Originally Posted by
dantheflyingman
Just as another data point: in October, 2018, I was scheduled to fly AY from Chicago to Munich. Due to damage to the AY aircraft, my flight from ORD to HEL was canceled. Not only was I able to get a real, live operator on the phone with a wait time of under an hour, but they were able to get me a seat in Business class on AA through London connecting to the LHR-HEL AY flight (operated at the time by an A350). As an added bonus, they rebooked me in full J, so I earned 3X EQM on the ORD-LHR leg.
I was also affected by this. It happened while I was in China. They offered to put me on another Oneworld carrier for the trip home, but by the time I ready to head home, they had worked out their wet lease with Air Italia, and I decided to keep my original routing , flying the Air Italia flight from HEL-ORD.