Help , is there no customer service anymore?

have booked a flight from edinburgh to tampa changing at london and jfk .I booked it through cheap tickets.com , orginally my flight was edinburgh to manchester to tampa .My flight was cancelled i had to phone cheaptickets.com to change it ,the call cost a fortune as i was on my mobile(no landline) after many arguments got my flight changed ,my two friends booked the same flight through expedia (why i booked mine so we would be together)They had as much trouble as me sorting it out so we were altogether.today she got a call to say there is a problem with the flights ,I cant afford to call on my mobile as it cost over 拢100 , and i have sent many emails that havent been answered , dont know what i should do ? can an airline change your flights as often as they want ? what happened to customer service ? There is no notification of flight change on my online account yet , but when it orginally happened i was notified and they werent .

No, there is no customer service nowadays. As a frequent traveller, what I have seen is that the airline industry is hell bent on fleecing the paying pax as much as possible and there is very little you can do about it. Charges for a second checked bag, flight delays, cancellations and random bump-offs are the proof of that. Except maybe one thing you can do: stop flying. That is what 60 Minutes is saying. Or if you are a Gold or elite card holder, that can open a few doors or get you seats.

Regardless of what others have said, here is the real info: your airline is responsible for re-booking you, NOT the agency. The agency's responsibility ceases as soon as they have issued the tickets. The exact same thing happened to me more than once when booking through expedia, and only 'powers of pursuation' with the airline agent can get you re-booked fast.

The airline that has cancelled your flight can:
(a) re-book you on a different time on a different route on their own airline, or,
(b) re-book you with a different airline. In either case, you will be horribly delayed, but you will get there.

Be nice (unless you are in business class: then you can shout and yell as much as possible and they better take it with a smile) and tell them to book you with some other airline or their own: and usually it will get results. Remember, you talk to the airline, NOT the agency.

Once this happened to me (and I was travelleing economy that time) and I talked to the ticket agent of the airline, and she booked me on a different airline, that was a direct flight and even upgraded me! Another word to the wise, when buying via an agent, ALWAYS try to book direct flights. That will save you the hassle of missed connections in case your first flight is late.

use a local phone or local number to call the airline. orbitz and cheaptickets ane expedia are not the ones responsible for your flights being cancelled the airline is, so find a local number for the airline and give that a call and they should sort your problems out. or just go up to the airport counter and they will get you rebooked on a new flight

Hi there I work for BA, an airline can cancel, change aircraft type or destination at any given time without prior notice that is in the small print of the airlines terms and conditions of carriage, however if a flight is cancelled and you have supplied your contact details with your agent to provide to the airline when you made the reservation sometimes time permitting the airline will notify you of the change or cancellation, they will also advise you if you need to rebook. (thats what we do at BA)
If you are asked to rebook then if it is thru the airline direct then they will rebook you however if thru an agent such as expedia or cheap flights then you would have to go thru them. In terms of getting money back from fone calls I would suggest you complain to the agent not the airline. If your friends did not provide contact details such as a mobile number or e-mail then obviously they wont have been contacted or if they provided it to expedia and they did not input it then its again the agents fault not the airline.
Hope this helps