Upon further perusal of the pesky tiny red text on that page and, most prominently, the parenthesis it's placed in, I'll now retract my assertion about date/flight changes and opine that the close-in fee should apply to both outbound and inbound changes, if either fall within the parameter of the close-in fee based on the new/original dates booked, whichever is sooner. So, the OP caught a break. Thanks for the education I haven't done an award change since the new rules came into effect. Good to know...