If you are short just a few segments you can try to split up a few trips. So instead of flying MDW-EWR you'd buy two tickets MDW-BWI and BWI-EWR in such a way that this forms a legal connection. They have to be two separate tickets with separate reservation codes, doesn't work if you simply connect on a single ticket. It will take some time to figure out cheap routes that you can do this on, sometimes it even saves money over the non-stop.