ok, please calm down everyone.

nothing has been misrepresented. I said in my post above I was promising not to go through this again but now have to maintain my good name (on behalf of someone else)!

My colleague who bought these I do not think realized all of the fare rules when they were bought. It was MY searching after he told me about his dilemma that suspected they were discounted advance fares. They were bought I think through a travel agent friend of the family (speculating - he often has her book his tickets, even $200 PIT-DCA tix), with his wife making the decisions on dates, price, etc. I am not saying noone told them the rules of buying the fare (speculating again) but he is 65 years young and usually too busy to worry about such details.

The tickets were "bought early" because they planned the trip a long time ago - not just because they were trying to buy the cheapest possible tickets. They buy business class tickets routinely and this was no exception.

Note he does not want to remove PIT-IAD entirely he wants to change the TIME (but I am not gonna go there because the thread is devolving into a shouting match).

Anyway, thanks to all who replied with good advice. I've already made my decision to move from US to UA, and have no regrets even with all this. Hope to see some of you soon.