Well I have to say, the excellent Andy at PTS has done wonders.

All six have now been rerouted MAN-FRA-ORD with Lufthansa a day earlier arriving at 1945, meaning no stopover as such.

They had already forked out for a MAN-ZRH flight on the 12th May, which would have ultimately been wasted given the need to either depart earlier on the same day, or a day earlier, so he agreed to route from MAN with no additional cost. Of course, the MAN-ZRH flight is now lost, but at least they have another feeder now to a European transit hub thrown in FOC.

All in all, an excellent result given the circumstances.

And a big thanks to the mighty forum for the heads up with the PTS contact details.