Are you booked on American ORD-DEL/DEL-ORD AA292/293 after February 2012?

I’m jumping into the customer care domain for a bit to inform all of you about your options if you are booked to travel on the service from the soon to be defunct Chicago Delhi service of American Airlines. Like you know, the last flight into Delhi from Chicago (AA292) flies on Feb 28, 2012 and arrives on Feb 29, 2012. On Delhi to Chicago (AA293), the last flight takes off on Mar 1, 2012 and arrives in Chicago on the same day.

Now, a lot many of you may be booked on the flight after these dates and may have already heard from AA on rebookings. If you have not, please do contact your travel agent or American Airlines to check about the rerouting. Here are your options if you are a paid ticket holder:

Collect a full refund
Travel via London on British Airways in the same cabin as ticketed for your revenue ticket. In this case, you may get to transit from/to your original location in India to Chicago if British Airways operates a flight from the location. Here is a link to check out the routes.
Travel via Dubai on Emirates in the same cabin as ticketed for your revenue ticket. You may get a ticket to your eventual destination in the USA/Canada from India.

If you are a mileage ticket holder, you are left to your own. American asks you to rebook via one of the oneworld partner routings, but if there are any sort of new surcharges to pay, you are on your own. American is not absorbing those, and asks you to bear the responsibility. Also, you get to travel in the class booked and not in the class upgraded! However, on FT, some people report that they have not had to pay extra surcharges on the rebooking. For instance, someone booked on ORD-DEL has been booked via LHR on BA, and is now travelling in award J without paying taxes or surcharges. So tread carefully. My advise is to wait for the automatic rebooking to happen before you give them a call on award tickets.