I have personally seen fare rules for nonrefundable tickets in the past containing a one year limitation on applying the value (less any applicable charge) to a new ticket. Perhaps this was not always true of all nonrefundable tickets, but was certainly true of the ones (both domestic and international) that I've purchased in the past. It would seem to be preferable to have someone look at actual past fare rules to see if anything has changed before reacting too strongly. I don't know how to do that, but I'll ask my travel agent about it next time I see her.