I was scheduled to fly Delta ATL-LGW on Apr 23 and LGW-ATL on May 17. A few days ago I received a call saying that my flight had changed and that I would be flying to LHR instead.

The problem is that my connecting flight on the other end (through EasyJet) leaves from LGW and the new location and times makes making that flight a bit tenuous (and quite expensive via taxi).

I called in and tried to find options for landing in LGW instead. There was something available to detroit, amsterdam, and LGW on the inbound but nothing on the outbound. I got so frustrated because 1 hour of discussions yielded nothing (the agent couldn't even give me a price quote without transferring me). At the end I was told that to change my flight I would need a requote on the price as well!

I ended up asking about a refund instead; there's a similarly priced flight to LGW on another airline that would work for me. They submitted a written request that would take 7-10 days to get back (and won't even notify me if it's approved; I was told I would find out by watching my credit card balance! ). Also, the agent couldn't even tell me if I would be charged a cancellation fee or not.

So after this majorly frustrating experience, I'm asking for help on here. What should I do? My main concerns are:
1. I could end up doing the rescheduled LHR route and try to catch a taxi.
2. The cancellation + fee going through without them notifying me or giving me a chance to keep my spot on the original route (which is dependent on how much fee I am assessed.
3. If the cancellation does go through, I would find out many days after if my cc company is slow in posting refunds, making the new flight possibly much more expensive (more than LHR+taxi).
4. Is this even allowed? In all my years of flying international I've never had this happen. I mean, if you're thinking of canceling a route you shouldn't even list it in the first place, no?