Will check with supervisor tomorrow, but google search of several points/miles blogs seem to agree that IB+ needs to be "active" for 90 days first before any redemption.
Since you've been so helpful thus far, sorry to bug you, but if this is in fact true, any other ideas? At this point, I don't really care which city the stopover is in. Just want to get from MCO or JFK to CMN in mid Aug, return early Sep.