Not to deprive them of the benefit-of-the-doubt, but I wonder exactly how many (or what percentage) of displaced passengers were offered this. And furthermore, how quickly they offered it, how practical those alternate itineraries were, etc.

They could very well have just offered this to a handful of passengers (and only done so after a lot of heming-and-hawing, and ultimately placed said passengers on mediocre itineraries), and still technically claim they placed passengers on other carriers. Not too unlike this Simpsons bit, "zero's a percent!"