sbtinme

This is an unusual scenario, but for what it's worth, here's my 2 cents based on previous experience. If they stayed booked on US, then NO. (They'd just get credit for the final flight to Rome.)

However, if they were switched to another carrier's flight, say Alitalia, Delta, AA, etc, they'd be eligible for both the scheduled (but incomplete) US flight as well as mileage credit in the final carrier's program. (That assumes, of course, that the pax is an existing member of the other airline's program.)

ClueByFour

As I've posted over there--I'm not really qualified to fly a transport class aircraft over the pond, but if you look at that track it is certainly not like the thing quit over the coast of Jersey--they were a couple of hundred miles out, easy.

Without knowing the US FOM on this, it's (including mine) idle speculation. I do believe that before the pilots started "working to rule" that the flight probably continues. (a note--I don't see the working to rule as a bad thing, per se, I'm just making the observation).

But let's take it at face value--US knows the aircraft is coming back and knows the crew is going to timeout in somewhat short order--why was the reserve crew not called at that point?

The answer: US is cheap. If they did not need the reserve crew, they would have had to pay their guarantee. Instead, they strand people in PHL for at least a day, strand people in FCO for at least a day, and presumably get hit the paying the FCO originating people according to the EU rules on the subject. I believe our two colleagues from Guinness said it best: "Brilliant."