Etihad or Emirates flight cancellations/changes to Seychelles: what to do if your flight gets cancelled?

Bought an Etihad ticket via Trip.com for the equivalent of ~$400 (with luggage), then received a flight change notice. Submitted rebooking requests for three days straight — got 9 rejections in a row. Was about to request a refund, but wrote directly to Etihad support with screenshots of all rejections — within 2 hours they found new seats, flights, and connections.

Bought Etihad tickets through a booking agency service (praised for good service). A couple of months later got a flight cancellation notice. The booking agency could only offer a refund, so had to book replacement flights with Emirates independently.

For price comparison: Aeroflot tickets with luggage for two cost around 204 units, a similar option with luggage from another carrier was 210 for two. Finding fares under 80-90 per person without luggage is hard — except Etihad, where two tickets without luggage came to around 100 total.