is that often enough the agent waives the re-issue fee out of sympathy for making such a charade out of it.

FYI - to whoever cares...

All airlines are supposed to be able to see each other's e-ticketing information even when it is issued on another airlines' stock. They are supposed to be able to reissue tickets either on their own or other Oneworld airlines' stock.

They better get used to it - as come 2008, all oneworld tickets may be electronic anyway!