I'm a bit confused by Ben's statement. IRROPS rebooking usually gives miles, whether intentional or not, across nearly all carriers.

For example, if you are flying on an award ticket, whether issued by AA/DL/UA, and your ticket gets cancelled, and they rebook you a new ticket, the new flight will almost certainty qualify for miles because 99% of the time it's rebooked in a revenue class, often full-fare.

It's similar to a revenue ticket, where if they rebook you onto another carrier, you can get credit for the other airline, as well as claim for the original routing credit (ORC) in most programs. Such as if your UA flight gets cancelled and UA puts you on DL.

If Ben is saying that they are willing to deny status benefits for passengers just in case there's IRROPS and they may get rebooked in an mileage-earning class.. that's pretty dumb and cheapskate of AC to do.