If a flight my customer has already booked gets cancelled, will I be told or do I only find out when they call me?

Usually you will be told, but it depends on how the ticket was booked. When a flight is booked through a system that keeps a live link with the airline, the airline sends a message whenever a flight is cancelled or the timing moves, and that message can be shown against the booking in your portal so your staff see it before the customer rings. For most tickets sold that way, the alert reaches you first.

The gap is with airlines and suppliers that do not pass those messages back in a dependable way. Some low cost carriers tell the passenger by email and nobody else, and some suppliers hand the change on slowly, or only when you ask. If the contact address held on the booking is the customer's own, they may well hear before you do. So treat the alert in your portal as a real help, not a promise that nothing will ever slip past you.

What happens next is still a decision for your team. A cancellation or a big change in timing often gives the passenger the right to a free change or a refund, but those rules belong to the airline and to the fare that was bought, and they are not the same everywhere. Your portal can show you the booking and the new details so you can reach the customer quickly, but somebody has to talk to the airline or the supplier to rebook the seat or claim the money back.

Ask which of your flight suppliers send cancellations and timing changes back into the booking, and decide who in your team checks those alerts each morning, so a change is caught well before your customer is standing at the airport.