If the airline decides to cancel a flight - then they will not find you a reasonable alternative at the same price.

I was offered a flight 5 hours earlier (not realistic given a meeting schedule)or one day later - when Juneayo decided to cancel 5 days in advance - clearly because of very light bookings.

There was an alternative flight with Air China 30 minutes later than the original booking - which was wide open. They would only offer the airlines preferred alternatives - despite some polite but strong persuasion..

I just took the case to my credit card company and they sorted it - but serious hassle and potentially costly unless you have low cost local phone calls and ready internet access.