You've asked if anyone has had success, which implies the thou haven't, but you haven't said what problem you're having.
My experience (which is logged in the ticket you reference) is that yes, running convert_to_south raises an error -- but the migration is created correctly, and works fine if you try to use it. So until the bug is fixed, you just have to hold your nose when the error is raised, and continue on as normal.
If you're having a different problem, then we'd need to see details (and you'll likely get better responses on the South mailing list).
Yours,
Russ Magee %-)