all:

thanks for thoughts. sorry if I implied I didnt understand it was a discounted fare, but $4000 as a change fee - you have to agree thats steep!

anyway, turns out there was a schedule change on his itinerary, and he is hoping to move his PIT-IAD ticket from a 4pm to a 7pm flight (IAD-EZE doesnt leave until 940pm) so they dont have a 5.5 hour layover in IAD.

He then would fly DCA-PIT (on US) at 4pm that day to then turnaround and go right back to IAD (we had thought of this too!) on his hopefully changed 7pm flight. IF they'll let him, he'll try to change the outbound date completely.